Despite a severe shortage of affordable housing, Athens-Clarke County commissioners raised doubts last week about a proposed subsidized apartment complex off Lexington Road.
The Lexington Flats development would consist of 144 apartments with 228 total bedrooms. Assuming the development receives federal tax credits from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, most units would be leased at 25–30% below market rates, intended for renters earning $30,000–$45,000 a year. Twenty-eight units would be managed by the Athens Housing Authority as public housing. “The whole thing is affordable,” ACC Manager Niki Jones told the commission at its Sept. 17 agenda-setting meeting.
In addition, the developer would pay a little over $100,000 a year into a county fund for further affordable housing. The ACC government would agree to give the developer a 30% discount on water and sewer hookups in exchange.
Commission Tiffany Taylor, who represents the area, said she is opposed to the development because 12 three-bedroom units is not enough. Mayor Kelly Girtz advised her to speak to the developer and the AHA about the housing mix, but said that in general many developers are looking at demographic trends showing increasing numbers of single people and childless couples.
“For me, in my district, I know there are mamas who will spill out of a one-bedroom or two-bedroom, and for it to only be a limited amount of three-bedrooms, I don’t see this as being for families, for one,” Taylor said. “I’m kind of worried that this may, if we do go along with the rezone as well as the PILOT [payment in lieu of taxes], that this will end up another Atlas Athens, and we won’t have housing for families.”
Atlas Athens is a recent apartment development nearby that was approved by the commission in 2021 largely on the promise of affordable housing. It does include some below-market units, but most are aimed at college students, who are not eligible for federally subsidized housing.
Commissioner Melissa Link said she “would like more clarity on the affordability and the guarantee of affordability.”
Several other commissioners questioned the buildings’ height and proximity to Athens-Ben Epps Airport. Interim Planning Director Bruce Lonnee told them that the buildings had been pushed to the front of the property to avoid interfering with flight paths.
Commissioner Allison Wright said she does not like the fact that, by her count, six recent developments have “Flats” in the name. “We’ll call the mid-2020s the ‘Flats Era’ in the future,” Girtz replied.
The ACC Planning Commission unanimously recommended approving a rezoning for Lexington Flats, but the county commission is free to ignore the recommendation.
In other business, new well water testing in the Pittard Road area near the county landfill found that residents who’ve complained for decades about inordinate levels of cancer among neighborhood residents were correct in their suspicions about the quality of their well water. Previous tests found nothing out of the ordinary, but “much more contemporary” tests detected evidence of PFAS, or so-called “forever chemicals,” Girtz said. Those residents will be hooked up to city water at no cost and provided free water for six months.
“I want to thank the mayor for hooking these folks up with the Southern Environmental Law Center and seeing it through, and finally getting these folks justice who’ve been through a lot,” Link said. She urged others on well water to get it tested “because those forever chemicals are all over the place.”
With two of three elevators at the ACC Courthouse on the fritz, the commission also approved an emergency plan at a called voting meeting to hold court proceedings in Oconee County or at the Classic Center should the last working elevator go out of service. Repairs will take seven to nine months, Jones said.
Other items discussed last week will be voted on Oct. 1.
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