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Ten local boards and agencies are involved in economic development in Athens, and a task force appointed by Mayor Nancy Denson believes they need to do a better job of communicating. Discussions are still tentative, but the Economic Development Task Force may recommend forming a council or roundtable of existing economic development agencies—none of whom are presently meeting together—rather than a wholesale reorganization.

 “Economic development in Athens sometimes seems like alphabet soup,” Brian Brodrick, chairman of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce told the task force recently.   Responsibility is divided among the Athens-Clarke Economic Development Foundation (EDF), Industrial Development Authority (IDA), Economic Development Authority (EDA), the chamber, Athens Downtown Development Authority (ADDA), University of Georgia (UGA), Athens Technical College, Classic Center Authority, Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and Athens-Clarke Human and Economic Development Department (HED).

The EDF, IDA and EDA should head up a development roundtable, task force members suggested in discussions last week, with the Chamber of Commerce, ADDA, UGA, HED, Classic Center Authority and Athens Tech also serving on the roundtable.  If the task force stays on schedule,  its recommendations could go to the Athens-Clarke Commission in September. 

 “There’s nothing broken here,” EDF President Peggy Chapman told Flagpole.  “Everything just needs tweaking.”  Chapman, a longtime economic development specialist from Statesboro, was hired out of her retirement to near-universal local acclaim, but will serve only until next July.  She leads an agency that is widely viewed as lacking effective leadership in years past.  Many local officials—including Chapman herself—view choosing her permanent replacement as a critical decision for future economic development here.  An aggressive EDF president “makes the difference between order-taking and selling,” says Chamber of Commerce President and former Mayor Doc Eldridge. In other words, between actively selling Athens to new businesses and just waiting for them to find us.  “I’ve wanted to see it done right for 20 years,” Eldridge told Flagpole. 

 A public forum held by the task force in February “was sparsely attended, but the people that were there offered a lot of good information,” co-chairman Grant Tribble said at the group’s meeting last week.  Several task force members have been adamant that local government rules and procedures—requiring developers to build sidewalks, for example, or requiring parking only at rear of buildings—are  costly and time-consuming.  Task force recommendations could include hiring an ombudsman either inside or outside government who would help people navigate government requirements.

 Such criticisms are nothing new. Local builder Sean Hogan, who serves on the county’s Hearings Board, which can grant exceptions to zoning rules, told Flagpole that he sympathizes with some of the complaints, but not all. 

“I would agree that we need to fine-tune some of the ordinances,” he said.  ACC staffers “work really hard,” and “Dekalb County and the City of Atlanta are much more difficult and nonsensical” to deal with than Athens-Clarke County, he says.

 But some requirements go too far, Hogan says. Homeowners can’t even dig a post-hole within 100 feet of a creek, he says, and changes to parking requirements “have been extremely heavy-handed and punitive.”  Hogan is also no fan of “Carl Jordan’s lighting nonsense”—light-spillage rules pushed by the former commissioner—and a rule against building a new driveway near an existing one makes some lots unbuildable, he says.  “Suddenly, you can’t build on those lots at all.” 

 Instead of individual commissioners and county departments trying to “enforce their version of a perfect Athens,” Hogan would like to see a community consensus on design standards.  But “suggestions by the business community have been ignored,” he says.

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