What a difference a year makes. A plan last year to put rent-adjusted apartments on South Fulton Parkway when the area was in unincorporated Fulton County met with adamant opposition from area residents. But one year later, with the area now annexed into Union City, the plan gained approval on a 2-1 vote at the June 19 council meeting.

Council members approved a resolution declaring the need for the housing authorities of Atlanta and Fulton County, the entities responsible for initiating the project last year, to operate within Union City. Mayor Pro-tem Angelette Mealing and Councilwoman Shirley Jackson voted in favor of the motion while Councilwoman Helen Turner voted in opposition. The project involves construction of a 292-unit multifamily housing project by Ashton South Fulton, L.C. inside a larger development along South Fulton Parkway east of Ga. Highway 92. A portion of the apartments will have reduced rents as low as $300 per month, Turner said.

“I was against it. I didn’t want anymore apartments. We don’t need anymore apartments in Union City,” Turner said after the meeting. “I want to see us get out of the hole of low-income housing. And I sure didn’t want to see them on the South Fulton Parkway. Union City deserves better than this. I thought the parkway was going to be upscale.”

The message issued by Turner and several at the June 19 council meeting mirrored comments by are residents in June 2006 at a meeting of the Community and Housing Development Corporation (CHDC) and Fulton County Housing Authority. Residents of unincorporated South Fulton were adamant in their resistance to a proposal to build a 264-unit, housing authority revenue bond-funded apartment complex for largely low-to-moderate income families near the intersection of South Fulton Parkway and Ga. Highway 92. Articulate and determined, the 125 residents that filled the meeting room at Fulton County’s Stonewall Tell complex came through loud and clear. Their response to the proposal was “No.” Residents in mass said the apartments by any other name would still be Section 8 housing.

During the June 2006 meeting, Ambling Development’s Billy Hughes provided a general overview of the 100-acre Planned Unit Development (PUD) that was slated to include 106 single-family homes, 165 townhomes, office condos and the 21 acre, 264-unit Ashton South Fulton apartments. Specific to the apartments, Ambling would be provided with up to $16.5 million in tax exempt bonds by the housing authorities. In addition, tax credits being sought by Ambling totaled $11 million to help finance the project. Those inducements and credits translate into lower rent for up to 80 percent of the apartment’s residents.

“(The bonds) allow me to build this $27 million community and still charge these lower rents,” Hughes said. “In addition to a tax-exempt bond issuance that we’re applying for, we are applying for tax credits that are issued through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. What the tax credits do is it allows me to build a high quality complex and be able to compensate a lot of that cost so I can charge lower rent.”

A decision on the issue last year was put on hold by CHDC. The measure was later denied by Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Commissioner Bill Edwards said Wednesday.