“This is the new South Fulton.”
The message June 7 to the Community and Housing Development Corporation (CHDC) and Fulton County Housing Authority could not have been more clear. Residents of unincorporated South Fulton were adamant in their resistance to a proposal to build a 264-unit, 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.”
Ambling Development’s Billy Hughes provided a general overview of the 100-acre Planned Unit Development (PUD) that is 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 Authority. In addition, tax credits being sought by Ambling total $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.”
Hughes said one-bedroom units will rent for $615-675 while two-bedroom units will be priced at $720-790 and three-bedrooms will rent for $815-890. Based on a typical mortgage loan, Hughes said, the individual would have to make $25,000 per year. Rent prices for the remaining 20 percent of units would be at the prevailing market rate, he said. Hughes continued with mortgage comparisons, but area residents speaking later in the meeting were less than impressed, citing their objection to the 80 percent low-to-moderate income provision throughout the complex and their stringent opposition to providing transportation for apartment residents by Fulton County Housing Authority for a period of two years. These factors, residents said, constituted evidence that the complex translated into the equivalent of Section 8 housing.
Concerning whether the proposed project could transition into another housing category, such as a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HOPE VI project, CHDC Chairman Benny Crane said such a move could alter some of the basics of the current proposal.
“Conceivably, if you have a housing voucher applicant making application (for a unit at the complex), that wouldn’t necessarily count as a low-income resident because (Ambling Development) would be getting full rent from the subsidy from Housing,” Crane said. “So you could have low income people with housing vouchers that are not counted in the 80 percent. That’s my understanding. I believe if this morphs into something else, these ( South Fulton residents) are going to have a lynching and it’s going to be me.”
Housing Authority Director Dr. Camilla Moore noted the authority’s involvement in the proposal as one of several possible funding sources. She commented on the rationale for providing transportation for low-to-moderate income apartment residents to three MARTA hub locations.
“What I want people to understand tonight is that the Housing Authority just happened to be the source of funding. It could have been the Development Authority or some other bonding authority. It happened to be that this particular developer went to the Housing Authority,” Moore said. “It doesn’t make it a Housing Authority project. They are just the issuer of the bond. The reason why the Housing Authority probably offered the transportation, I’m assuming, is because they are the bond issuer. They want to make sure those bonds have the ability to be successful.”
Moore continued, explaining the benefit to local businesses such as the coming Publix and Home Depot, by having perspective employees from the adjacent apartment complex in close proximity.
“You’ve got Publix coming in there and you also have Home Depot,” she said. “It’s very important to those industries that there is somebody there to work at Home Depot and to work at Publix. Most of our kids will probably work there in the afternoon, but who is going to work there in the morning at 8 a.m.? If we cannot make sure there is a work force there to work in those stores, Publix will not be there long and neither will Home Depot.”
Commenting on the matter Thursday, Commissioner Bill Edwards said he was completely opposed to the apartment proposal.
“I’m against it 100 percent,” said Edwards. “It doesn’t make sense from a transportation perspective.”
During the public comments portion of the meeting, residents could not have been any clearer about their wishes about the proposed apartment complex. Yet their concerns superseded the proposal itself. Many of those concerns went to the heart of a greater issue, one that spoke to their reasons for moving to unincorporated South Fulton, the role of government in intervening inappropriately in their lives and their view of the future for one of Georgia’s most desirable communities.
Like many residents, Harold Reed and Bruce Moody strongly felt that constructing the apartment complex should be a venture that is not contingent on government-backed bond financing. Potential problems that can arise from an 80/20 mix, Reed said, adding that the project should be one where 100 percent of the units are rented at market rate. Moody said that, if constructed, the project should be the sole responsibility of the developer.
“If he is going to do this, let this man put his money into it,” said Moody. “He doesn’t even have an approved site plan. We don’t even know what he’s going to come back with, but it’s going to be approved. Then he comes back and asks for more money from the Housing Authority.”
Another resident, responding to Moore’s comments on low income residents living adjacent to new businesses and providing the workforce for them, said the Home Depot stores in upscale areas such as Peachtree City and in the Paces Ferry Road area had survived quite well and had not closed up shop.
“As for the comment from (Moore), we’ve got $300,000, $400,000 and $500,000 homes here,” said Damita Chapman to constant applause. “There’s kids in those homes that can work at Home Depot. I can work at Home Depot. So I don’t know about you guys, but do you want this kind of (apartment) development by your neighborhood? Does the developer want this in his neighborhood?
Other residents continued the conversation. One of those, echoing the life experiences of some of the other speakers, said she had grown up in housing projects. Having witnessed firsthand some of the problems that can arise, she said the South Fulton community does not need to go through those same issues. Their comments were a carbon copy of those repeatedly stated by some of Union City’s residents, who continue to complain, with no response by the city, about the extreme high density subdivisions that continue to be built, with homes bought up by investors and turned into Section 8 housing, resulting in increases in crime and social mayhem.
Residents continued to take the podium. As committed as every person that spoke, Danita Cross could not have been more clear in her opposition to the apartment proposal. Reminding officials that South Fulton residents vote, Cross said, “No now, no tomorrow, no never, not at any time.”
Referencing the attendance at the meeting and the reason for it, Daniel Blanks was succinct. Mirroring the words and the spirit of the other residents at the meeting, he referenced the point of view that is evident in South Fulton, one that some in local government are either unaware of or indifferent to.
“This is the new South Fulton. The only reason their are not more of us here is because we didn’t get the word,” he said. “We are going to face every challenge you (and the school board) bring before us. We are upset, we are fed up and we’re not going to take it anymore.”
CHDC will make its recommendation on the proposal at the June 20 meeting. The proposal will be considered by Fulton County Commission in approximately six weeks.