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22 | Community
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Brookhaven pioneers an affordable housing requirement
Continued from page 1
fessionals who say a mandate could hurt
future development efforts.
The City Council adopted its new zon
ing code at its Nov. 27 meeting that states
when a special land use permit or rezon
ing is approved anywhere in the city for a
multi-unit residential housing project, then
10 percent of the residential units must be
defined as workforce housing. Residential
housing projects include new construc
tion, rehabilitation of a current apartment
building or converting apartments to con
dominiums and can be built out in phases.
The inclusionary zoning was first sought
just along Buford Highway, but the Plan
ning Commission asked the City Council to
consider it citywide.
Councilmember Bates Mattison vot
ed against the zoning code because of its
workforce housing mandate. He suggest
ed creating a housing authority or looking
at tax abatements for developers as ways
to encourage more affordable housing in
the city, saying the city’s zoning code was
not the proper place to address affordable
housing issues.
“I do not believe the plan we have is a
realistic solution for the city of Brookhav
en,” he said.
Councilmember Linley Jones agreed
Brookhaven has not yet reached a final
conclusion on how best to address the af
fordable housing crisis being felt across the
country. But the city has delved into the is
sue extensively, she said, including the ap
pointment of an Affordable Housing Task
Force that studied the issue over several
months last year.
“I believe what we have is an answer. A
darned good answer,” she said, adding it
was “better than nothing at all.”
Councilmember John Park recalled how
the Affordable Housing Task Force asked
the city to consider affordable housing as
part of the city’s DNA. “It needs to be part
of everything we do as a city,” he said. “This
is one step.”
Atlanta City Councilmember Andre
Dickens, who has been trying to create a
regional coalition to tackle housing afford
ability, praised Brookhaven’s new policy.
“By passing this law, Brookhaven’s lead
ership is showing they have the best inter
est of all Brookhaven residents and busi
nesses in mind today and for developments
coming in the future,” he said in an email.
Dickens worked with others for three
years to get the city of Atlanta to approve a
mandatory inclusionary zoning policy for
multifamily housing built within a half-
mile of the Atlanta BeltLine. The policy, be
lieved to be the first of its kind in Georgia,
was approved last year and requires 15 per
cent of units be priced at rates affordable to
middle- or moderate-income households.
Talks of expanding the policy citywide and
to include for-sale residences is under way.
“Their policy, along with the one I
passed a year ago, demonstrates that
housing challenges and solutions are of
ten multi-jurisdictional,” Dickens said of
Brookhaven’s new zoning requirements.
The Council for Quality Growth, a non
profit organization that works with local
governments on issues like zoning and eco
nomic development, as well as the Atlan
ta Commercial Board of Realtors and the
Atlanta Apartment Association voiced op
position to Brookhaven’s mandatory in
clusionary zoning. They said such a re
quirement could infringe on property
owners’ rights and could dissuade devel
opers from wanting to build apartments in
the city.
All three groups in letters to the coun
cil and in public statements suggested vol
untary, incentive-based measures to devel
opers as better options. Other ideas they
suggested include tax abatements, land ac
quisition and rental rehabilitation incen
tives.
“While we are disappointed that the
affordable housing provision fails to em
brace non-mandatory, incentive-driven
approaches, we appreciate that the city
operated in a spirit of cooperation and
transparency in all regards,” said Taylor
Morison, director of Policy and Govern
ment Affairs for the Council of Quality
Growth, in a written statement.
Incentives offered
in Buford Highway,
Peachtree overlays
The inclusionary zoning does provide
incentives for multi-unit developments in
the new Buford Highway Overlay District
and in the Peachtree Overlay District.
A developer is granted one bonus sto
ry of building height for each 10 percent
of workforce housing over the 10 percent
mandatory minimum in the Buford High
way Overlay. For example, if the develop
er agrees to set aside 20 percent of units
for workforce housing, the developer can
build one additional story. Building heights
within the Buford Highway Overlay vary
according to zoning classification.
In the Peachtree Overlay District, which
includes Peachtree Road and Dresden
Drive, developers are granted one addition
al story of building height for every 20 per
cent of units set aside for workforce hous
ing.
Buildings along Peachtree Road have
a height limit of 6 stories as part of the re
cently approved Peachtree Overlay Dis
trict. Along Dresden Drive, there is a 4-story
maximum, and where the Brookhaven-
Oglethorpe MARTA station is located, the
maximum height is 12 stories. All can be in
creased if granted a special land use permit
by the city.
The reason for the different percent
ages in the Buford Highway Overlay and
the Peachtree Overlay is because the city
wants more affordable housing compo
nents on Buford Highway where more re
development is expected, said Deputy De
velopment Director Linda Abaray.
Developers granted a height bonus for
workforce housing units are required to
make sure the units remain workforce
housing for 20 years, either through deed
restrictions or other binding agreement
approved by the city attorney.
The city is defining workforce housing
as rental or for-sale units that are afford
able to households earning no more than
80 percent of the median household in
come for metro Atlanta as determined by
the federal and Housing Urban Develop
ment income limit table.
According to the HUD table for 2018, the
metro Atlanta median household income,
known as AMI, is $74,781. Eighty percent
of the AMI for a four-person household is
$59,850; for a one-person household it is
$41,900.
The general rule currently accepted
by many housing experts is that no more
than 30 percent of a household’s income
should be spent on housing. Thirty per
cent of $59,850 is just under $18,000 a year
on housing, or $1,500 a month in rent; for
a one-person household, monthly rent is
$1,047.50.
Deanna Parker, executive director of
Los Vecinos de Buford Highway, an advo
cacy organization for those living in apart
ments on Buford Highway, thanked the
mayor and City Council for taking steps to
ensure equitable housing development in
the city. She shared how she lived with her
family in a Brookhaven apartment com
plex on Buford Highway for 15 years. Then
three years ago a developer purchased the
complex and she and her family were giv
en a month to move out.
She urged the council to find ways to
preserve the affordable housing that al
ready exists along Buford Highway and
asked them to also find ways to preserve
housing for the single mothers making less
than $25,000 a year who are a “significant
population in the city.”
MARGY MANCHESTER
Resident since 2006
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