About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2011)
WHAT'S UP IN NEW DEVELOPMENT Armstrong and Dobbs: soon to be home to an 8.3 acre... something. Whoever's in charge of the river dis trict proposal—it's hard to tell whether it's the mayor and commission, the Economic Development Foundation or, more likely, no one at all—seems to feel that they're off the hook, now that news has surfaced that a private developer is scoping the Armstrong and Dobbs property. The EOF has put the brakes on hiring a project manager and appointing a committee to vet the river dis trict idea. Commissioners, meanwhile, want more answers. They'll be waiting a long time, though, if someone isn't willing to put together a team of fact-finders. Several commissioners at an August work session wondered why a private developer wasn't out there chomping at the bit to part ner with the county on a project like this. Well, it turns out that there is a private devel oper out there, and regardless of what that developer has in mind or how closely its group wants to work with the public side, their pres ence is proof of the merits of the river district concept. It's where this town is going to grow next, and if we get out in front of it, we can use that momentum to pull this commu nity out of its poverty-stricken rut. Of course, with no concrete plans on the table, the old adage of expecting the worst and hoping for the best comes to mind. Say that this deal—which right now seems to be somewhat compatible with the river district- falls through, based on the sentiments of the public officials involved, and the developers go with the safe bet of student housing. Or maybe they're planning to build student hous ing right now, anyway; we don't really know, do we? The developers would be within their zoned rights to build another 909 Broad, twice or three times as big, given the expanded footprint of the A&D site. It would help boost property taxes, and it would get people living downtown, but it wouldn't do much at all for economic development, and it would be pretty ugly. If this community's leadership steps back now and decides to wait and see what hap pens, they're putting themselves in the same reactionary position as always. Over the years, many studies and reports have described Athens as ripe for some sort of economic development initiative. We never have, however, conceived a vision and moved on to execution. The news of this lat est project should be read as a sign to press on rather than hang back. That developers like this one are out there means that we're headed in the right direction. The next step is to get the community's visions for the area on paper and in the codes, so that when projects like these come forward, we can be assured that they'll fit into what we have in mind, so that their positive contributions will be fully leveraged. Commissioners have expressed some rea sonable skepticism about borrowing money and buying land in times like these, but that doesn't mean they are out of options. There's plenty of county-owned land, and if a big project is built, and a tax allocation district is in place, we could even do our downtown economic development strictly on a pay-as- you-go basis. Two weeks ago, we looked at how vari ous private developments would provide money to a river district TAD; if we apply that same thinking to a project on the scale of Armstrong & Dobbs, we would find that property taxes would increase by over a half million dollars every year. In the initial con ception of the river district, that money would go to pay down a bond that was created and spent in the beginning. However, an infra structure account on that scale could keep us pretty busy, with projects undertaken on a yearly basis as they come up, perhaps result ing in a more nimble strategy for developing the fringes of downtown. To get that far, we'll need to identify all the county land that's ripe for redevelopment in the area and then create a boundary for a TAD that includes both those publicly-held areas and sites like A8.D. Then, we'll need to del egate attracting more businesses to the EDF, and management of that TAD infrastructure account to someone else, perhaps through the Athens Downtown Development Authority or an Urban Design Commission. News like this means we're headed in the right direction; now's the time to figure out which tools we can use to get us to the end goal. Hesitation helps opportunities fall apart, or morph into things we aren't proud of, like football-themed student apartments. Just about every public official in town is on record as wanting something like this to happen. What are they willing to do to get us there? Kevan Williams athensrising@flagpole.com Public Radio for Athens and Northeast Georgia 706-542-9842 • www.wuga.org Your Oasis for Ideas and the Arts flagpole • RtUir Picks WUGA is a broadcast service of the University of Georgia TANNING MEMBERSHIP Only $35 > |\ Per Month No Maintrnonrr Ftt 3-Pack DVDs from *15.99 Homewood Shopping Center • 706-546-4864 M-ThlOa-llp • F-Sat10a-12a • SunHOp Republic salon 312 E. BROAD ST. • 3RD FLOOR • 706.208.5222 • FRIGIDAlRE BUILDING • ENTRANCEONJACKSONST.-WWW.REPUBLICSALON.COM SEPTEMBER 14. 2011 ■ FLAGPOLE.COM 7 KEVAN WILLIAMS
