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Goodbye Bethel
PLUS, MORE GGSD QUARRELS AND OTHER LOCAL NEWS
By Blake Aued and Chris Dowd news@flagpole.com
Mayor Kelly Girtz signed an agreement on
the Bethel Midtown Village redevelopment
last week with Valdon Daniels, chairman of
the Athens Housing Authority. The Athens-
Clarke County Commission approved
the memorandum of understanding last
Tuesday at its monthly voting session, and
it was signed the following day at a joint
meeting of the two boards that doubled
as an open house. The MOU describes the
commission’s intent to use $39 million
from SPLOST 2020 to support this redevel
opment, called the “North Athens Project,”
if and when voters approve SPLOST in
November.
Bethel Midtown Village was built in the
1960s and is showing its age. According
to Commissioner Melissa Link, the hous
ing project is in “terrible, terrible shape”
because the previous owner, Atlanta-based
H.J. Russell, has not done the necessary
maintenance. Even so, Bethel sits on some
very valuable downtown real estate. For
residents of Bethel, an unwelcome but likely
outcome might have been a new luxury
apartment complex on the site where their
homes once stood. “If we hadn’t gotten our
hands on this property, it would have gone
to a private developer, and you might have
The Mark 2 there,” said Link, referring to a
downtown student apartment complex.
Rick Parker, executive director of the
AHA, promised complete transparency
through “dozens and dozens” of meetings
with residents going forward. According
to Parker, residents will even be involved
in shaping the final design of the project.
Residents will be fully reimbursed for their
moving expenses during the construction,
which will happen in a phased manner. Due
to a number of vacant units in Bethel and
the phased construction plan, it’s possible
that residents who choose to stay during
construction will be allowed to do so.
After construction, all residents will have
the right of return. This is guaranteed by
federal law and by their leases. Rents are
likewise guaranteed to stay the same after
redevelopment. The U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development requires
them to pay 30% of their income in rent
and utilities, so that is what they will con
tinue to pay post-redevelopment.
The North Athens Project—which might
extend beyond Bethel to include AHA prop
erty to the north along College Avenue and
local government property on Dougherty
Street to the south—has the potential to
transform a blighted
area, grow affordable
housing in Athens
and improve the lives
of Bethel residents.
Yet the plan is not
without its critics.
Some at the meetings
compared it to the
forced dislocation
of black Athenians during the period of
“urban renewal” in the 1960s. (Bethel itself
was built after an African-American neigh
borhood called The Bottom was razed.)
Commissioner Ovita Thornton, who has
worked with Bethel residents for years,
pushed back against this narrative, say
ing she had “no apology whatsoever” for
the project. Thornton agreed that Athens
should learn from its history, but said the
“horror” of urban renewal had no chance
of being repeated. “I can assure you, that is
not going to happen on my watch,” she said.
The North Athens Project is still in the
early phases of planning, and residents
of Bethel, as well as the public at large,
will have ample opportunity to weigh in
as it progresses. If voters do not approve
SPLOST in November, the project will be
greatly scaled back, but the housing author
ity was clear that some renovation of Bethel
will still take place. The referendum on the
11-year, $314 million SPLOST package will
take place on Nov. 5. Early voting started
Monday at the Board of Elections. [Chris
Dowd]
Animal Control Reorganized,
[-Scooters Delayed
More support is on the way for afford
able housing with the commission’s
approval of a “pocket neighborhood” at 250
Dublin St. at its last voting session Oct.
1. The Athens Land Trust is planning to
build 13 homes on this lot with some help
from Athens-Clarke County in the form
of $148,000 in Community Development
Block Grant funds and $226,000 from
SPLOST 2011.
The East Athens parcel was rezoned for a
planned development in February, but the
developer has since backed out and put the
land up for sale. The
ALT had planned to
build three affordable
homes in the original
concept and stepped
up to buy the entire
property when the
development fell
through. This means
that all 13 lots will
now be held in trust, and the homes that sit
on them will stay permanently affordable,
according to the land trust model.
Commissioner Mariah Parker, in whose
district the homes will be built, called the
development an “awesome deal” for her dis
trict. She said she believes in the land trust
model, but that she is also pursuing alterna
tive means of providing affordable housing
for her constituents.
Members of the Concerned Animal
Crusaders of Athens, a coalition of animal
welfare groups, showed up to this Mayor
and Commission meeting in large numbers.
They were present to advocate for two items
on the commission’s agenda relating to the
ongoing controversy surrounding Animal
Control. The first item was the replacement
of the old Animal Control division, a part
of Central Services, with a new Department
of Animal Services, which reports directly
to the county manager’s office. The second
was an audit work plan including an audit
of this new department. After some discus
sion by commissioners about prioritizing
an audit of the Board of Elections instead,
both items passed unanimously. The com
mission’s Audit Committee will discuss
those future audits in more detail.
The commission also extended the
ban on electric scooters (established
in December of 2018) for six additional
months, or until June 4, 2020. This was
necessary because the commission’s
Legislative Review Committee found the
issues surrounding these scooters to be
extremely complex.
Part of the complexity involved creating
a definition of “shareable dockless mobility
devices” that distinguished scooters from
electric-assisted bicycles, which the state
of Georgia recently classified into three
groups. The commission reauthorized bike
share programs, including e-bikes, but only
for those of class I (i.e., bikes that give a
boost only when the rider is pedaling and
not when traveling over 20 miles an hour).
Commissioners and staff also need extra
time to find a scooter company willing to
play by their rules, and for the development
of a pilot program to reintroduce these
scooters into the wilds of Athens. Will Birds
fly again? It’s possible, but if the ban is
lifted, it seems clear that they will no longer
be allowed to block sidewalks and delay
pedestrians, as they did previously. [CD]
Means Forms New Advisory Group
Superintendent Demond Means and
Clarke County Board of Education members
continued quarrelling at a work session last
week, this time over Means’ plan to deem-
phasize a parent advisory board, as well as
an ongoing disagreement over plans for a
new Clarke County School District central
office.
Administrators have been searching
for a new central office since CCSD sold
its Mitchell Bridge Road headquarters in
2016 to nonprofit Advantage Behavioral
Health Systems for $2.6 million because
former superintendent Philip Lanoue
wanted to move to a more central loca-
If we hadn’t gotten our
hands on this property,
it would have gone to a private
developer, and you might have
The Mark 2 there.
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FLAGPOLE.COM | OCTOBER 9, 2019