City Council discusses affordable housing, economic development

Affordable housing in Athens was brought into question during the Athens City Council meeting Monday. 

Former mayoral candidate Damon Krane brought up the topic during the public comment portion at the end of the meeting. He referred to a discussion that took place at last week’s meeting about a project Cornerstone Builders is working on in the University Estate’s neighborhood. 

“What we’re really talking about here is simply helping affluent people buy nicer homes at public expense,” Krane said. 

The base price for these homes is set to be $240,000. This is $20,000 higher than originally planned, according to Patterson. 

The increase is because of a pandemic-induced rise in construction costs, Councilmember Sam Crowl said. 

The city is not directly investing in the project, but the Council did agree to a tax incremental finance (TIF) subsidy. In this context, a TIF concerns the increase in property tax that results from building a house, Patterson said. 

“The current property tax is probably going to be maybe $750 to $1,000 a year, but if you build a house on that quarter acre of land, and you build a house that, let’s say is $200,000, now the property tax, because it has land tax and the house tax, the structure tax — it’s going to go up significantly,” Patterson said. 

He went on to explain that 70% of the increase in property tax would then be used for infrastructure such as building a city street or improving the sewer system. 

The TIF caused the project to be discussed during the City Council meeting. 

“I expressed what I was thinking, which I think most people were thinking was, we’re getting away from what I would consider to be affordable housing,” Crowl said. “Why call it affordable housing if it’s not affordable for a huge segment of our population?”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines affordability for housing as 30% of a household’s income. 

Crowl echoed Krane’s sentiments that Athens needs affordable housing that meets federal government criteria, but also expressed his support for this project. He said he supports it because the houses will be energy efficient and built for people of all abilities, meaning they’ll be wheelchair accessible and built with disabled individuals in mind.

The Council also discussed a new Downtown Redevelopment District on Union Street during Monday night’s meeting. 

“It’s a way of helping reinvest in downtown areas, and it centers on a historic building,” Councilmember Chris Fahl said. 

This district centers on Seaman’s. 

Fahl said the district will help reinvest the increase in value for all the land back into the same area. This could be for new buildings, renovations, loans or other development programs, she said. 

Seaman’s would have access to the revenue first for any development plans, Patterson said. 

Patterson also explained that this is another form of a TIF. It operates in the same way but has different requirements: It has to be a 10-acre piece of land, and it has to have a historic building or district.