5th Issues Letter - Redevelopment
Election Day Countdown: Two Weeks To Go!
In this letter I will cover what Roswell can do to encourage redevelopment.
Roswell has great neighborhoods and thriving business districts, but parts of our City are blighted with aging strip centers and deteriorating apartment communities. When Judie and I moved into our home 33 years ago, Tahoe North was a trendy young adult apartment community, and the Roswell Village Shopping Center was the best place to shop in town. Today that shopping center is mostly empty and what was Tahoe North is no longer a desirable address. These and other blighted parts of Roswell are overburdening our schools, raising crime rates, and depressing property values. To remain a great place to live and raise a family, Roswell must find a way to redevelop these areas with neighborhood-friendly, mixed-use developments.
For years the Council, including my opponents, has recognized the need to redevelop, but it has not been willing to allow redevelopment at the density necessary for property owners to recover the cost of redevelopment. Economic studies commissioned by the City of Roswell show that the maximum density currently allowed along the Highway 9 and Holcomb Bridge Road corridors is too low to permit anyone who wants to redevelop in these corridors to recover the cost of land and new construction. My opponents have consistently voted to deny the validity of these expensive studies and have withheld their approval of redevelopment.
In 2003 Robert Charles Lesser & Co., a consultant hired by the City, advised us that developers would have to rebuild property along Highway 9 south of Holcomb Bridge Road at a density of 0.44 FAR (the ratio of land area to building area) to recover their investment. Despite this, the Council, including my opponents, passed an overlay zoning that did not permit redevelopment at a density greater than 0.22, one-half of the recommended density. In 2007 the City hired Bleckley Advisory Group to take a second look. Bleckley advised us that for developers to recover the cost of redevelopment, they would have to rebuild at an FAR of 0.75 to 1.0. My opponents have offered excuses for the lack of redevelopment rather than accepting reality. As a consequence, no one has even asked about building anything on Highway 9 under the overlay zoning ordinance passed by the Council.
At the City’s request in 2006, Robert Charles Lesser & Co. prepared a Revitalization Study for Holcomb Bridge Road east of GA 400. They found that:
“To economically redevelop a parcel, sufficient project value must be created to justify purchasing the property for redevelopment purposes.... A ratio of 1.0 (FAR) is needed for a redevelopment project to pay land prices equal to or greater than the current tax value of the project; this is the minimal threshold to make the project economically viable....Current City zoning policies limit mixed-use densities to a maximum of eight units to the acre. At that density, it is not economically feasible to create residential and mixed-use projects on any of the Georgia 400/Old Alabama sites evaluated. To make a mixed-use development with a residential component financially feasible, it will require increased residential densities suitable for a mix of townhouses and condominium flats.”
Despite this, my opponents have refused to consider redevelopment in the Holcomb Bridge Road East corridor at a density sufficient to be economically viable. Until Roswell allows enough density for property owners to make a profit on redevelopment, blighted areas of our City will continue to deteriorate.
If we want redevelopment, we have to allow owners to rebuild more than they tear down so that they can earn more than they now collect in rent. We have to make quality, not density, the test for redevelopment. We have to let developers know what we want them to build, rather than telling them what they cannot do. We have to help by investing in new streets and infrastructure needed for redevelopment.
After years of rejecting redevelopment proposals and refusing to meet with developers, I am glad that my opponents are finally saying that we need to work with property owners and developers, but I doubt their sincerity. They have still not taken any real action or proposed any real changes to encourage redevelopment.
Last year, at the request of residents in the Historic District and with my support, the City passed an overlay zoning district allowing sufficient density to allow a developer to make a profit, but not too high for the neighborhood, the Historic Preservation Commission, or the City Council. I support expanding this new zoning beyond the Historic District to encourage redevelopment in blighted parts of Roswell.
As a lifelong resident, I recognize the City’s need for redevelopment and I know what we have to do to make it happen. I would appreciate your vote on November 3rd so that I can continue making Roswell a better place to live.
Jere Wood, Mayor of Roswell
If you have any questions or suggestions about what Roswell should do to encourage redevelopment, or any other issues, I would love to hear from you. Please e-mail me at mayorwood@mayorwood.com, and I will personally answer your e-mail.
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For Mayor Jere Wood’s positions on Preventing Crime; City Spending and Taxes; Traffic and Transportation; Helping Local Businesses, and other issues, go to www.mayorwood@mayorwood.com/Issues.