Cities across the country join metro Atlanta in facing shortages of affordable housing that stem, in part, from a surge in the proportion of rental homes that are built and priced for wealthy folks who want to rent, not own, a home, according to a recent report from a think tank at Harvard University.
Tag: Development
Posted inColumns
Atlanta’s Design Awards offer chance to contemplate the city being built
In the yin and yang duality that illustrates Atlanta’s development cycles, the annual Design Awards presented by Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission represent a moment to pause and take stock of the city’s built environment, of what has been lost and gained.
Posted inColumns
Georgia urgently needs a coastal hazard study and plan
By Guest Columnist DAVID KYLER, executive director of the Center for a Sustainable Coast, located in St. Simons
Enormous burdens on Georgia taxpayers have been imposed by damage from major storms over the past two years. Such impacts over this period are estimated to have cost Georgians some $5 billion in property and infrastructure damage, evacuation expenses, and recovery/clean-up. The majority of these expenses have been imposed by hurricanes, Matthew (2016) and Irma (2017).
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Tech’s future police headquarters designed to promote health of occupants
Georgia Tech’s planned police headquarters is designed to comply with a fairly new set of standards that aim to improve the health and wellness of those who spend time inside the building. In at least one instance, the standard is tighter than LEED standards.
Posted inColumns
Atlanta may turn to zoning to spark affordable homes, renew a neighborhood
Atlanta’s latest effort to create affordable housing is underway in Carey Park, a Northwest neighborhood the city plans to rezone to a classification intended to promote development of houses for those with low to moderate incomes.
Posted inColumns
Clock ticking on comment period on plan to launch rockets over Cumberland Island
The clock is ticking on the public comment period for a planned spaceport on the Georgia coast. Plans call for privately owned rockets to be launched from a site near the mouth of the Satilla River, soar at 30,000 feet over Cumberland Island, and continue toward or into outer space.
Posted inColumns
Dearth of affordable housing calls for comprehensive solution
By Guest Columnist KATHLEEN FARRELL, head of commercial real estate at SunTrust Banks, Inc.
Over the last decade, as millennials entered the workforce and delayed or indefinitely avoided buying a home, apartment complexes sprang up across Atlanta – as they did in many U.S. cities – to meet the growing demand for rental housing. Many of these new developments were built as luxury living experiences in order to command higher rents and meet the expectations of a younger clientele. The result was a robust supply of high-end units that have been absorbed by Atlanta’s strong job market, but a dearth of affordable, workforce housing.
Posted inLatest News
Vote clears way for stalled Centennial Park apartment build
It took less than 10 minutes, but a Friday afternoon vote seems to have cleared the way for a long-stalled apartment building to rise near the northeast corner of Centennial Olympic Park.
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Labor shortage a bigger concern than tariffs for business in Atlanta, Southeast, Fed reports
President Trump’s new and proposed trade tariffs do not appear to be of concern in metro Atlanta and across the Southeast, though they are causing heartburn in other regions of the country, according to the Federal Reserve’s survey of the economy released Wednesday.
Posted inColumns
Atlanta’s report on bicycling marks cultural shift in attitudes toward transportation
Atlanta’s by-the-numbers report on bicycling in the city is nothing short of a milestone that marks the cultural shift in attitudes about transportation underway in sub-tropical Atlanta.
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Four decades of the Old Fourth Ward, seen from my office window
By Guest Columnist WILLIAM VANDERKLOOT, a film director/producer with a unique insight into Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood.
A few years ago Google announced it would archive older images from its Google Maps StreetView program to create a StreetView History section for various cities. StreetView is less than 10 years old, but decades from now it will be a local historian’s delight. I only wish we had StreetView back when I moved my company to the Old Fourth Ward in 1979.
Like the proverbial frog submersed in slowly heating water, familiarity with our immediate surroundings makes us oblivious to incremental change. That is until one day we suddenly realize almost everything is different. That happened to me regarding my studio in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood.
Posted inLatest News
New SunTrust Bank branch latest sign of strength of Upper West Side
The grand opening Friday of a SunTrust Bank branch in a new shopping center underscores the strength of the development trend in the outer reaches of Atlanta’s Upper West Side region – near the Chattahoochee River.
Posted inColumns
Eleven Georgia counties make Census list of nation’s fastest growing counties
Eleven of the nation’s 100 fastest-growing counties are in Georgia, the latest Census estimate shows. Seven of them are in Atlanta’s distant suburbs or the mountains, and two are close to Athens – which the AARP has cited as one of the best retirement cities for three consecutive years.
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$100 million in transit funding, no clarity on who will divvy up the money
The State Road and Tollway Authority is to distribute the $100 million in state funding for transit. It’s not clear who will serve on the SRTA board that will make the decision and, the last time SRTA divided transit money, nearly two-thirds of the money went to metro Atlanta.
Posted inColumns
Metro Atlanta absorbed eight of 10 Georgians who arrived in past seven years, Census reports
The latest population estimates from the Census show that metro Atlanta absorbed 81 percent of the state’s population growth through the first seven years of the current decade. This means an estimated 598,000 newcomers landed in the region, while the rest of the entire state absorbed just 144,000 new residents.
Posted inGuest Column
A Civic Center for the 21st century
By Guest Columnist KLAUS VAN DEN BERG, a consultant with CITYperformance
The Atlanta Civic Center, a mega-venue that sports a 4,600-seat auditorium and a separate exhibition hall on a 19-acre site in the Old Fourth Ward, was sold to the Atlanta Housing Authority in late 2017. Former Mayor Kasim Reed, who had already sold significant land parcels to developers, closed the Civic Center deal without requiring the development of a new vision for the site that does justice to its historic significance. The sale itself proceeded mostly outside of public view after the collapse of a deal with a private developer.
Posted inLatest News
MARTA seeks to develop small site at Peachtree Center Station, near ATL Streetcar
MARTA is looking for a partner to develop a plum of a property, a sliver of land in Downtown Atlanta that provides ready access to the Atlanta Streetcar and MARTA’s Peachtree Center Station.
Posted inColumns
Atlanta Science Festival showcases technology of future, reminds of past accomplishments
Amid the robot shows and eco-expeditions, the Atlanta Science Festival commemorates the strength of Atlanta’s roots as a center of technology and manufacturing. The event continues through March 24.
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Metro Atlanta housing futures dinged in two new federal reports
Two federal reports released Wednesday dashed chilled water on the housing market in metro Atlanta and across the Southeast. One report predicted a continuing status quo of modest growth, and another forecast a weakening market due to the new federal tax law.
Posted inColumns
Atlanta’s next big dream: Huge Internet system to spur development, improve lifestyle
Atlanta has never been at a loss for big dreams, and the latest project maintains tradition. The city intends to develop a huge Internet system that will do everything from locate gunshots to spark development in blighted neighborhoods.
