Condos proposal in trouble
By Blake Aued | blake.aued@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 8:10 AM on Saturday, March 24, 2007 Plans to demolish the ACTION Inc. headquarters and Boys & Girls Club on Oconee Street to make way for condominiums look headed for the scrap heap. Athens-Clarke commissioners are split over whether the two proposed developments will provide needed cash to two nonprofits or are poor designs that shouldn't be approved. But Mayor Heidi Davison and three commissioners said they opposed the plans, one is critical of it, one newly elected commissioner voted against the proposals as a planning commissioner, and only two commissioners defended the plans. Commissioners made both arguments during a discussion at a meeting late Thursday night on two separate proposals that would bring in more than 100 condominiums and townhouses. Developers of both the two-acre ACTION property and 14-acre Boys & Girls Club tract are asking for permission to build without including retail space or offices in the new developments, as required by county zoning laws. Any development in the Carr's Hill neighborhood, which is close to downtown and the University of Georgia, should encourage a mixed-use neighborhood where residents aren't dependent on cars, Commissioners Alice Kinman and Kelly Girtz said. "Frankly I'm not convinced that it's time to give up on that vision," said Kinman, who represents the area. Past mixed-use efforts, like the GameDay condominiums downtown and Ansonborough on the eastside, haven't been commercially successful, Commissioner Harry Sims argued. "It seems difficult to see why we would create more empty spaces," Sims said. The Oconee Street area is zoned for apartments, and expected growth will eventually provide enough local customers for businesses there, said Davison, who does not vote on commission matters except to break a tie. "The higher density was meant to drive the need for commercial in that neighborhood to serve that neighborhood," she said. Kinman pointed to the Leathers Building on Pulaski Street as an example of successful commercial buildings in residential neighborhoods.
Sims, who serves on ACTION's board of directors, said the commission needs to approve that development so ACTION can pay off more than $1 million in debt it racked up due to mismanagement several years ago. Preservationists want a chance to find a buyer who will save the century-old former schoolhouse the houses the ACTION offices, but Sims said it was run-down when he taught there in 1972 and has gotten worse since. "It is literally falling apart," he said. Sims and Commissioner George Maxwell also lobbied for approval of the Boys & Girls Club tract so it can raise money to move to a bigger building on Fourth Street, closer to many of the children who attend the club. But, as Commissioner Kathy Hoard pointed out, the commission can only legally consider whether the zoning requests meet criteria set out in the county code and land-use plan, no matter what cause selling the land would benefit. Hoard also expressed a desire to save the ACTION building. "I have seen building after building destroyed in our community because a developer said or suggested that it was too expensive to restore," she said. The Athens-Clarke Planning Commission voted last month to recommend against both developments. As a planning commissioner, Andy Herod voted to reject both plans. But in his first meeting since being elected to the county commission, Herod didn't comment on the proposals. Commissioner Carl Jordan criticized some elements of the plans, but didn't say how he'd vote, while Elton Dodson, Doug Lowry and David Lynn didn't weigh in at all. The commission is expected to vote April 3.
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