SST Blog Posts

What does it mean to address the challenges of housing affordability?

Well, to start, we will need to learn from other cities, such as Brookhaven, where the City Council passed an inclusionary zoning code mandate last fall, which includes special restrictions on redevelopment, to account for the necessity of affordable housing.

The zoning codes require that “when a special land use permit or rezoning is approved anywhere in the city for a multi-unit residential housing project, then 10 percent of the residential units must be defined as workforce housing.

Residential housing projects include new construction, rehabilitation of a current apartment building or converting apartments to condominiums and can be built out in phases. The inclusionary zoning was first sought just along Buford Highway, but the Planning Commission asked the City Council to consider it citywide.” Brookhaven pioneers an affordable housing requirement

The city of Sandy Springs has made the decision to hire an architectural design firm to revitalize four under-utilized shopping centers, including North River Shopping Center, Loehmann’s Shopping Center, Northridge Shopping Center, and the former Big Lots shopping center. These underutilized tracts have given the North End a “depressed” look for decades, so we absolutely welcome this redevelopment.

Since we started Sandy Springs Together, we have constantly talked about the need for the city of Sandy Springs to take bold, decisive action to tackle the ever-growing affordable housing crisis.

But despite this, you might be wondering: What’s it gonna take?

What’s it gonna take for the city of Sandy Springs to implement comprehensive, bold, affordable housing policies and plans?

Well, for starters, we need will — political and community will.

Editor’s Note: Sandy Springs Together periodically publishes letters or comments from community members who raise a concern we feel should be considered by the broader community.  Please let us hear your thoughts. 

by Maurice Hoelting

At the beginning of the summer, the City of Sandy Springs put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) for four North End Shopping Centers. 

I had an immediate question when I heard that our city government is funding a study for redevelopment: Why is the city spending taxpayer money on a study for private property owners when the owners should be paying for their own study? 

The shopping centers and the developers are the ones to profit from these studies. They should be the ones paying for the study. Additionally, two of the shopping centers already have plans for renovation.

For many months now, Sandy Springs Together has been educating the community about the dangers of losing our workforce housing — the housing affordable for teachers, officers, nurses and others. 

We have also shared what surrounding communities are doing. We understand that our lives can get busy, making it easy to lose our focus and get distracted. It happens to each and every one of us.

But, we must do more. 

So, we offer a challenge: If we do nothing, we are, in fact, doing something.