As of March 2019, the city of Sandy Springs has taken no official action that would displace current residents.

In March 2018, the city appointed a Task Force to provide recommendations for the redevelopment of the North End of Sandy Springs. The recommendations that have been offered to the city council by the Task Force would make several apartment complexes an attractive target for developers. The Task Force recommendations would allow private developers to demolish the apartment homes of thousands of residents to make way for new, higher-priced single-family homes.

The city has taken no action on the Task Force recommendations to support the plan or to offer protection to the residents who are threatened with displacement. The city is now considering its options.

The Task Force, which wrote the current plan and stand to profit from it, is dominated by developers who lacked the diversity of our broader community.

• NO people of color

• NO representatives from the school system or public safety

• NO small business owners

• NO representatives from any of our major employers

• NO residents who live in the communities likely to be demolished

The Mayor nominated and the City Council approved the appointment of 14 people to the group.

There are no Opportunity Zones in Sandy Springs.

The city council has not yet adopted the Task Force recommendations as official city policy or as an official planning document. To adopt the plan, the city council will need to pass a vote to support the recommendations, which may or may not include the displacement of thousands of residents.

These positions are hard to fill and cannot be moved overseas. In Georgia, 1 in 4 workers is a member of the essential economy.

That means ¼ of the population needs to have housing that is affordable to these workers.

The city has no plans to demolish apartment homes. However, the city council could adopt the recommendations of the Task Force plan that would make it possible — and financially attractive — for private developers to buy apartment homes, demolish the apartment complexes and rebuild with fewer and more expensive single-family homes.