Due to a wave of backlash from residents and business owners, Brookhaven city leaders are halting a plan that would give the city more control over redevelopment.
The City Council rejected a resolution that would’ve been the first step in the creation of an Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) during a recent meeting. State law allows cities to create URAs and other similar authorities to redevelop areas that’re considered blighted, dilapidated or underutilized.
However, several residents voiced concerns during the meeting that the URA could deem their property as blighted without their knowledge or that the vote would actually give the city additional eminent domain powers.
“We might not be cookie-cutter, but we really enjoy and are passionate about taking care of the center and the location,” said Eugenie Viener, who owns commercial property near Ashford Dunwoody Road and Johnson Ferry Road. “... We’re just really concerned that we might be on essentially a chopping block somewhere down the road.”
City leaders said those fears were based on an inaccurate Nextdoor post. They stressed that the vote would not have expanded eminent domain powers, which is when a government forcibly purchases private property for public use.
Councilwoman Linley Jones, who said she supports the eventual creation of a URA, said the concerns and rumors warranted the council to delay the process.
“Unfortunately, while I think it’s a really good idea in the future, I don’t think the timing is alright,” she said. “I don’t think it would have done a bit of harm to pass it tonight, except that it could create the type of fear that we see tonight.”
Brookhaven has discussed creating a URA for several years, City Attorney Chris Balch told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Redevelopment agencies create another financing option for developers, who can use them to access tax-free loans.
In return, the redevelopment agency has negotiating power over how new projects look and feel. This can vary from the construction materials used in the project to streetscape improvements to subsidizing rent for low-income tenants.
Balch said URAs go beyond rezoning requests to give city leaders an additional layer of input in redeveloping certain areas. In
“In a zoning dispute with a developer, you’re bound by your code. The code says what is allowable and what is not allowable, and if you start trying to negotiate differences within that, you’re opening the door to getting sued,” he said. “... With a URA, there’s no limit to what we can negotiate because we’ve got actual dollars and cents in the deal.”
While the vote failed to pass, Balch said his staff will still work on drafting a redevelopment plan, which will identify the specific areas in the city that are considered underutilized or blighted. He said those likely include strip malls without anchor stores or outdated residential complexes.
If a URA were to be created, it would only have jurisdiction over those designated areas.
Christian Sigman, Brookhaven’s city manager, told the AJC those areas will likely match the high-priority redevelopment zones detailed in the city’s comprehensive plan.
“It isn’t like people sat around in a smoky room and said, ‘I want to go after that property or that property,’” Sigman said.
Councilman Joe Gebbia, whose term in office will expire at the end of the year, was the only councilmember who tried to adopt the resolution. He said the extra tool for city leaders will become necessary, especially when developers pitch projects along the Buford Highway corridor, a diverse area with many immigrant and working-class families.
“If we did nothing as a city, developers are going to come in and develop it regardless just based on the economics of that area,” Gebbia said during the meeting. The vote was 3-1.
Sigman added that the vote wouldn’t have immediately created a URA. It would’ve been the first step in a four-step process to get a URA off the ground, so there would’ve been other opportunities for public input. However, he conceded that a better public education campaign would be needed when the city attempts to restart the URA creation process.
“We probably could’ve done a better job of rolling it out,” he said. “When it does come back, and we don’t know when that will be, we’ll spend a lot more time educating people upfront about the process before we start the process.”
