What will be the effects of the newly adopted AR zoning ordinance?

Philip Juras - Athens Grow Green Coalition


It is impossible to say for sure how the county will develop with our new zoning, but the following observations and reasonable assumptions can be made.

Sprawl
26,000 acres zoned one unit per acre is the definition of sprawl. In Athens-Clarke with this new zoning we can expect to see thousands of added car trips from greater and greater distances resulting in additional widening and building of roads, and much worse traffic congestion on collector and arterial roads. Throughout the county we will see decreased water quality, poorer air quality, and an extra rise in public spending as development increases in random locations in the former greenbelt.

Property Taxes
Over 70 studies from around the country show that property taxes received from this type of development pay for only approximately 80% of the cost of public services they require. The difference in cost will be born indefinitely and primarily by all property owning residents and businesses in the county.

Open Space
50% open space will be effective at creating neighborhood parkland but a suburban rather than rural character is likely to prevail. After a period of time, restrictions on preserved openspace can expire since there is no provision in the ordinance for making it permanent. This will allow development of the open space itself. Also, because open space is calculated as 1/2 of the total parcel, parcels that are more environmentally sensitive ( streams, wetlands, and steep slopes) will be the most attractive to develop. This will promote development where there are environmentally sensitive areas and will lower the value of buildable land relative to the value of unbuildable land.

TDRs
TDRs (Transferable Development Rights) have been presented as the best tool for preserving rural land while offering landowners fair compensation, however, the new zoning ordinance may have crippled the market driven TDR option. With densities now set quite high in rural areas (sending areas), a great number of TDRs will have to be given to each land owner in order to add up to something that might preserve significant open space. In addition to the high rural density, in-town (receiving areas) densities have also been increased in the new zoning ordinance. This leaves doubt as to whether developers will want much additional density in town. With such a tremendous supply of TDRs available, and potentially little demand to use them in town, TDRs could be devalued to an extent that makes them useless on the open market. No market studies have been conducted on this subject in Athens-Clarke. If, down the road, the ACC community still wishes to preserve rural land, the government will have to buy rural land and/or development rights at tremendous expense to the taxpayer. Note the recent action in Gwinnett county.

Public Input
The public has lost its ability to have input in rural development decisions. Before last night, Athens-Clarke AR zoning required a wait of 2 years before a landowner could subdivide a property into a maximum of three 1 acre lots. Subdividing more than three lots required rezoning and public hearing. This time delay and rezoning requirement has allowed development at a rate and of a type that has been largely acceptable to the community. With our new zoning, development at one acre average densities will occur without public input at any time and any location within the 26,000 acre AR zone where 50% of the development is given to open space.