Developers are trying to sweeten the pot to entice Athens-Clarke County commissioners to approve a land swap for a student housing development north of downtown by setting up a scholarship fund for Black students and providing office space for the Northeast Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s hard to ignore there’s a certain tepidness and skepticism from the Black community of Athens,” Andy Savoy, vice president of development for Chicago-based Core Spaces, said at a Dec. 9 work session.

The $400,000 scholarship fund would provide tuition for 25 Black students to attend Athens Tech each year. In addition, the Black Chamber would receive office space in The Foundry building for $1 a year.

“We’re dealing with a historically Black neighborhood that was removed by urban renewal, and we’ve got a foundry building that’s literally got the fingerprints of Black slaves in the bricks,” Savoy said. “We’re inviting the Black community to stay here and make this a center for promoting Black prosperity.”

Those benefits are on top of a $7.8 million contribution to ACC’s affordable housing trust fund, expanding a sewer line that would also serve future phases of The View at NoDA affordable housing development at Bethel Homes, paying for half of a 425-space public parking deck, providing discounted space to the Athens Downtown Development Authority for art studios and galleries, protecting the historic foundry and Hoyt House, and other concessions. In addition, the development would generate more than $2 million in tax revenue each year, including $820,000 for infrastructure across the river in East Athens through a tax allocation district.

In exchange, Core Spaces is asking for two county-owned surface parking lots south of Lay Park. All told, ACC would receive benefits worth a total of $29 million and a net total of $15 million, not counting future tax revenue. 

Commissioner Ovita Thornton said she hopes that the offer sets a precedent for other developers to offer something for the Black community. “White folk owe us, point blank,” she said. “It’s not like you’re giving us something we don’t deserve.”

Three other Black commissioners—Dexter Fisher, Stephanie Johnson and Tiffany Taylor—remain skeptical. “These benefits for Black folks, I’ll be honest, it rubbed me the wrong way,” Fisher said.

“The next time we want to do something for the Blacks, maybe we should go to a Black neighborhood and ask the homeless Blacks what they would like,” Taylor said.

The work session was billed as an opportunity for commissioners to get their questions answered, but at times was marked by some commissioners’ open hostility and mistrust toward Core Spaces and county staff.

Fisher asked about parking, noting that the 1,400-bed development would not include a space for each bedroom. Savoy said Core Spaces is building 900 parking spots where there are currently 180, and UGA is going to add 600 students a year regardless of whether those new spaces are built. ACC assistant manager Andrew Saunders said the company is meeting the parking requirement under the county zoning code. Fisher called that response “a matter of opinion.”

Other issues brought up by Fisher included voting at Lay Park. It could be moved to the fire station or the Lyndon House during construction, Saunders said. Fisher also fretted that the presence of white college students would discourage or prevent Black children from using Lay Park.

Johnson pressed Savoy about traffic, which he said would only increase by about 5%, according to a traffic study, because students living near campus tend not to drive much. The plan includes redesigning the Thomas Street-Dougherty Street-North Avenue intersection and provides multiple ways in and out of the development.

“I have a lot of common sense, and for the record, I’m not being rude. I don’t agree. I don’t believe that,” Johnson said.

Savoy offered her a copy of the traffic study. “I don’t need to read it,” Johnson said. “It’s going to say whatever someone wants it to say.”

“Respectfully, no, it’s going to say what our subconsultant [Athens-based W&A Engineering] developed,” Savoy responded. “We do that independently and professionally.”

Johnson then went on to question a side deal the preservation group Historic Athens made with Core Spaces to find a new location for the Hoyt House and potentially use it as office space, subject to commission approval. 

Much like Fisher, Commissioner Carol Myers denounced the proposal as abetting a student takeover of downtown. “If you were a UGA student here, you’d think Dudley Park and Firefly Trail were part of UGA,” she said, adding that “it sure sounds like we’re building public parking for our student population.”

The project’s lone vocal proponent on the commission was one who is usually against big student housing developments downtown—Melissa Link. “What we could see here is effectively a 10-story tower without the Foundry building that does not have the interface, publicly accessible spaces, and wouldn’t have the affordable housing contribution that we see,” she said.

Critics on the commission often seemed to forget that Core Spaces does not need permission to move forward with a version of the project that would involve demolishing The Foundry as well as Hotel Abacus (formerly Graduate Athens). Then the company could build a monolithic 950-bedroom building on property it already owns, without granting any concessions to the local government.

If the land-swap agreement and subsequent rezoning of the parking lots are not approved, Ed Lane of SPG Planners and Engineers told the ACC Planning Commission at a Dec. 11 meeting, “All those community benefits I just listed are off the table, and the adjacent properties that are zoned C-D [commercial-downtown] can be developed by right, with none of the protections or provisions to accommodate the playground that is right there, the parking that is right there.”

The planning commission unanimously recommended approval.

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