{"id":295,"date":"2023-02-24T10:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T10:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/?p=295"},"modified":"2024-01-02T23:04:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T23:04:48","slug":"news-conference-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/news-conference-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Kelly Girtz feels positive about the March 7 Georgia Square Mall redevelopment vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Caroline Kostuch<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(Photo\/Andrea Hudson)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz feels positive about the Georgia Square Mall redevelopment project vote taking place March 7 at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vote to pass the community benefits agreement with The Leaven Group has been delayed multiple times. If the vote does not pass on the seventh, the zoning option deadline will not be met and the developer would need to resubmit under Georgia zoning law. This would create significant difficulty in moving forward with the project, Girtz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel positive about this called session on the seventh,\u201d Girtz said at a news conference held at the University of Georgia Friday morning. \u201cYou can\u2019t just feel positive though, you have to do things that get you to feel positive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girtz said at the news conference that he is meeting regularly with the county attorney, county management, development representatives and county commissioners in an effort to ensure the March 7 vote takes place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The county and developers are negotiating final decisions on solid timelines for the community benefit components of the project. ACC Unified Government is working to ensure public benefits are completed within a predictable timeline, Girtz said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community benefits<\/a> incorporated in the plan include affordable housing, paved multi-use trails, a transit station, a child-care facility, public greenspace and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current plan proposes approximately 1200 homes with at least 10%<\/a> to be affordable housing. Affordable housing would be reserved for tenants whose household income is less than 80%<\/a> of the median income of the Georgia Square Mall\u2019s census block. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ACC government would provide about $189 million in TAD funds towards the project. The funds would come from the development\u2019s new property tax flow over the next three decades and not from any existing property taxes. The developers expect to spend around $400 million on the redevelopment project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belk is the only anchor store still open at the Georgia Square Mall and would remain open under the current plan. Belk has a multi-decade lease and the right of refusal for any redevelopment of the surrounding property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Georgia Square Mall was built in 1980 and now stands in deteriorating structural condition<\/a> with large amounts of vacancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to have my name attached to a gravel pit on Atlanta Highway,\u201d Girtz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The county is hosting a public input session Thursday to hear citizen comments and ensure public understanding of the project before the vote takes place on March 7. ACC Unified Government will also vote on an amended intergovernmental agreement <\/a>with the Clarke County School District extending their partnership until 2052.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Why I Wrote the Story: <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Kelly Girtz hosted a news conference at UGA to discuss the Georgia Square Mall redevelopment plan. Journalists gathered to ask him questions about the upcoming vote that would decide the future of the plan. While writing about the news conference, I gained knowledge about covering local government and learned how to identify a newsworthy element when given a multitude of information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caroline Kostuch (Photo\/Andrea Hudson) Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz feels positive about the Georgia Square Mall redevelopment project vote taking place March 7 at 6 p.m. The vote to pass the community benefits agreement with The Leaven Group has been delayed multiple times. If the vote does not pass on the seventh, the zoning option […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,5,4,6],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-community","tag-mall","tag-mayor","tag-vote"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4432"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-carolinekostuch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}