Sydney Rainwater
Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz presented with confidence and positivity regarding the Georgia Square Mall Redevelopment plan’s approval despite that the vote has been delayed twice already.
The developer, the Leaven Group, will have to reapply if the project is not approved at the Commissioners’ meeting on March 7.
The mayor said Friday in a news conference that its disapproval would create “a dramatic difficulty,” which he said he feels would be unnecessary.
The goal of the proposed $400-plus million plan is to revitalize the disheveled Georgia Square Mall on Atlanta Highway, creating new retail space, greenspace and multi-use trails, a new public transit station and around 1,200 residential units — 10% of which would be permanently affordable.
“I don’t want to have my name attached to a gravel pit on Atlanta Highway,” Girtz said at the news conference.
There are many parties involved with this project. Both the physical zoning plan and the community benefits agreement must be agreed upon by the remaining retailers, The Leaven Group, the Athens-Clarke County Government and the Clarke County School District, who is a partner to the ACC Government
Belk, the only remaining anchor store at the Georgia Square Mall, will stay whether the redevelopment is approved or not as they have a multi-decade lease as well as “the right of refusal for any redevelopment of the property around them,” the mayor said.
Girtz explained his reasoning for proposing to postpone the vote Friday saying there is tension surrounding the phasing of the plan. He said the parties need to arrange a schedule that would allow the developers flexibility but also optimize the public benefit by making elements like the biking trails and transit station available to the public as soon as possible, even if the rest of the project is still in progress.
Commissioner Jesse Houle said at the Commissioners’ meeting on Feb. 21 they feel optimistic about the community benefits agreement, but that, “until we see that finalized document, we obviously need more time.”
$189 million of this $400-plus million project will be funded by the tax revenue generated by the redevelopment over the first 30 years of its operation because it’s on one of the six Athens-Clarke County Tax Allocation Districts (TAD).
Girtz said the redevelopment is all about “creating a better version, a stronger version and a healthier version of Athens.”
Why I Wrote the Story:
The Georgia Square Mall redevelopment is an important story because it’s taken so long so get approved, and it‘s expensive. This story taught me how to understand complex issues quickly, and how to write about them in a way a reader would understand. I was also excited to write this story because it relates so heavily to city and county government, which was the beat I covered this semester.