MORGAN COUNTY
The Madison City Council dealt with a full slate of zoning issues at its most recent meeting held on May 8, approving another Low Income Tax Housing Credit (LITHC) development that represents the fourth such project brought to Madison in the last decade.
According to Greg Bayard, Madison Bypass Holdings, LLC, is planning to develop 16.97 acres with 40 single-family (detached dwelling) rental houses that will be called Prior Farms on the Carmichael Road area near Cox Road after the zoning change from Estate Residential (R) to Small Lot Residential (R4).
According to the material presented at the meeting, the site plan shows 44 parcels along with a clubhouse lot, but a few of the lots are intended to serve as stormwater infrastructure.
The houses will be a mixture of house sizes, of which 75% will have rents set using Average Median Income (AMI). The remaining four houses will be market-rate housing.
Rents will be based on Average Median Income (AMI) and will start at $605 for a one-bedroom, $725 for a two-bedroom and $830 for a three-bedroom. Market value rates for two-and-three-bedroom units will be from the $1,100 to $1,200 range.
Rates will vary due to fluctuations in the economy.
The development will also include a stand-alone community building/ leasing office with an equipped computer room, a fitness center and laundry.
The Madison Planning and Zoning Commission heard this zoning request on April 20 and considered the request again during a called meeting on May 1.
According to staff documents, Celia Murray with the Historic Madison Coalition spoke against the request, expressing her concerns about the effect on schools and traffic.
The Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed a traffic report that said 350 vehicles per day use Carmichael Road and Cox Road.
“The capacity analysis results indicated that the proposed development will have a negligible impact on traffic operations on the roadway network. Therefore, no improvements are recommended,” according to the traffic study.
P&Z recommended approval by a 3-2 vote.
Commercial areas to the west of the proposed development are zoned C3 and include an auto dealer, mini storage facility and what was once a manufactured home dealership. To the north is Beacon Heights Baptist Church and to the northeast is the Carmichael Commons, a PRD development approved last August that will contain 60 units with rents that are also based on AMI.
The Prior Farms property will be accessed via a new Right of Way (ROW) that was planned to serve Carmichael Commons and connect to Carmichael Road.
Although no one spoke against the zoning change, a lengthy discussion among council members followed.
District 2 Councilman Eric Joyce said he has supported such projects in the past but expressed concerns about the latest offering.
“I think it's filling a need, but I’m concerned about the growth patterns we’re currently experiencing in Madison,” Joyce said, indicating that census numbers show a substantial increase in Madison’s growth rate in recent years.
Joyce said the recently approved Vitality, Canaan Crossing, Madison Assisted Living, and the approved but not yet built Washington Gateway, Carmichael Commons will add 550 residents to the city with another 175 coming from Foster Park, Veranda Park, Markham Hill and others.
According to Joyce, these new residences could represent a 16.5 percent growth rate that could outstrip the city’s ability to provide adequate water and public safety services.
“The reason Madison is the town that we know and love today is a reasoned, steady growth rate going back two centuries, and right now we’re looking at dramatic changes,” Joyce said. “That bothers me greatly. At some point, we’ve got to slow down.”
He also called for a comprehensive traffic survey of Madison, which has not been done in a decade.
However, District 1 Councilor Carrie Peters-Reid said creating workforce housing needed to be the priority.
“Once we got Canaan Crossing full, we had 200 more people who still did not have a place to stay,” Peters-Reid said.
According to City Planner Monica Callahan, surveys indicated that 56 of the families who moved into Canaan Crossing already lived in Morgan County.
“I’m just grateful that we offer our residents in our city somewhere to live,” Peters-Reid said, relating a story about a mother with six children who knocked on her door at 10 p.m. and said she had nowhere to go. “We have so many families sheltered in hotels paying $500 per week for one room and a bathroom. As a matter of fact, we took our van to what is now the Imperial on Thanksgiving and met with one mom and five kids in one room. She can pay rent, there’s just nowhere to rent in Madison.”
Mayor Fred Perriman said Madison and all of the 535 cities in Georgia are having housing issues.
“It’s not about us,” Perriman said. “It’s about the ones who are really in need and those who are struggling.”
Council voted 4-1 in favor of the zoning change, with only Rick Blanton, in whose district the development is located, opposed.