As some of you may know, last year, Mayor Keisha Bottoms, implemented a moratorium on new development around Westside Park, in order to give city officials and neighborhood leaders enough time to strategize a way to combat the rapid gentrification occurring. (The average price point in Grove Park just a few years ago was $80,000. Now its more than $300,000. The average annual income for the neighborhood is $23,000. *To afford a $300,000 house you’d have to make $60,000/year generally.)
Since then, they’ve devised a plan to include “inclusionary zoning” in, apartment communities, single family, townhome, and condo developments.
The city is wanting to enforce a certain ratio of new development communities to offer affordable housing prices to home buyers that qualify, or pay an “in-lieu fee” to opt out of the requirements.
(An example of this would be a community having 10% of their units or homes for affordable prices, based on the AMI (Area Median Income), and the rest of the 90% would be marked up to builders’ expectations of market value.)
I believe this is a good step, but more importantly an extremely important conversation to be had, bringing major issues like gentrification and affordable housing to light. However, there are no clear answers and we will need to work together to address these problems.
I would love to hear your thoughts and questions.
