Georgia cities are not the villains in the affordable housing crisis

Housing affordability is a genuine problem in Georgia. I won’t argue that. But from what I’m seeing in cities across Georgia, the stated explanation doesn’t hold up. And the cure, state preemption of local zoning authority, would make things worse, not better.

Cities aren’t blocking housing. They’re building it.

Rome’s leaders had a “lightbulb moment” realizing that without available housing, economic development efforts might stall.

To address the issue, the city allocated $1 million in developer incentives and invested another $1 million into its land bank authority.

The result? $6 million of property back onto the tax rolls and roughly 4,200 housing units in the pipeline. As the city manager puts it, “public investment attracts private investment.”

Across the state, cities are doing the same work.

Other writers have termed Georgia’s housing shortage “government-induced.”

Tell that to officials in Pembroke, where the city scraped together financing for a $10 million Low Income Housing Tax Credit development and $13 million for a senior housing project, all on a $4 million city budget.

Standards exist for a reason

Credit: Copyright Caroline Joe

Credit: Copyright Caroline Joe

Braselton has added roughly 10,000 residents and 4,000 homes since 2000 and has reduced minimum lot sizes to accommodate more development.

But when national homebuilders came in with designs that maximized unit count while creating congestion and long-term maintenance headaches, city officials pushed back.

One corridor already carries 38,000 vehicles a day. If the city doesn’t account for that, taxpayers will pay for it later.

Sandy Springs recently required certain new developments to complete water supply and fire flow studies before receiving permits. Before approving more density, officials need to know the capacity is there to support it.

Call that red tape if you want. To me, it’s local officials looking out for both current and future residents.

Design standards and lot size requirements are often framed as arbitrary costs. But those standards reflect real constraints, like road capacity, school capacity, water and sewer infrastructure and long-term neighborhood viability, that don’t disappear when you remove the rule requiring developers to account for them.

When the problem isn’t zoning

South Fulton is actively updating its land use map and expanding housing options. But even where zoning allows more density, some areas simply lack the roads, sewer lines and utilities to support it.

Changing what’s permitted on paper doesn’t build the roads and sewer lines that new housing needs.

Sandy Springs rezoned its entire city about five years ago and commissioned economic studies to show property owners the upside of redevelopment. The city did what critics say cities should do. And yet for-sale housing there starts close to $1 million.

The city made the effort, but the market didn’t follow. Investors favor steady returns in a way that for-sale housing doesn’t. No city ordinance caused that, nor can fix it.

The state is already showing what works

There are certainly zoning and land use regulations that need updating and permitting processes that can be improved, but it’s worth recognizing what already works.

Gov. Brian Kemp’s Rural Workforce Housing Initiative has provided more than $90 million to help cities build the water, sewer and road infrastructure that makes housing possible. Cities like Cairo, Hawkinsville and Waynesboro have used those grants to put hundreds of homes in the pipeline. Infrastructure financing was the challenge, not zoning.

The Georgia Initiative for Community Housing has helped smaller cities across the state become marketable to developers and build the capacity to make deals happen. The Department of Community Affairs and the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority have been steady partners for years, helping cities access housing programs and finance projects they couldn’t otherwise afford.

What works is giving cities the right tools for the specific problems in front of them. If we want to make real progress on housing in Georgia, more of that is the answer, not legislation that second-guesses every local land use decision in the state.

Larry Hanson is CEO and executive director of the Georgia Municipal Association, which represents all 536 of Georgia’s cities.