EAST POINT IDENTIFIES SLUM AREAS
Homeownership is the most protected physical property in the United States. It takes legal action and due process for any entity to take a home from its owner. However, there are unscrupulous elected officials who will stoop to any level to make it easier for private and corporate investors to take people’s home who have little or no financial means and limited rights under legislation passed by local governments.
This is what is happening in East Point. Mayor and Council is making it easier for investors to take residents’ property by designating the property area as a SLUM! We all know what the common characteristics of a SLUM are. The Georgia Code defines a SLUM for Urban Redevelopment in O.C.GA. 36-61-2 Definitions (18) as:
(18) “Slum area” means an area in which there is a predominance of buildings or improvements, whether residential or nonresidential, which by reason of dilapidation, deterioration, age, or obsolescence; inadequate provision for ventilation, light, air, sanitation, or open spaces; high density of population and overcrowding; existence of conditions which endanger life or property by fire and other causes; or any combination of such factors is conducive to ill health, transmission of disease, infant mortality, juvenile delinquency, or crime and is detrimental to the public health, safety, morals, or welfare. “Slum area” also means an area which by reason of the presence of a substantial number of slum, deteriorated, or deteriorating structures; predominance of defective or inadequate street layout; faulty lot layout in relation to size, adequacy, accessibility, or usefulness; unsanitary or unsafe conditions; deterioration of site or other improvements; tax or special assessment delinquency exceeding the fair value of the land; the existence of conditions which endanger life or property by fire and other causes; by having development impaired by airport or transportation noise or by other environmental hazards; or any combination of such factors substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of a municipality or county, retards the provisions of housing accommodations, or constitutes an economic or social liability and is a menace to the public health, safety, morals, or welfare in its present condition and use.
In order for Mayor and Council to designate a “residential or nonresidential” areas as a SLUM, Georgia Code in Chapter 61-Urban Redevelop O.C.G.A. -Legislative findings and declaration of necessity, states:
- It is found and declared that there exist in municipalities and counties of this state slum areas, as defined in paragraph (18) of Code Section 36-61-2, which constitute a serious and growing menace, injurious to the public health, safety, morals, and welfare of the residents of this state; that the existence of such areas contributes substantially and increasingly to the spread of disease and crime, constitutes an economic and social liability, substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of municipalities and counties, retards the provision of housing accommodations, aggravates traffic problems, and substantially impairs or arrests the elimination of traffic hazards and the improvement of traffic facilities; and that the prevention and elimination of slums is a matter of state policy and state concern, in order that the state and its municipalities and counties shall not continue to be endangered by areas which are local centers of disease, promote juvenile delinquency, and, while contributing little to the tax income of the state and its municipalities and counties, consume an excessive proportion of its revenues because of the extra services required for police, fire, accident, hospitalization, and other forms of public protection, services, and facilities.
Mayor and Council has not provided the residents of East Point with any concrete physical evidence stated in the Legislative findings and declaration of necessity to justify designating these four areas with specific boundaries as SLUMS:
- River Park Community
- East Washington Community
- Central Park Community
- DeLowe Connally Estate Community
Mayor and Council appear not to have given much thought to what they were supposed to provide to the residents in designating these areas as SLUMS other than areas that can be redeveloped/reclaimed/rehabilitated. Under the Urban Redevelopment provisions, they could have created Redevelopment Areas with Redevelopment Plans to address the problems that need to be resolved.
This Mayor and Council is not the first to adopt Resolutions creating Urban Redevelopment Areas in East Point: According to Open Records Requests:
- Mayor Patsy Jo Hilliard’s administration created and adopted the Camp Creek I-285 Redevelopment Area on December 17, 2001.
- Mayor Joe Macon’s administration created an Urban Redevelopment Area with the boundaries established for The East Point Corridors Redevelopment Area on December 6, 2006.
- Mayor Earnestine D. Pittman’s administration created the East Point Corridors Urban Redevelopment Area with boundaries of the area as being in the vicinity of Cleveland Avenue, Main Street and Washington Road and coterminous with the boundaries established for The East Point Corridors Redevelopment Area adopted by Mayor Macon’s administration ; and The Camp Creek I-285 Urban Redevelopment Area on May 3, 2010, adopted by Mayor Hilliard’s administration.
However, this Mayor and Council is the first to create and adopt Urban Redevelopment Areas that include large residential areas and designate them as SLUMS These areas are located in the:
- River Park Community
- East Washington Community
- Central Park Community
- DeLowe Connally Estate Community
The previous three administrations, prior to 2014, created and adopted Urban Redevelopment Areas only identified Areas with Commercial or Commercial Residential Zoning along the City’s main corridors. These Corridors were identified, not because they were considered SLUM areas but because of slow redevelopment and renovations taking place. They were not crime infested; littered with graffiti; boarded up windows and doors; transient homelessness occupants; plagued with drugs or prostitution; and terrible street conditions. These Areas lacked the characteristics of SLUMS.
To address problems in the Redevelopment Areas, the three administrations listed above collectively over thirteen years:
- Passed new zoning laws (No spot zoning) ( Laws for infill housing; and increased the amenities that new apartments had to provide for their residents)
- Created two TADs (Camp Creek and Downtown, resulted in the Market Place and Walmart)
- Developed Private-Public Partnerships to build Gateway Senior Citizens Home; East Point Public Housing replaced the Stanton Road Public Housing Complex with a new complex and closed the Nelms House; Mallalieu Housing Complex; Laurel Ridge Apartments/Condos and single residential housing)
- Created the Fifty Worst Properties under the supervision of the Fire Department to hold absentee landlords, neglectful residents, and derelict apartment owners accountable for code violations that were detrimental to the community and City. (Washington Arms Apartments on Washington Road, demolition of old abandon apartments in Ward B in the Martin Street area; demolition of abandoned derelict and unsafe homes throughout the City, provided list of properties for investors to buy and improve, etc.)
- Began a street resurfacing program before the Mayors in South Fulton and North Fulton petitioned Fulton County in 2013 to create a Transportation SPLOST via the Georgia State Legislature that was placed on the ballot in 2015.
- Engaged the BIDA Board through MOUs to buy as many of the properties in the Downtown area for redevelopment by investors in a Public-Private Partnership.
- Purchased the Customer Care Building through BIDA
There are many things that Mayor and Council can do with proper expert help from Urban Planners and residential input without causing the dangerous and negative repercussions to residents who have homes on the designated streets or within three miles of the designated streets in the SLUM areas such as:
- Reduction in property values without any decrease in property taxes
- Increase in mortgage interest rates
- Decreased ability of residents to get loans for home improvements
- Increased investors becoming long term corporate landlords
- Accelerated gentrification and loss of homes by seniors, and moderate wage earners
- Eminent domain would decrease the amount of money that a homeowner could gain and create problems for relocating in a safe affordable housing situation.
- Increase homeowners’ insurance rates
- Reduce the City’s bond rating
- Since Hamilton E. Holmes Elementary School and Paul D. West Middle School are less than a mile and a half from the Connally and DeLowe intersection, parents with children are not likely to buy homes in the area.
Mayor and Council need to repeal the Resolution designating these areas as SLUMS so that they can create a Board of Commissioners with themselves as the sole members. Their actions have already demonstrated that they are not qualified to be Urban Planners. Their only reason for their actions is to do what they have been unable to get the BIDA Boar; and Planning and Zoning Board to bend to their whims of having direct interviews and intervention with investors.
This Mayor and Council MUST BE STOPPED from further harming our homes, schools and City!
I have provided nine exhibits to support the State’s requirements in designating residential and nonresidential property as SLUMS. I have also included copies of signed Resolutions and inference of prior Resolutions by the current and previous Mayors from documents received through Open Records Requests. CLICK HERE: Urban Redevelop-ment Docs.
