Developer Tom Williams speaking to Cleveland City Council about new home development.
(Cleveland)- The Cleveland City Council has given their approval for a zoning change that will allow a developer to move forward with his plans to place 14 small 800-square-foot homes on 1.2 acres on West Jarrard Street in the city.
The council held a public hearing on the issue Monday night to rezone 1.2 acres on West Jarrard Street from B-2 Business Highway Commercial to PUD, Plan Unit Development. During that hearing the council heard from developer Tom Williams about his plans and also heard from a resident who lives on Jarrard Street. Andrea Evans, Evans told the council she agreed with Mr. Williams about it being nice having the homes located close to the downtown square, but she expressed concerns about traffic flow due to the small street in that neighborhood.
The council after discussion approved the zoning change along with certain stipulations placed on it by the zoning board and Councilman CJ McDonald also proposed that the project must have started within 18 months or it will revert back to B-2 Highway Commercial from the PUD requested zoning.
The council gave its approval to Mcdonald’s proposal and the zoning change.
Williams said after the meeting that, “this is very good news” and as far as meeting the 18-month time frame imposed by the council he said he had no problem with it.
“ We’re gonna probably clear the lot next week and get it looking as good as we can before the fall festival because we would like to direct some people down as they come to see our one bedroom unit and we would like to get started sometime Spring or early summer,” commented Williams.
There will be a one-bedroom prototype of the homes on display during AgriFest at Freedom Park on September 28. The homes will be built offside in White County and moved to Jarrard Street for setup.
Williams said they will be working on a long list of administrative items that need to be completed to move this project forward.
Link to video vision of the Fuller Living Jarrard Street Project
THE TRANSITION TO HIGH-DENSITY URBAN DEVELOPMENT MARCHES ON. Under the current joint venture (federal /state) development program, the TAXPAYER subsidizes the building of low cost housing projects and urban sprawl. 2. The TAXPAYER provides the down-payment for the low income buyer. 3. The TAXPAYER makes the loan or guarantees the loan. 4. When or if the low income buyer defaults, the TAXPAYER gets to pay the defaulted and guaranteed loan. This development program used to be called the American Dream Program. Now it is called the Georgia Dream Program. In any case, the government does not have funds to finance the urban sprawl program so they have to BORROW the funds into circulation and use, thereby inflating the economy and distorting property values.
There’s also another component to this development: green space.
Fourteen units on 1.2 acres leaves no real green space for dog walking, children to play, grilling out, etc.
Once you have enough high density housing, you will find that the City will now be required to start building parks and playgrounds.
The taxpayers in general will be left paying for those costs.
There is already a park/play ground in the city.
One park will not be enough with urbanization. You then will have maintenance, upkeep, insurance, and other administrative costs in perpetuity.