Last week, the Athens-Clarke Mayor and Commission voted to kick the can down the road and put off the designation of Buena Vista Heights as an historic district. This neighborhood of quaint century-old cottages and quiet shady streets is deserving of such designation, not only for reasons pertaining to aesthetic preference and nostalgic character, but to provide some measure of protection for and preservation of affordable housing in this in-town neighborhood of traditionally modest means. Like other in-town neighborhoods, Buena Vista is undergoing massive development pressure as large-scale, high-end construction gains ground every day before our very eyes.

The Buena Vista neighborhood has long provided safe, quaint and affordable housing for a diverse population of Athenians, including many artists and musicians already adversely affected by the rising housing costs of recent years, as well as the “no-more-than-two-unrelated” housing ordinance established over a decade ago. The increasing dearth of affordable housing in in-town neighborhoods has prompted many once-local artists and musicians to settle in other cities, an invaluable loss to the overall culture and identity of our entire community.

Historic designation works. Thirty years ago it saved Boulevard and Cobbham from student apartments and medical offices. It has saved Milledge Avenue neighborhoods from more fraternity houses and student apartments. It has put a stop to the high-end redevelopment of the also modest Reese/Hancock neighborhood. Arguments against historic designation are patently baseless, as the Historic Preservation Commission has become increasingly lenient in permitting modern designs and large-scale additions; 94 percent of all projects are approved.

Facts and precedent prove that the hysteria among the realtors, developers and rental property owners who have voiced opposition to Buena Vista’s historic designation is based primarily on misinformation and unfounded fear. They're also motivated by a financial interest in demolishing existing homes, building new, larger ones in their places, and renovating and adding onto homes in what has always been a modest, working-class neighborhood. While high-end developers and architects cry out that historic guidelines stifle creativity in new construction, one would think that the clients who are so eager to pay top dollar to construct new houses in such a modest neighborhood would be willing to sacrifice a few hundred square feet and play by the rules so their homes don’t loom over their neighbors like a flamingo in a henhouse. 

The ACC Department of Human and Economic Development’s recent Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice Report chronicles the lack of affordable housing in Athens, where the median household income is approximately $34,000, more than one-third of families live in poverty, and the median home price is under $120,000. Incidentally, CNN just last week named Athens one of the 25 Best Places to Retire. The write-up touts “great health care, live music, fine cuisine—minus the sprawl and expensive housing. It states that the median home price is $142,000—up 20 percent from the figure stated just a few months ago in the HED report—an indication of a rapidly growing gap between wages and housing costs that threatens to drive away long-term residents as well as newcomers. Less laudatory, The New York Times also recently gave Athens a shout-out as the municipality with the greatest income gap in the nation. The high-end infill happening in our in-town neighborhoods offers a three-dimensional side-by-side illustration of this social disparity.

With land values in Buena Vista now assessed at approximately $80,000 a lot and small cottages marketed for upwards of $225,000, many traditional residents of this neighborhood can no longer afford homes there. Recent trends toward lot division and infill construction of large-scale homes valued at well over $400,000 only contribute to increased market inflation. Such a trend has happened before in the Buena Vista neighborhood. Who could miss the square block full of 3,000-plus square-foot McMansions between Park and Satula avenues that popped up a decade ago at the dawn of the housing bubble?  As the economy turns a corner and the University of Georgia Health Sciences Campus puts more development pressure on the neighborhood, more McMansions are on the way.

Throughout Athens’ in-town neighborhoods, a carousel shell game appears to be at play in which investment properties are frequently changing hands at increasingly inflated prices. This artificial inflation also drives up the value of surrounding homes, placing a greater tax burden on homeowners who bought a modest home because it's what they could afford. It makes swaths of what should be affordable neighborhoods inaccessible to the vast majority of residents. Traditional residents become displaced as values increase. Rents go up, property owners cash in in the face of rising taxes, and families who have built lives in in-town neighborhoods  where they can easily access jobs and services are forced to the outskirts of town.

While speculative practices can be chalked up to business as usual in the real estate business, such high-end redevelopment amounts to a subtle form of social engineering that counters every recommendation of the HED’s Fair Housing Report, including “to increase affordable rental and homeownership located near major employers and supportive services in the County." Not only are traditional residents negatively affected, but the entire local economy suffers. When a greater portion of one’s income is spent on housing costs, there is little left over to spend on day-to-day goods and services in the community at large.

With the welcome arrival of the Health Sciences Campus, promised medical development along Prince Avenue, Athens’ regular appearances on highly publicized “Best Places” lists and recognition of Chase Street Elementary as a National Blue Ribbon School, Buena Vista and other in-town neighborhoods are becoming more attractive to those with greater means, yet local market manipulation threatens to leave those in the middle and below with fewer options to achieve Athens’ version of the American Dream.