Augusta’s Laney Walker/Bethlehem Revitalization Initiative … · 2015-05-05 · NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release: Day, January 9, 2013 Contacts: Roberta Rewers, APA, 312.786.6395;

NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release: Day, January 9, 2013 Contacts: Roberta Rewers, APA, 312.786.6395; [email protected]

Augusta’s Laney Walker/Bethlehem Revitalization Initiative Receives Prestigious National Planning Award

WASHINGTON DC – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the American Planning Association (APA) have recognized the Laney Walker/Bethlehem Revitalization Initiative (Laney Walker/Bethlehem) in Augusta, Georgia, as one of two recipients of the 2013 HUD Secretary's Opportunity and Empowerment Award. Laney Walker/Bethlehem is employing a multi‐phased approach to guide redevelopment, growth and sustainability in a historic community.

The HUD Secretary’s Award, presented jointly by HUD and APA, recognizes a plan, program, or project that has been in effect for at least three years and improves the quality of life for low‐ and moderate‐income community residents. Emphasis is placed on how creative housing, economic development, and private investments have been used in or with a comprehensive community development plan to empower a community.

“The impetus for and success of this project is a direct result of a few brave community leaders who actively engaged all members of the community and insisted that inner‐city quality of life issues be addressed,” said Ann C. Bagley, FAICP, 2013 APA Awards Jury chair. “It is not surprising that the Harvard Student Journal on Real Estate cited it as a potential ‘game‐changing’ model for public‐private partnerships.”

“This initiative continues to become a model for the rest of the nation to follow and we should all be very proud of it,” commented Mayor Deke Copenhaver. “I would like to thank Chester Wheeler and his staff at the Augusta Housing and Community Development Department, APD Urban Planning and Management, and Melaver McIntosh as their groundbreaking initiative continues to evoke a sense of civic pride throughout our community”

The HUD/APA award is especially gratifying for Augusta’s housing and community development director, Chester A. Wheeler, III, whose agency serves as master developer for the revitalization. “Our careful planning efforts laid the groundwork for the renaissance now taking place in Laney Walker/Bethlehem. To be recognized by two leading organizations that are so integral to improving our urban neighborhoods is truly an honor.”

The Laney Walker/Bethlehem Revitalization Initiative, involving two historic African American neighborhoods in Augusta, Georgia, is a pioneering effort to reverse decades of blight and disinvestment and regenerate nearly 1,100 acres of Augusta’s urban center. This long‐term project draws upon local bond financing (established in 2008) supplemented with HUD NSP, HOME and CDBG funds as seed capital to catalyze mixed‐income/mixed‐tenure housing and mixed‐use, sustainable development.

This large scale (1,100 acres), long term (50 years) revitalization effort is anticipated to provide

housing for approximately 10,000 residents for a total investment of $2.8 billion, create 38,000 new jobs, and result in total investment into the local economy of $4.5 billion over the next five decades. All aspects of this comprehensive effort could be adapted by other communities, including layered financing, policy framework, land assembly strategies, green strategies, development and homebuyer incentives, risk mitigation and collaborative community programs. The project also offers lessons for meeting physical challenges (land acquisition, zoning, nuisance buildings, infrastructure); financial constraints (lender financing for mortgages, construction loans, appraisals, etc.); and managing community awareness, engagement, and acceptance of change (revitalization vs. gentrification).

The 2013 HUD Secretary's Opportunity and Empowerment Awards will be presented at a special awards luncheon held during APA’s National Planning Conference in Chicago on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. In addition to Laney Walker/Bethlehem, the Owe’neh Bupingeh’s Preservation Plan in Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico, was also recognized with the HUD Secretary’s Award. Both award recipients will be profiled in Planning magazine, APA’s flagship publication.

To view all of the APA 2013 National Planning Excellence and Achievement Award recipients, visit www.planning.org/awards/2013. APA’s national awards program, the profession’s highest honor, is a proud tradition established more than 50 years ago to recognize outstanding community plans, planning programs and initiatives, public education efforts, and individuals for their leadership on planning issues. The American Planning Association is an independent, not‐for‐profit educational organization that provides leadership in the development of vital communities. APA and its professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners, are dedicated to advancing the art, science and profession of good planning ‐‐ physical, economic and social ‐‐ so as to create communities that offer better choices for where and how people work and live. Members of APA help create communities of lasting value and encourage civic leaders, business interests and citizens to play a meaningful role in creating communities that enrich people's lives. APA has offices in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Ill. For more information, visit www.planning.org.

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When Ross King, executive director of the Association County Com-missioners of Georgia (ACCG), began perusing submissions

from across the state for the 2012 Georgia Counties of Excellence Awards, he found county officials were most interested in

saving taxpayers money, which they have been doing on purpose and sometimes even accidentally. The awards program, in its

seventh year, is carried out in partnership with Georgia Trend.

“We had more entries in the technology category than at any time in the program’s history,” King says.

In Clayton County, online fire department training programs not only cut man-hours for trainers, but also reduced fuel consumption

by 60 percent, King says. A public safety award went to Camden County for a program that makes defibrillators available for public

use.

All of the programs recognized by the ACCG panel of judges this year had a common denominator: They can be easily duplicated

in other counties. “One of the things we focused on with the establishment of the program seven years ago was transferability, the

capacity to be replicated across the state,” King says.

“Another was a simple application process, making sure it wasn’t so onerous as to force counties to seek outside assistance.”

The applications were evaluated by a panel of outside experts. Here are the winners’ stories.

A once proud and prosperous African-American neighborhood in decline, characterized by weed-filled lots, empty buildings and

population loss followed by a gentrification process in which the longtime residents were displaced by redevelopment. That could

have been the story of Augusta’s Laney Walker/Bethlehem neighborhoods, except no one has been displaced and the rebirth of

the historic community is being financed in a novel way.

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“We did fund the project in an innovative way,” says Deke Copenhaver, mayor of Augusta-Richmond County’s consolidated

government. “We increased our hotel/motel room fees by one dollar a night and used those monies to invest in the neighborhood,

which will be $37.5 million over a 50-year time frame.” Planning on the project began in 2008. Restored houses are now being

sold and rental properties leased, but no one is saying the final product will be in place quickly.

“The majority of the people who have bought here have some ties to the neighborhood and were thrilled to see what was going on

and have moved back,” says Chester Wheeler, director of the Augusta Housing and Community Develop-ment Department, the

managing agency of the Laney Walker/Bethlehem redevelopment project.

The project is filled with historic homes spanning a period from the mid-1800s to the 1930s, and the neighborhood’s location is a

strong selling point, says Wheeler. “We are in close proximity to Georgia Health Sciences University, what used to be known as

Georgia Medical College, and you’ve got seven different medical institutions around [the neighborhood]. That’s 14,000 people that

work in that medical environment very close to Laney Walker/Bethlehem,” he says.

Copenhaver and Wheeler both believe that residential growth will be followed by commercial and retail development. The master

plan for Laney Walker/Bethlehem and the early restoration work have been hailed by urban planners, historic preservationists and

academics.

“The project won the [2011] Georgia Planning Associa-tion’s Outstanding Plan Implementation Award and has been recognized by

Harvard University’s student magazine as a potential game-changer nationally in community redevelopment,” Copenhaver says.

Wheeler estimates about $1 million worth of houses have been sold as interest in the project continues to rise. “We sold all of the

first set of houses we built,” he says. “We believe we can create a live/work environment, and we are doing that close by. One

gentleman bought a house there and now lives four to five blocks from where he works.”

The final product includes plans to make the neighborhood a mixed-income community. “We wanted to make sure houses were

selling in the neighborhood, but we also have done some rental units and duplexes because we felt like it was important to make

sure that people who wanted to stay in the neighborhood are able to do so,” Copenhaver says. “To the best of my knowledge we

have not displaced anybody.” Home ownership in the neighborhood will produce more taxes for Augusta-Richmond County, says

the mayor.

“And I believe you will see commercial activity start to come in and crime to dissipate,” he says. “Making that community healthier

makes our whole community healthier.”

For its plans to rehabilitate a once-vibrant historic neighborhood, Augusta-Richmond County was recognized by the ACCG judging

panel as the recipient of the 2012 County of Excellence Award in the category of Community Plan-ning/Visioning. – EL

In coastal Camden County, a unique public safety program was born in tragedy when 15-year-old baseball player Andrew Cohn

died of sudden cardiac arrest during a game in 2010. The community grieved for the young man’s family, then went to work

honoring their wishes that steps be taken to see that a similar incident never occurs again.

Stuart Sullivan, one of Andrew’s coaches, is a firefighter and EMT at the Camden County Fire Rescue Department. It was he who

took the lead in developing what is known as the Andrew Cohn Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) Pro-ject, a program that

issues the life-saving devices to church groups, sports teams and just about any group staging an event that could draw crowds.

“It’s our ‘Borrow An AED’ program,” Sullivan says. “When Andrew died we thought there ought to be a way to make AEDs more

readily available to the community.”

With local funds tight in a down economy, funding could have been a challenge. That’s when sandwich chain Fire-house Subs in

Jacksonville, Fla., stepped in and came up with about $7,000 for the purchase of five AEDs. “And that included all the associated

equipment,” Sullivan says.

“We distributed our first AED in November 2010 for a church event. We believe we have protected more than 25,000 people since

then.” The defibrillators can be checked out by anyone with a driver’s license and a CPR certificate, but Sullivan says those

documents are more of a formality than anything. “AEDs are so simple to use now that as soon as you turn it on or open it up, it

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underWRITING | vol 0I 49

WILLIAM SANKEYHARVARD UNIVERSITYGRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN MUP, 2011

After experiencing decades of disinvest-ment and deterioration, the city of Au-gusta, Georgia is piloting a new, largely locally-funded program through which the municipality will oversee the entire planning and redevelopment process in two distressed neighborhoods. The city of Augusta intends to attract private in-vestment by eliminating assembly and entitlement risk and issuing revenue bonds to fund initial phases of the revi-talization.

Municipal Government: The Next Master

Developer?

AuGuSTA CITy LEADERS…AND MASTER DEVELOPERS

For the past two decades, the Bethle-hem and Laney-Walker neighborhoods of Augusta, Georgia have exemplified the downfall of once-vibrant central cit-ies. In Bethlehem, the central city has languished with 70% of the total build-ing stock in a state of deterioration; Laney-Walker does not lag far behind at a figure closer to 30%, which is rapidly increasing. Both neighborhoods were victims of a societal transformation that wrecked many inner-city communities in the second half of the 20th century. Many middle- and upper-class residents moved outward to the suburbs, leaving two communities that struggled to cope. The exodus seems to have been spurred by the transformation of workforce pat-terns as employers left nearby down-town Augusta to set up along interstate highways at the urban edge. The resul-tant landscape festered in a state of per-petual disinvestment as private market developers and investors turned away from these central-city neighborhoods deemed too risky, and many of the pub-lic programs failed to keep pace with the rapid rate of decline. The situation was emblematic of inner cities’ difficulties

Municipal Government: The Next Master Developer?

HOUSING POLICY

50 THE HARVARD STUDENT JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE

around the country. Augusta, however, now promises to transform Bethlehem and Laney-Walker based on a local, in-tegrated method of urban revitalization, which the city’s housing department has called a ‘one-of-a-kind’ approach.

In the past, cities embarking upon large-scale urban revitalization and real estate development projects have relied heavily on federal funding. The arguably successful federal housing programs of the last half-century -- Model Cities, Hope VI, and Community Development Block Grants -- were subject to both federal funding and control. In today’s landscape, projects have gradually shifted toward greater local control and funding sources. Starting with President Clinton’s speech circa 1995, where he famously declared, “The days of made-in-Washington solutions, dictated by a distant government are gone. Indeed, solutions must be locally crafted, and implemented by entrepreneurial public

entities, private actors, and a growing network of community-based firms and organizations.”1

In Augusta, Georgia city leaders have taken Clinton’s statement to heart as they have embarked upon one of the most ambitious locally-funded urban neigh-borhood revitalization plans in memory. It consists of novel funding streams and project organization that sets it apart from past urban “renewals.”

In an interview, Hawthorne Welcher, Jr., the Assistant Director of Housing in Augusta, outlined an integral shift in how the urban redevelopment process will proceed. Traditionally, the role of the city in real estate development has been one of regulation, zoning, approv-als, and typically master planning.2 But seldom has the city played the role of master developer, too. In an attempt to slow growing sprawl and regenerate the decaying urban neighborhoods of Beth-

Exhibit 1 - Augusta, Georgia Context Map


lehem and Laney-Walker, Augusta city leaders decided to do just that. WHy uRBAN REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT

LAGS GROWTH ON THE FRINGES

Much of the recent growth and invest-ment in Augusta has occurred outside of the central city. Numerous theories and explanations seek to account for the prevalence of growing sprawl in Ameri-can metropolises during the past two centuries. Some opine that an American cultural preference for the suburban aesthetic and lifestyle has driven real estate developers to concentrate on the fringes of cities in order to meet market demands. A more likely motivation may be that real estate developers and the primary consumers of real estate (busi-nesses, homeowners, and renters) have viewed suburban greenfield develop-ment as a safer investment. In the con-text of the market economy, investors tend to base decisions on the investment vehicle’s return on investment (bottom-line IRR) and the risk associated with a particular type of investment. Therefore, capital has a propensity to follow less risky investment paths if commensurate return performance can be achieved. Large-scale real estate development de-mands tremendous capital investments. The allocation of this capital among competing investment vehicles is as criti-cal in determining how growth is distrib-uted across metropolitan areas as other factors that govern where development occurs.

A report by the U.S. Census Bureau tracking residential development ob-served that although almost half of resi-dential development firms were small (1-5 housing starts annually), small firms only accounted for approximately 10% of total housing starts.3 Thus, more than 90% of residential real estate develop-ment has been initiated by larger firms. As a consequence, these larger firms tend to control equally large develop-

ment projects that require substantial infusions of capital. As financial and capital markets in the United States have matured, allowing capital to be more readily allocated among development projects, the rate of suburban expansion has swelled. The census data compiled in 2000 indicated that suburban annual growth rates (1.3%) had outpaced ur-ban annual growth rates (0.8%) in the previous decade. Since 2000, Columbia County, the suburban county outside of Augusta, saw its population swell by 29%. Augusta’s Richmond County (which functions as a consolidated city-county government for Augusta and non-incorporated parts of Richmond County) remains nearly unchanged.4 This differ-ential can be at least partially attributed to the inherent riskiness of the urban real estate development process (relative to the development process on metropoli-tan edges), which increases both time to completion and project costs. In urban environments, the challenge includes land acquisition and assembly of small parcels, the presence of countless watch-dog organizations with competing mis-sions, and sometimes a more protracted process for obtaining building permits. All of these factors make edge of city greenfield development more attractive.

Real estate development has tradition-ally consisted of master developers (also referred to as land developers)—who prepare sites for development by provid-ing the necessary infrastructure, site im-provements, and obtaining entitlements. Building developers profit by investing in and overseeing the construction of build-ings on sites that have already been prepared for development by land de-velopers. In suburban areas, the master developer of a large-scale project incurs the risks involved in guiding a proposal through the approvals process.5 The building developer’s greatest remaining obstacle is whether or not the market will find his or her product desirable. Since the master developer has predetermined


HOUSING POLICY


the outcome and uses for adjacent prop-erties, the building developer has less risk of external factors negatively affect-ing the value of his or her investment.6

On the other hand, in urban environ-ments where large greenfield sites are rarer, there are many more potential pit-falls. Urban greyfield development, infill sites, or rehabilitation of existing build-ing stock projects typically require some form of site clearance and remediation. Many times the entitlement process is more complex, increasing the overall timeline of a project from initial concept to completion. Moreover, the building developer has much less control over adjacent land use that could potentially undermine the value of investment, since there is no master developer. Financiers (whether they be lending institutions, pension funds, or private equity inves-tors) weigh these disparities in risk and potential investment yield when deter-mining where to allocate capital.7 Given the correspondingly greater risks of ur-ban redvelopment, how can central cities expect to turn the tide against sprawl?

THE CITy AS MASTER DEVELOPER AND FINANCIER

Since the debacle of 1960s-style ur-ban renewal, which in most cases exac-erbated the ongoing center city exodus, there has been less impetus among city leaders to consider urban revitalization and development through neighbor-hood clearance. Instead, most projects and programs of more recent vintage, like the Community Development Block Grants Program, signed into law under President Ford, have been piecemeal at-tempts at improving urban housing and environments. The gradual evolution of public-private development (which has become increasingly prevalent) has cul-minated in a variety of collaborative ap-proaches between public and private actors in real estate development with respect to the provision of land, financ-

ing, management of the project, and/or labor. Yet a new model for public-private real estate development in Augusta, Georgia may be game-changing.

In the ground-breaking text Suburban Nation, the authors observe the inherent inequalities in the development process that make central city neighborhoods less amenable to real estate develop-ment relative to suburban development. One of the authors’ proposed solutions was that the city government itself should act as a master land developer, thereby minimizing the risks for building develop-ers and stimulating the urban real estate market when other investors may have deemed it too risky initially. Hawthorne Welcher, Jr., the Assistant Director of Housing, in Augusta concurred in outlin-ing the approach being pursued by his city. Speaking of the plan to redevelop several hundred acres of land in the de-teriorated Bethlehem and Laney-Walker neighborhoods, Hawthorne explained, “The city is the master developer… Now, we aren’t just funding the project [as the city has typically done with non-profits and CDCs], but we are involved in plan-ning the whole redevelopment process from land acquisition to the time a par-ticular house becomes occupied.”8

In the past, many populous American cities, like New York and Boston, have relied on quasi-governmental develop-ment agencies (e.g., the New York Eco-nomic Development Corporation or the Boston Redevelopment Authority) to serve as the city’s primary initiators of major public-led real estate development projects, but this model has not served medium and smaller cities that have less political capital needed to gain passage of special state charters to sanction these institutions. Nevertheless, Augusta, the second-largest metropolitan area in the state of Georgia, with a population of more than half a million residents, has initiated a strategy that involves collabo-ration between the city’s Housing and


Community Development Department and private urban planning and real estate service consultants (under the ae-gis of Asset Property Disposition, Inc.). Together, this team will oversee substan-tial planning, land acquisition, site clear-ance, community outreach, and land development. Jesse Wiles, the president of APD, Inc., summarized the city’s role. “Our major contribution to the deal is land.”9

In effect, this partnership is in many ways analogous to the role of the typi-cal greenfield master developer in the suburbs. But in a sense, the stakes are greater because the residential, low-density Bethlehem and Laney-Walker neighborhoods, in which the massive project is being implemented, suffer from a physical environment in which nearly 70% and 30%, respectively, of building stock was in poor, dilapidated, or deteriorated condition, in 2008.10

In December 2009, a county commis-sion political impasse concerning the approval of one million dollars toward the project11 that will eventually encom-pass 1,020 acres and nearly 3,500 par-cels12 was finally cleared. Over the next half-century, the project will be funded by a Special Local Option Sales Tax, a county-wide tax surcharge on hotels and lodging. The total of $37.5 million will be leveraged with bonds and private development investment to transform the two neighborhoods over time.13 Jesse Wiles of APD, Inc. asserts that the fore-most goal of these funds is to mitigate risks that would otherwise deter private investment.14

Besides the fact the city is acting as master developer, this project is also unique in that its major source of fund-ing originates from local revenue, not federal funds. Unlike federal funds for large-scale neighborhood revitalization that were most common in the years pre-ceding the Nixon administration, the use

of a special sales tax will provide more long-term funding stability, a key to as-suring potential real estate development investors that any investment they make will be bolstered by a consistent flow of local public investment for the next half-century.15 Hotel and lodging taxes like this one have commonly been used to fund convention centers and other large public projects. The revenue streams thus are more predictable over time than federal fund allocations. As the purchasing power of allocated revenue diminishes over time, it is expected that a more robust private market and im-proved investment climate will offset the public development funds. Moreover, as the project gains momentum, this guar-antee of constant public investment will placate financiers and spur a greater sustained private market reaction than the private market response to one-time and sporadic infusions of federal funds for neighborhood renewal in previous decades. Such predictability reduces risks and improves investment outlook.

The overall vision for the development area includes multiple housing types and land uses. The more prominent uses are single-family detached, for-sale units (with a mix of market-rate and af-fordable units). There are also plans for multi-family rental units and small neighborhood retail centers. According to Mr. Wiles, the for-sale units initially will be heavily subsidized, with govern-ment funding per housing unit tapering off over time as more units are sold. This graduated subsidy should serve to incentivize the pioneering homebuyers and tenants at the beginning of the multi-year development efforts.16 Development of a 22-parcel residential block is already underway in the Laney-Walker neighborhood, and the first houses are expected to be completed in the first months of 2010. Acquisition of land also is underway for a mixed-use development near the boundaries of the


HOUSING POLICY


Bethlehem and Laney-Walker neighbor-hoods, with schematic design work ex-pected to begin by the summer of 2010. In 2008, the Asset Property Disposition, the project management team working in the interest of the city, brought a number

of private building developers onto the project who will be paired with land and potential development projects as prop-erty is acquired and prepared for new development. Additionally, like a subur-ban subdivision developer, a marketing firm has been brought on board to pro-mote the project as a cohesive develop-ment vision, not a patchwork of random investments.

It is too early to deem the redevelop-ment efforts in Augusta, Georgia a suc-cess. Nonetheless, the novel approach to large-scale neighborhood revitalization, in which the local municipality serves as master developer and supplies much of the initial development capital for land acquisition and subsidy of building costs, promises to change the way real estate development is implemented as local governments retain more responsibility for initiating redevelopment of their own city neighborhoods without significant federal assistance.

ENDNOTES

1. Barry Cullingworth and Roger Craves, Planning in the USA: Policies, Issues, and Processes, 3rd Edition (New York: Rout-ledge, 2009)

2. Hawthorne Welcher Jr., interview by Wil-liam Sankey. Interview on the Laney-Walker and Bethelhem Redevelopment Plan in Au-gusta, January 21, 2010.

3. Barry A. Rappapport, and Tamara Cole, “Housing Starts Statistics--A Profile of the Homebuilding Industry,” in 1997 Economic Census: Construction Sector Special Study, Manufacturing and Construction Division, U.S. Census Bureau, July 2000.

4. American Community Survey. American Community Survey Office. U.S. Census Bu-reau, February 2010.

5. Richard Peiser and Anne Frej, Professional Real Estate Development: The ULI Guide to the Business. 2nd Edition (Washington, D.C.: The Urban Land Institute, 2003)

6. Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, Surburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (New York: North Point Press, 2000)

7. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) signed into law in 1977, and strengthened under President Clinton, sought to deter fi-nancial institutions from refusing to invest in urban areas they deemed too risky (a pro-cess commonly referred to as “redlining”). It obligated these institutions to reinvest a cer-tain percentage of the funds acquired from a community back into home loans, business credit, and other investments in that same community. The essay hails the CRA as the driving force behind the nascent return of growth to many inner cities since the 1990s.

8. Welcher, interview by author.

9. Johnny Edwards. “Inner-city Initiative Gets Boost,” Augusta Chronicle (December 13, 2009)

Exhibit 2 - Model House


10. Jesse Wiles. Laney Walker/Bethlehem Neighborhood Plan. Urban Planning Docu-ment, Augusta, GA: Asset Property Disposi-tion, Inc., 2008. 11. Edwards.

12. Wiles.

13. Welcher, interview by author.

14. Edwards.

15. Alexander Garvin, The American City: What Works and What Doesn’t, 2nd Edi-tion (New Work: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2002), 154.

16. Edwards.


Wed. Jan. 30 5:47 pm

Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012

By Meg Mirshak

Staff Writer

EMILY ROSE BENNETT/STAFFThe city plans to rehabilitate the S.S. Johnson house, built in the 1920s, in a redevelopment projectaround Twiggs Street that will start with the construction of eight single-family homes.

4 more photos >>

2 comments »

Latest by mycomments 21 weeks 2 days ago

Two historic landmarks could get a much-needed facelift as part of redevelopment efforts inAugusta’s Bethlehem neighborhood.

Chester Wheeler, the executive director of the city’s Housing and Community Developmentdepartment, said the S.S. Johnson and W.S. Hornsby houses on Twiggs Street will remainstanding while several other dilapidated structures on the block are demolished to makeroom for new construction.

Larger revitalization efforts are planned for the surrounding blocks by the department andthe Augusta Housing Authority. The area, to be called Twiggs Circle, is one of six targetedareas for redevelopment efforts in Laney-Walker and Bethlehem.

In 2008, the city began a massive revitalization initiative in the Laney-Walker and Bethlehemneighborhoods to replace blight with planned development. Private investment is sought tohelp leverage a $38.5 million public investment from a special 50-year hotel/motel fee thatgenerates $750,000 a year for the project.

Redevelopment efforts have been under way since October 2009 on Heritage Pine, theproject’s flagship development. Fifteen houses have been built on Pine and 11th streets offLaney-Walker Boulevard.

The housing department will begin the Twiggs Circle development by building eight single-family homes on the south side of the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Twiggs Street. The historichomes will bookend the new houses.

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The Johnson house is owned by the Augusta Land Bank Authority and the Hornsby house byCharlotee Hornsby Watkins, according to city property records.

On the north side of Twiggs Street, the housing authority is waiting on approval from theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop a 4- to 5-acre tract. It iscurrently undergoing environmental cleanup for lead in the soil, Wheeler said.

The first phase includes the construction of 16 duplexes and eight single-family homes forsenior citizens, said Richard Arfman, the housing authority’s director of planning anddevelopment. About a dozen dilapidated structures will be demolished.

The land to begin both projects has been acquired by the Augusta Land Bank Authority.Wheeler said construction on the eight single-family homes by the housing department won’toccur for at least a year, but exterior work on the Johnson house and demolition of rundownstructures will take place sooner.

“At some point in time, I think that’s going to become the premier development in Laney-Walker/Bethlehem,” Wheeler said. “You’ve got such a large tract of land that’s being clearedand redeveloped.”

Wheeler said the city plans to widen Twiggs Street and construct a traffic roundabout at theintersection of Wrightsboro Road andNinth Street starting in January.

The housing authority became interested in the land after they abandoned plans toredevelop the former Immaculate Conception church and school on Laney-WalkerBoulevard. Historic preservation groups pressured the authority to save the buildings, whichwere razed this summer by the owner.

Arfman said there is a continual need for senior housing after the demolition of GilbertManor, a public housing complex that was sold to the Medical College of Georgia in 2008.

“We made a commitment to the area, when we took down Gilbert Manor, that we would lookin the Laney-Walker area to fill the senior housing need,” Arfman said.

Future plans for senior and public housing in the Twiggs Street area will depend on successof the first units, he said.

The master plan for Twiggs Circle includes 137 townhouses, duplexes and single-familyhomes, two traffic roundabouts and neighborhood parks.

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GOVERNMENT More News | | | Editor

By Meg Mirshak

Staff Writer

Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012 9:00 PM

Last updated Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 1:11 AM

Small but mighty – that’s how urban design experts describe “pocket parks” such as the one recently completed

as part of the Laney-Walker neighborhood revitalization project.

A patch of landscaping on Florence Street near recently constructed duplexes and houses is part of an urbanconcept that adds green space to a neighborhood. Two more pocket parks are planned for Heritage Pine, the

development that jump-started the revitalization effort.

“We are dusting off some of those old assets that were part of communities 15 to 20 years ago,” said HawthorneWelcher, the assistant director of Housing and Community Development, the city department overseeing theLaney-Walker revitalization.

The tiny park on Florence Street isn’t big enough for groups to loiter in and has just enough space for neighbors

to walk dogs or have a conversation, he said. For those who want to play basketball or tennis, the recentlyrenovated Dyess Park community center is available.

The pocket parks are a step in the right direction, but Laney-Walker needs more park and recreation space, said

Mike Davis, an architect from Boston.

Davis visited in July to lead a team of national experts in sustainable urban design that was assessing Laney-

Walker.

“The alternative to a pocket park is often an abandoned lot,” Davis said. “It’s a huge and better use for a tinyspace of land where otherwise you would put a Dumpster.”

Pocket parks are common in urban locations and denser cities where a space isn’t big enough for a building or

parking, he said.

The study led by Davis recommended three types of green space in Laney-Walker: public parks surrounded by

businesses; recreational space for sports or festivals; and green space for crops and urban farming.

Each pocket park costs between $5,000 and $8,000 to build, and the final two should be completed nextsummer or fall, Welcher said. They will be maintained by the Recreation, Parks and Facilities Department.

Laney-Walker revitalization project includes neighborhood 'pocket parks' ... http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2012-12-09/laney-walker-revital...

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American Planning Association, Georgia Chapter, eNewsletter

REVITALIZING AUGUSTA’S LANEY WALKER/BETHLEHEM: THE TRANSFORMATION OF A HISTORIC

COMMUNITY DEEPLY ROOTED IN AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE

First of a Three-Part Series

August, 2011

After three years of visioning, community outreach and master planning, Augusta’s Housing and

Community Development Department is pulling back the curtains on its program to revitalize the Laney

Walker and Bethlehem communities, two historic African American neighborhoods comprising over

1,100 acres in the heart of the City’s urban core. It is a program the Harvard University Student Journal

of Real Estate recently highlighted as a “one of a kind” role for the City as master developer that could

be a “game-changing” national model for public-private partnerships.

In 2008, the Augusta Commission established long-term funding for the revitalization, securing $38.5

million in public investment through a 50-year hotel fee, providing $750,000 annually for planning, land

acquisition, and gap-financing. The bond funds are layered with HOME, NSP, and CDBG funds with the

objective of leveraging each public dollar with ten private investment dollars.

Over the past 18 months, the Housing Department has developed a redevelopment plan, a pattern book

to guide development, a green building program, a financial incentives program with gap financing for

developers and end-users, a marketing plan to promote the overall effort, and has brought on board

over two dozen developers, contractors, engineers, architects, and marketing/sales agents to assist with

early-phase catalytic development.

The Housing Department’s overall strategy for Laney Walker/Bethlehem boils down to redeveloping

community through strategic planning, collaborative implementation and capacity building—and

leveraging this activity to transform Augusta’s urban core. In the next issue: Laney Walker/Bethlehem’s

sustainability program emphasizing affordable, high-performance homes.

REVITALIZING AUGUSTA’S LANEY WALKER/BETHLEHEM: THE “GREENING” OF A HISTORIC

COMMUNITY

Second of a Three-Part Series

September, 2011

For many Augustans, the first of some 44 new affordable homes at Heritage Pine, Laney

Walker/Bethlehem’s pioneer development, could not have appeared fast enough. New development,

after all, was long overdue, coming after decades of blight and disinvestment had reduced this 1,100-

acre, historic African American community in the heart of the city to just half of its 1990 population.

Moreover, the pace of new construction starts in Laney Walker/Bethlehem seemed glacial, just kicking

into gear after three years of planning, land acquisition, infrastructure improvements, financial

structuring and other efforts by the Augusta Housing and Community Development Department to kick-

start a major revitalization of the area.

The extensive planning is paying off. The homes at Heritage Pine – all Energy Star – have been selling as

fast as they are being built. The new homeowners, many with former links to Laney Walker/Bethlehem,

seem to be drawn to the quality of construction, the competitive pricing, close proximity to the City’s

major jobs, and, yes, the green factor. The use of greater insulation, high-performance windows, tightly-

sealed duct systems, and energy efficient appliances and systems are translating into $200-$400 savings

in annual operational costs. Low flow fixtures inside and native plantings outside reduce water usage.

Low VOC primers and sealants reduce toxic emissions and water quality impacts. And reuse of salvaged

building materials not only cuts down on waste but also preserves pieces of the area’s rich heritage.

Native landscaping, strategic tree placement, rain gardens, and other Low Impact Development

practices such as pervious paving round out the Housing Department’s overall green strategy. Over the

coming years, the Housing Department expects to move from an Energy Star base standard to LEED for

Homes to LEED for Neighborhood Development. It’s all part of an overall strategy to leverage this

redevelopment to transform Augusta’s urban core into a model 21st-century sustainable city. In the next

issue: Laney Walker/Bethlehem’s use of social programs to shape greater connectivity throughout

Augusta’s urban core area.

REVITALIZING AUGUSTA’S LANEY WALKER/BETHLEHEM,

Third of a Three-Part Series

October, 2011

Ask someone from Augusta about the revitalization of Laney Walker/Bethlehem – a long-term effort to

revitalize two historic African American communities in the heart of the city – and they might reference

Heritage Pine, the pioneer development of some 44 new affordable Energy Star homes and the recent

recipient of GPA’s 2011 Outstanding Plan Implementation Award. But ask the core development team

driving this innovative revitalization effort – people working largely behind the scenes at the Augusta

Housing Department – and you will find they are looking well beyond Heritage Pine to things like

sustainability strategies, soon to come on-line additional development projects, and broad-reaching

community programs.

One such community program focuses on the development of a heritage trail, highlighting the rich

legacy of these two communities. While initial concepts were more narrowly focused on an educational

vehicular tour highlighting community history, more recent iterations have broadened to a multi-modal

approach – where bicycle, walking/running trail(s) wind through historic streets and places, linking

history and culture to recreation and greater social interaction. The LW/B development team has tapped

a broad group of community stakeholders to develop an overall program for this trail, and an RFP for

design services is to be released before the end of the year.

A second program partners Georgia Health Sciences University (GHSU) with A.R. Johnson High School

(and the LW/B development team) on a longitudinal study of health and fitness relative to walkability

within the redevelopment area. Dr. Joseph Cannon of GHSU is working with the High School—a health,

science, and engineering magnet school—to track how improved infrastructure in LW/B translates to

improved community health and fitness.

Rounding out the City’s programmatic approach to community connectivity are a neighborhood safety

program undertaken by the Heritage Pine Neighborhood Association in partnership with the Sherriff’s

Office and an effort to promote street vibrancy and traffic calming along the community’s commercial

corridors.

For more information about the Laney Walker/Bethlehem revitalization, please contact Chester

Wheeler, Director, Augusta Housing and Community Development Department at 706-821-1797 or

[email protected]. You may also want to visit heritagepineaugusta.com and (coming soon)

laneywalkerbethlehem.com.

Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit

Augusta, Georgia: A Green Masters Jacket for the City?

By 3p Guest Author | October 7th, 2011

By Martin Melaver

Here’s a quiet story in the making. Two historic, predominantly African American neighborhoods in Augusta, Georgia (Laney Walker & Bethlehem) coming together to regenerate not only their community but, in the process, transforming Augusta’s enplace few people ever imagined was possible.

It’s a story that should resonate among most cities in the U.S., which, like Augusta, are trying to reinvent themselves in the wake of a halfstory that is timely, given various studies by ULI, the Brookings Institute, Harvard, Gallup, and others that project a large-scale movement back into cities over the coming generation.

First, the bad news.. The revitalization of Laney Walker/Betinauspiciously. Back in 2008, city leaders were trying to push funding for a new Convention Center downtown through a hotel/motel fee. It was largely viewed as a “white” project. And the black community wanted funding to re“split-the-baby” proposal made its way through the Commission, with half of the hotel/motel fee going to the Convention Center, half to Laney Walker/Bethlehem. A few in town still refer to that moment as “the great extortion.”

From that unpromising beginning, however, a visionary program has emerged. The hotel/motel fee was used to create 50-year bond financing for the community. A 16charrette process proceeded to inform an overall Book, linking historic designs to new construction was developed, as were Green Strategies guidelines. Over two dozen private firms (architects, engineers, builders, realtors, etc.) were selected to work collaboratively on key priority areas within this 1100 acre revitalization area. Key social programs were teed up around public safety, health, transportation, and heritage tourism, all of which helped knit together various stakeholders in the city.

William Sankey, writing in the Spring 2011 issue of the Harvard University Student Journal of Real Estate, described this effort as a “gameredevelopment. The AIA Foundation has highlighted Augusta’s revitalization effort aits workshops over the past year. More recently, the Georgia Planning Association at its annual conference awarded Heritage Pine, the City’s flagship development in Laney Walker/Bethlehem, with its annual Outstanding Plan Implementation award.

It’s way too early to claim victory on this revitalization effort. After all, a city doesn’t turn around a half-century of neglect over night. There’s still major work to be done: a few banks in the area still need to be convinced to provide construction lending in this area, despite the under

Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit


| October 7th, 2011

Here’s a quiet story in the making. Two historic, predominantly African American neighborhoods in Augusta, Georgia (Laney Walker & Bethlehem) coming together to regenerate not only their community but, in the process, transforming Augusta’s entire urban core into a place few people ever imagined was possible.

It’s a story that should resonate among most cities in the U.S., which, like Augusta, are trying to reinvent themselves in the wake of a half-century or more of blight and disinvestment. Astory that is timely, given various studies by ULI, the Brookings Institute, Harvard, Gallup, and

scale movement back into cities over the coming generation.

The revitalization of Laney Walker/Bethlehem could not have begun more inauspiciously. Back in 2008, city leaders were trying to push funding for a new Convention Center downtown through a hotel/motel fee. It was largely viewed as a “white” project. And the black community wanted funding to revitalize some of its blighted neighborhoods. And so a

baby” proposal made its way through the Commission, with half of the hotel/motel fee going to the Convention Center, half to Laney Walker/Bethlehem. A few in town still refer to

s “the great extortion.”

From that unpromising beginning, however, a visionary program has emerged. The hotel/motel year bond financing for the community. A 16-month-long community

charrette process proceeded to inform an overall master plan, which was then created. A Pattern Book, linking historic designs to new construction was developed, as were Green Strategies guidelines. Over two dozen private firms (architects, engineers, builders, realtors, etc.) were

boratively on key priority areas within this 1100 acre revitalization area. Key social programs were teed up around public safety, health, transportation, and heritage tourism, all of which helped knit together various stakeholders in the city.

key, writing in the Spring 2011 issue of the Harvard University Student Journal of Real Estate, described this effort as a “game-changing” national model for publicredevelopment. The AIA Foundation has highlighted Augusta’s revitalization effort aits workshops over the past year. More recently, the Georgia Planning Association at its annual conference awarded Heritage Pine, the City’s flagship development in Laney Walker/Bethlehem, with its annual Outstanding Plan Implementation award.

It’s way too early to claim victory on this revitalization effort. After all, a city doesn’t turn century of neglect over night. There’s still major work to be done: a few banks in

still need to be convinced to provide construction lending in this area, despite the under


Here’s a quiet story in the making. Two historic, predominantly African American neighborhoods in Augusta, Georgia (Laney Walker & Bethlehem) coming together to regenerate

tire urban core into a

It’s a story that should resonate among most cities in the U.S., which, like Augusta, are trying to century or more of blight and disinvestment. And it’s a

story that is timely, given various studies by ULI, the Brookings Institute, Harvard, Gallup, and scale movement back into cities over the coming generation.

hlehem could not have begun more inauspiciously. Back in 2008, city leaders were trying to push funding for a new Convention Center downtown through a hotel/motel fee. It was largely viewed as a “white” project. And the

vitalize some of its blighted neighborhoods. And so a baby” proposal made its way through the Commission, with half of the hotel/motel fee

going to the Convention Center, half to Laney Walker/Bethlehem. A few in town still refer to

From that unpromising beginning, however, a visionary program has emerged. The hotel/motel long community

master plan, which was then created. A Pattern Book, linking historic designs to new construction was developed, as were Green Strategies guidelines. Over two dozen private firms (architects, engineers, builders, realtors, etc.) were

boratively on key priority areas within this 1100 acre revitalization area. Key social programs were teed up around public safety, health, transportation, and heritage

key, writing in the Spring 2011 issue of the Harvard University Student Journal of changing” national model for public-private

redevelopment. The AIA Foundation has highlighted Augusta’s revitalization effort at several of its workshops over the past year. More recently, the Georgia Planning Association at its annual conference awarded Heritage Pine, the City’s flagship development in Laney Walker/Bethlehem,

It’s way too early to claim victory on this revitalization effort. After all, a city doesn’t turn century of neglect over night. There’s still major work to be done: a few banks in

still need to be convinced to provide construction lending in this area, despite the under-

deployment of CRA funds here. There’s major capacity that still needs to be built up from within the community, as the urban core faces an in-place aging population. And an innovative economic development plan is still called for, one that supplements (or replaces!) the old tried-everywhere model of attracting race-to-the-bottom manufacturing companies and call-centers. As the President of the Georgia Health Sciences University, Dr. Ricardo Azziz, noted recently, Augusta needs to up its cool factor.

Even so, city leaders – from the Mayor, City Administrator, and city-county Commissioners, to civic and business leaders under the guidance of Augusta Tomorrow, to various non-profits such as Historic Augusta – should be acknowledged for playing a championship round of urban planning and development. They’ve succeeded in creating a collaborative ethos involving broad stakeholder engagement. They’ve patiently created five overlapping master plans over the past decade and are beginning to integrate those plans into a vision for a sustainable, work-live-play environment. They’ve figured out how to shape an innovative financing program to catalyze early efforts. They’re the recipient of a HUD/DOT Sustainable communities grant to develop a multi-modal corridor around a handful of transit-oriented, mixed-use, green affordable developments – one of only 16 cities in the U.S. to be awarded such a grant. The so-called “great extortion” seems to have given birth to the “great embrace.”

Martin Melaver is a principal and founder of Melaver McIntosh, a sustainable development and consulting firm focused on transformative approaches to regenerating communities and businesses. He is the author of Living Above the Store: Building a Business That Creates Value, Inspires Change, and Restores Land and Community, foreword by Ray Anderson.

Documents

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