.Nzc3Nw.Nzc3Nw

~- - Li[H][E R[E IT\l[E\W[R NEWSLETTER OF THE CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR URBAN RENEWAL Vol. 5 No. 11 Atlanta, Georgia December 1967 J OPENSHAW CALLS FOR CONCERTED ACTION TO HALT BLIGHT AS HE GIVES REPORT ON YEAR OF URBAN RENEWAL GAINS Delivering an inspiring report of notable progress in urban renewal during 1967 to our Dec. 19 full committee meeting, Howard Openshaw, Atlanta Housing Au .. thority redevelopment director, also sounded a call for private enterprise, churches. labor organizations and civic groups to join with public efforts in a concerted en .. deavor to turn back the spread of blight. Summed up Mr. Openshaw: "Too many people look to a single tool to solve all the problems of the city. For example, urban renewal was not designed to speak to the problems of unemployment, lack of education, crime, and other social diseases. Too long have we looked to public programs alone to solve our problems. Churches, civic organizations, labor unions, industry - private enterprise must become involved if we are to succeed in our endeavors." In addition to citing the gains achieved by Atlanta'~ urban renewal program duz,ing 196 7, Mr. Openshaw also reviewed the exciting outlook for 1968. The text of his report follows: SLUMS AND BLIGHT ARE GROWING - "Atlanta, like every maj<,r city across our land, has awakened to find itself sitting on a potential powder keg. Countless ages of neglect and apathy has resulted in an accumulation of urban blight and decay. People are rebelling against their environment, and we see the resulting strife and turmoil in Milwaukee and Detroit. To make matters worse the slums and blighted areas are growing, not shrinking. In the last 5 years, Atlanta has increased its number of dwelling units by 9, 141. During this period, the number of dilapidated structures were reduced from 12, 000 to 3,000. How. ever, the number of substandard units increased from 22,800 to 49, 300. "The City's population increase is projected at an annual rate of 2%, with the negro population increasing by 62% and the white population by 4%. Those who can afford it are moving to the suburbs. The City's financial resources are limited, there is no help from the State, and the demand for Federal funds is three times the available supply. We simply do not have adequate resources to cope with all of our problems. 11 MUST USE EVERY AVAILABLE RESOURCE - "The time for action is upen us. We must use every available resource, every tool to make our cities more livable, to enrich the quality of men's lives, and to make every citizen a pro. ductive member of Society. We must eliminate our slums, yes. But also, we must halt the spread of blight. Urban renewal is the tool that can allow us to have a slumless city. An effective program of code enforcement is essential to preserve our neighborhoods and to halt the spread of blight. A top priority in the city is to provide housing for low and moderate income families. The mayor has set a goal of 16,800 units to be constructed in the next five years. But even here, we are finding it difficult to find suitable, reasonably priced land for low-cost housing." PAST TWELVE MONTHS SHOW PROGRESS IN ALL PHASES OF RENEW AL PROGRAMS - "In 8-1 /2 years, Atlanta's urban renewal program has made giant strides in redeveloping its blighted areas. �- 2- "From the period D e cember 1, 1966 t o December 1, 1967, the Atlanta Housing Aut hority ha s a c qu.ir ed 538 parcels of land at a cost of $4. 7 million. The Autho r ity r e locat ed 5,6 f a m ilies from urban renewal areas, and provided housing a ssis tanc e t o 6 8 7 a dditional families relocated as a result of other governmental a ction , During the past twelve months, the Authority demolished 477 structures c omp r i sin g 76 6 dw e lling units, and completed rehabilitation of 201 dwelling units. T he A uth o ri ty sold 97 p arcels of land for $886, 72a and put under contract for sale a n a d diti o nal 60 pa.reel s of land having a value of $2 million. Construction was b egun on improvem en ts t otaling $2~ 1 million. These improvements include 106 a part men t unit s in the Butl e r Stre e t Project, and 38 single family units in Thomasville. Improvemen ts t c':.:.·~::~~ $4, 8 million were cortipleted in the past 12 months, i ncludi ng office bu 1 ldin gs ·for the tJ, Rubber Company, Ford Motor Company, A vis Rent - A- Car, and Cousins P ~operties, Construction was, started on 240 dwelling u nits and a n a dditional 41 dwelling units completed during th~ peribd. 11 s. N INE P ROJEC T A ME N DMENTS APPROVED - "Amendments were submitted and F ed e ral a pp r ova l r ec e i ved on the following urban renewal projects: Butler Street, t o p r ·ovid e a s e con d },_i_g !1- rise for the elderly adjacent to Graves Homes on Hilliard S tre e t, and l and expansion for Ebenezer Baptist Church; Rockdale, to p rovide f o r c hange s i n land use a nd street pattern; Thomasville, to provide public h ousing n ort h of M'CDo n ough Road; Georgia State, to add the block north of the p olic e st a tion t o the p r oject area; Georgia Tech, to include an additional $737,810 a s Sectio n 112 c r e d it s toward the City's share of project cost; Buttermilk Bottoms, r eceived Fede ral a pp r o val of Part I of the Application for Loan and Grant; B e dford-Pine , to com bine the Buttermilk Bottoms project with Bedford-Pine; Bedford- Pine Lett er of Consent, to permit acquisition of additional street rightof- w a y fo r th e Auditorium; Bedford-Pine draft Part I Application for Loan and Gr a nt. A m endrne n t,s w ere submitted on the following urban renewal projects for w hic h Fed eral app r ov a l has not yet been received: Rawson- Washington, to extend p r oj ect b o undary t o p r ovide land for school expansion, park, and neighborhood c enter; B edfo rd- Pine E arly Land Acquisition Loan, to provide a site for public h ousi n g, a nd to m a ke a v ailable rehabilitation loa ns and grants for properties a l on g Bou levar d , 11 C OMPETITIO N SP URS SUPERIOR PROPOSALS -"A significant achievement of the r enewal p rogram w as the development competitions for land in Rockdale, Rawson .. Wa s h ingto n and Um.ive r sity C e nte r Projects. A fixed price was e stablished on the l and, a nd rede v elo p ers propos a l s w e re r e stricte d to r e side ntial development under S ection 2 2 1 d 3 . ..,,..he Atlanta Housing Authority staff, the City Planning D e part. ment, the Am eric a n In stitute of Architects, American Society of Landscape Archi. t ee t s, the Citi z en s Advis ory Committee for Urban Renewal, the Housing Resources C ommi ttee, the State Planning Bureau, the U~ban Renewal Policy Com. m itte e a n d the Hou s ·ng Authori ty' s B o a rd of Commissione rs reviewed four re d eveloper s propo s a ls in R oc kda l e , seven proposals in Unive rsity Cente r, a nd six proposals in R a ws on- W a shington. T he fixed land pric e , development compe tition a pproach not o nly .result e d in superior proposals from redevelopers, but assured maximum livabili ty fo r families of low and moderate incomes. The Authority, w ith assi s t a nce fr o m CACUR, conducted l, 271 p e ople on tours of Atla nta's urban. ren e w al a nd p u bli c housing p r o grams ." MOD EL C ITY , BE DF ORD- PINE E XECUTION TOP EXCITING OUTLOOK F OR NEW YEAR - " Ex.,citing t hing s a nd a lot of hard work lie ahead for 1968. The C ity , in c oope r at i o n w ith o the r agencie s and residents of the a r ea, will begin pla nning t he m o deA city a rea, T h e urb a n ren ew a l a nd public hou s ing prog r a m s will be i n volved i m. the tota l attack on t h e s ocia l a nd phy s ic a l blight of t h e 3 , 000 acres of .la n d extending fr om We st End t o the other s ide of Grant Park. T h e Bedfo r d - Pine Ur b an R enewal Area w ill enter execution. The Authority will p rovid e t empor ar y r e l ocation hou s ing for those famili e s living in the initial cle ar . anc e a r ea. Stagin g t he e xecution a c tivities will minimize the number of fam ilie s displac ed. Con str uc tion w ill b e started on improvement s c o sting $ 26. 2 millio n on urban renewal lan d i n 1968. The s e improveme nts include 1, 468 dw e lling u nits , the Ira H ardin Office B uild ing , s t a dium mote l, a n d the I nt e rna tional Hou s e in Universi t y C ent eit". �... 3 _ "The ninety-five areas of land on McDonough Road :b,ic~rttiy made available to the City by the Federal Government will be added to the Thotnasville Project; and plans will proceed immediately to IFl'Ovide land for public housing, townhouses, single-family development, and an elementary and middie-high school. We must continue our commitment to eliminate slums wherever they occur, and to halt the spread of blight. We must provide decent housing for all our people, with special emphasis on low and moderate income families. But we must do more than this. We must become more sensitive to the physical design and development of our City. For, unless Atlanta is to become a haven for the homeless and the poor, we must create an environment t o attract people of every economic level of life as together w e seek to make Atlanta the great city it is destined to become. 11 HUD' S STRAUB CONGRATULATES ATLANTA ON PIONEERING MODEL CITY CONVENTION Thanking Mr. Openshaw for his pertinent and perceptive report, Chairman Sommerville emphasized the importance of the model city program and called on Charles N. Straub, Federal Agency Liaison Specialist, from HUD, to bring our committee abreast of developments in this new city-federal cooperative endeavor, Explaining that Atlanta was one of only nine southeastern cities and 63 in the nation t o receive conditional approval, Mr. Straub pointed out that final disposition of the planning grants reserved, depended upon the cities presenting acceptable work programs to HUD. Such plans are exptected within 45 days. He specified that HUD had requested Atlanta to outline a five year program with a specific work plan for the first year. He pointed out that Atlanta 's plans would have to be revised because the city's request for $500, 000 as a planning grant was cut to $152,000. In discussing this reduction, Mr. Straub mentioned that Atlanta had received an additional $100, 000 from EDA, but only $18, 000 of this would apply directly to studies in the model city area. Then Mr. Straub congratulated Atlanta warmly on innovating the plan of holding a convention open to all residents of the model city area. This convention, held at Hoke Smith Technical High School Sunday.~afternoon, Dec. 10, is regarded as a new departure in citizen participation, Mr. Straub stressed. Said he 11 No city has really thrown the model city program open as Atlanta did with this convention. The city also is to b e congratulated on accepting what the people asked for. 11 (NOTE- This refers to action by the Aldermanic Board Dec. 18 approving the request made at the convention for a representative from each of the six neighborhoods involved on the governing board of the model city program) In a following discussion, Mrs. S . F . Crank pointed out that EOA was a prime mover in organizing the c onvention. Mrs. Grace Hamilton a lso e xpressed congratulations to the Aldermanic Board in accepting the recommendations made by the convention. (NOTE - Among others representing our committee at the conve ntion was Director Howland.) Action is under way to locate houses for s uitable r e habilitation by our nonprofit corporation, CAC URRCI under the 221 H program, the full committee meeting was informed. Executive committeewoman Hamilton reported that with Walter Screws of the Atlanta Housing Authority, and Director Howland , s he inspected a number of dwellings in and n e ar the University Center project on De cember 14. She s tressed the point that if such houses could be found in this area, their rehabilitation would improve the pr oject's public image. Mr. Screws added that all houses seen were single family occupied. In reply to a question from Executive committeeman Percy Hearle, Chairman Sommer ville said 19 houses had b een located east of Gl en Iris and north of Hunter Street. A guess~ s timate would b e tha t th e houses would rang e in value fro m $ 4 , 500 to $8,000 and that rehabilitation would cost from $2,000 to $4,000. E xecutive committeeman Harold Arnold a lso suggested some houses on Morgan Street and Boulevard Place. He pointed out that also considered had been the area Mrs. Hamilton inspected , the area .adj ac ent to the Nash-Banns section, the South Atla nta region beyond the model cities area a nd the a r ea east of Bedford-Pine. In s upport of the B oule v a rd Place - Morgan Street location , Mr. A rnold pointed out th at it h a d exp e rie nced racial unrest and that location of the 221 H project there, would indicate interest in solving its problems. In the following discussion, Mrs. Ha milton urg e d that the Atlanta Housing Authority keep a coordinated list of pro pertie s s cr een ed~ C h a irman Somme rville pointed out that such lists would be a v ailable fr o m the city B uilding Depa rtment and the Housing Authority. ACTION BEGINS TO LOCATE 221 H HOUSES; TWO LISTS OF SUGGESTED DWELLINGS GIVEN �