Box 5, Folder 9, Document 29

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Report of Legal Panel

pecember 9, 1968

atl Drie£Z, the achievements and activities of the Legai Panel
in the vear-to date have been as foiiows?:

{1} Advocacy, drafting and passage by the Atlanta School
Board of 2 locai constitutional amendment to allow the City of Atlanta,
through its lecal School Board, to lease school buildings for a term
Jonger than that of the City Council, The research on this project
was done by Freeman Hutton and the Chairman of this Committee, and
was presented by the Chairman to the School Board on June 28, 1968.
The School Board passed the concept of leasing school buildings from
private develcpers for a long-term in principal, and directed
tir, A. C. Latimer, the schoci board attorney, in conjunction with
the Legal Panel to draft tae specific local constitutional amendment,

The advantage of this locai constitutional amendment
would be that schooi facilities could be provided in a low-cost housing
project in the form of rental payments over a term of years, thus
aileviating the need of the School Board to construct a school facility
at high initial ccsts, and thus providing the project with necessary
community facilities. The most oft-used excuse in opposition to
zoning property for low-cost housing is that no school facilities
would be available; an objection which would become moot after
passage of the constitutional amendment, in that the School Board
would lease with little diminution in its bonds' credit.

Upon completion of the drafting, the amendment will
then be submitted to the School Board sometime in early 1969, for
formal approval so that it can be readied for the 1970 Legislature
and subseduent referendum, AS a practical matter, the leasing
arrangements in Urban areas will probably be required to contain an
option to purchase vested in the School Board in that City credit
against Federal Funds could only be allowed in structures which were
a public facility; according to Mr. NeiJj Zittrauer, of the Department
of Housing and Urban Development, Renewal Assistance Administration,

(2) The Legal Panel, through its Chairman, drafted the
Package Zoning Proposal, presented to the Board of Aldermen on August
2, 1968, and assisted in the publicity surrounding the presentation
of said proposal on August 2, 1968,

(3) The Legal Panel, through its Chairman, served on an
Ad Hoc Committee, reviewing the total purposes of the Committee. This
Ad Hoc Committee reviewed a report of Colonel Jones, dated February 7,
1968, and made its comments to the full Housing Resources Committee,

(4) Mr. Freeman Hutton delivered a report on the Housing
and Urban Development Act of 1968. At the conclusion of the report,
Mr. Hutton was charged with the responsibility of working with Mr.
Bill Gates to compile a detailed analysis of the Act and its affect

Encl: le






on Housing Resources Committee activities.

The Legal Panel is presently working on Housing Code enforcement,
inability of certain slum dwellers to obtain building permits in non-
conforming areas of the City, as well as its continued analysis of the
Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, and continued participation

:in the School Board amendment involving leasing.

Archer D. Smith, III
Chairman, Legal Panel




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