Pretty Sneaky

The local Developers' Authority recently pulled a fast one. According to the latest Blue Bag Rag they cancelled their regular meeting only to call a "special" meeting within a week. Lot of notice, that. 

You know...by the time you smell something fishy it IS time to throw the whole thing out.

They Cannot Be Stopped

This could be about cityhood movements that just will not go away no matter how directly and firmly the voters tell them to; they're like that cold sore that keeps coming back. This is about those developers hell-bent on building cookie-cutter clutter buildings. Everywhere. Oh, and they expect the taxpayers to pony up some additional profits. 

And TOD isn't the only one who finds these buildings to be architectural trash and aesthetically odious. Click that link. The entire article  is well worth reading but one of the many knock-out punches is:

The “Stick Frame Over Podium” building—a model of cheap, expedient construction—is creating freight trains of mute boxes cropping up throughout America’s urban landscape. These dreary buildings have made so much money for their developers that the typology is changing apartment living for enormous numbers of people. A code evolution has caused a revolution in how buildings can dominate the aesthetics of our communities.

The article offers many insights into how this plague rots the very soul of our community offering little but profits to developers and possibly to enabling friends and family in city bureaucracies and administrations. Is there any hope? Perhaps a glimmer:

I think we will soon see the inoculation of the recession vaccine. In the coming months, the low interest rates that power development will be jacked up to temper the inflation that post-pandemic expectation has nurtured. When the cost of money rises, the savings of stick-frame-over-podium vanishes. And developers will stop building them.

This hope is mitigated by the reality of this cheap, but highly profitable for the developers, development practice:

But, like the chicken pox, there will be a shingles replay for our thoughtless intoxication with expedience and profit. Cheap boxes do not weather well. Skins intended to keep weather out only do so until their seams fail—and they eventually do. Flat roofs inevitably welcome water inside, and flat faces made of veneers decay in the freeze and thaw, expansion and contraction, of wind and water.

And the author shares his fear that greed will conquer all:

[...]this huge wave of 5-over-2 buildings will fail in just a generation or two. The difference is that while cars can be recycled, we may discover that the rotting sticks of these cheap buildings might be easier to remove than reuse or repair. Will we learn from their failure?

What the author fails to mention, or notice, is that this planned obsolescence is intentional on the part of the developers. This will be timed pretty nicely with the expiration of tax handouts. These gulags will look so trashy that the next crop of bureaucrats and politicians will all but beg them to "re-develop" these odious hovels. And as long at the residents of this city are held powerless by the city charter, we can expect developers to get some pretty hefty tax handouts, just as they did the first time.

House Of Cards Collapses

One of the faux neo-cities just went Humpty-Dumpty causing real damage in the fall. And just who was hurt? Well, it wouldn't be the residents as they suffered self-inflicted irreparable damage when they put this jinga game out there for others to play. Badly. With startling transparency the AJC reports that Stonecrest established a developers' authority coincident with installing a rather powerless mayor. Elation all around, but especially for the developers who looked to score a cool three-quarters of a billion dollars. But wheeler-dealers have resigned and important documentation is nowhere to be found. It appears the deal is crashing down leaving developers to weep in their '59 Dom Perignon.

While this is strangely amusing, structural weaknesses and financial calamity is not the real issue. At least not the one facing Buckhead, East Cobb and whatever will become of GreenCliff. Their dilemma is how to ignore the tune of the pied pipers leading them to a similar fate, handing all the gold to developers, increasing their taxes and forfeiting any meaningful vote at the ballot box while handing their lives over to bureaucrats who will serve any interest but theirs.

Unlike Stonecrest (and Dunwoody) these folks have a chance to avert disaster.

That Didn't Take Long

The ink is barely dry on the MOU and the developer is already man-splaining to the Developers'  Authority that they, the developer, ain't gonna stick to the deal. And what did the bobble heads at that Developers' Authority do? That's right, they bobbed their heads up and down in all-but-violent agreement-to violate the agreement. 

Now the developer trotted out some authority on senior development to justify their actions (like they really needed to do that). Well to be accurate, they didn't trot anyone out, instead preferring to leave their alleged experts behind the curtain of anonymity. But, they're developers, you can trust them, right?

What they were probably doing was letting everyone know who is really in charge and it ain't even the bureaucrats down at city hall or the Developers' Authority. It sure as hell ain't the dwarfs. The developer has made it clear that the dwarfs get one vote and after that vote the developer can change anything they want, whenever they want and it doesn't matter how ludicrous the change might be.

And this change tops the charts. The original requirement, leasee required to be over 55, was simply and effectively enforceable. Developers, in general, don't like that and in this case will not accept it. Instead they will lease to anyone, any age, so long as someone says "yeah, that's for my dad, he's over 55...yeah...that's the ticket." Of course that is virtually impossible to enforce. 

And you would have thought that the $7M stolen from our children would have been enough. You would have thought wrong.

Local Schools

One of our local rags recently quoted the new DHA president suggesting that local real estate values would skyrocket if Dunwoody had its own schools. Having more than just a little expertise in real estate he probably knows what he is talking about with regards to the impact of school quality and home values. The open question is how one measures quality: would Dunwoody schools perforce be better, and how would that actually happen?

Dare we suggest that these are intractable? That facts are not nearly as important as marketing? That perception is what matters, that feeling the schools are top notch carries more weight than actual results? After all, that is the lived experience of the last several decades. 

So if there is no likely improvement in academic achievement, is establishing local schools a bad idea? Actually no. While the likelihood of academic improvement is low there are significant benefits that are mostly off-campus. 

Very likely the DHA prez is correct in saying that home values would improve with local schools just as "neighborhood schools" are more attractive than "mega schools." It is worth noting the foundation for these calculations is relativism. The schools need not actually meet any absolute performance goals, they only need to be better than the alternative. Think "running from a bear." 

There is a much better reason to circle the wagons with a smaller, close to home school system and naturally that is all about money. Specifically the money that the city currently steals from DeKalb County Schools. Would local schools, with neighbors and only neighbors on the board long tolerate this blatant financial undermining of the community's children and their education? Probably not. And THAT might lead to sanity in dealing with the over-development running roughshod over this community. Maybe, just maybe, developers would be paying impact fees instead of stealing excessive profits from our children's futures.

Now? Or Forever?

The pandemic has touched nearly every aspect of every one's lives. None have been more greatly impacted and none are more important that our community of developers, particularly the developer of the property at 84 Perimeter Center East. From the developer's statements in justifying this entirely unnecessary and unwanted development of even-more-apartments we learn that the pandemic has drastically and permanently altered the hospitality industry making the previously planned hotel unprofitable. And if developers are about anything it is profits with the city more than happy to help out with a $7M boost to their bottom line. But not to worry, a vast majority of that money is robbed from your children's education. No harm, no foul, right?

What's really interesting is how very quickly they pivoted from hotel to apartment. It's as if that was what they had planned all along.

Dunwoody Pride

What is Dunwoody proud of? No, not the residents of Dunwoody but the Dunwoody that holds court at city hall. The one with all the bureaucrats working diligently for profiteering businesses and greedy developers. That one. Of what are they proud? Well, they are loud and proud on the homepage of their web site:

What Dunwoody Is ALL About

Look at all those tax exempt buildings lining the developers' pockets with pure gold, standing there as a proud tribute to the well-connected and well to do. Notice nothing that looks even remotely like the suburban haven that has long made Dunwoody a unique respite from the urbanity insanity that is this metro area. But no more. Folks at city hall, including the seven dwarfs, are dedicated to wiping that from the map and erasing it from all memory. 

Like Shingles...

You had a disease, thought you got over it but the virus was dormant, just waiting to come back. Stronger and more painful. 

Last go-round of Viral Developer Syndrome that popped up on Roberts ended with application withdrawal in 2019. That was for ten units. And it was just a brief remission. Now they (greedy developers) are back, with a demand for fifteen clutter homes and claiming a detention pond is a green space feature rather than the mosquito habitat we all know them to be. Normally this would just be another WTF moment with rumors of insider deals. But this is different.

This time the Developer's Authority is in on it. Openly. A partner on the project, Robert Miller, is a board member for the Developer's Authority. If any apologist holdout needed any evidence that city hall is of, by and for developer's, this is it.

And what of the Seven Dwarfs? Smart money says they'll rubber-stamp anything put before them and given the fix is in the only remaining question is "when does construction start?"

Now We Know...

...why the city did nothing about a multiple dwelling unit (mini-apartment complex) operating in a building zoned single family residential.

Sign Of Things To Come

That's because the new yahoos at city hall expect to expand apartments in Dunwoody Village, not push them out.

So with the new regime we will no longer have a Carbon Copy Canton Street, a Partay Pavillion or Coral Reefer Cover Bands blasting beach music for folks shaggin' in the streets. No sir. Out with the old and in with the new. The current trend is "Avalon" which they'd like to clone in daVille. Avalon is neither unique nor original (ever been to Huntersville?) but these cookie-cutter trend-du-jours are making huge profits for developers. And their friends in government and associated metastatic "authorities."

And they are "inspired" by small town centers scattered throughout  the country. Go find an old city square in Georgia that has a bunch of fifty-plus year old eight story buildings, let alone any with six or seven floors of apartments. But we, at least the royal "we" at city hall, love "inspired" - small town inspired development; chef inspired restaurants. Why? Honestly you really should ask them because we all know that trends come and trends go with a half-life of hardly five years. Perhaps city hall is helping developers transform their business model from transactional to recurring. After all, why build something that lasts a hundred years or more when you can build to the current trend and come back after a few years and do it all again. At enormous profit and with a new bunch of cronies at city hall.

Remember, none of the folks involved in this are committed to Dunwoody for the long haul. Hell, some of these folks don't even live in Dunwoody. Many that do will be headed out of town after they cash out. 

CVI Working For The County

The DeKalb delegation is holding an info session to review, with the public, the implications of a CVI study on the impact (negative) of new cities on the county. This focuses on finances and if you believe that a government with more money is a better government then you might want to scoot on over here, but if you're not not sure then the report may be of interest. Though largely reading like the script for Captain Obvious, the real meat is what is missing. Isn't that always the case when government is involved? What you're NOT being told is often the most important part (think: Village Developers' Plan).

So what is missing in these City vs County CVI dust-ups? The public school system. That's what is missing. No one has the courage to whisper about the serious damage done to public schools by these new cities. The process is straightforward, clearly destructive and inevitable. A new city will be a weak city, at least from the point of view of local control. What many folks, even in this smarting city, don't realize is we have a "weak mayor" form of government. In fact, we have weak council as well. The fact is Dunwoody is run by a city manager and a bunch of bureaucrats with council and mayor provided with rubber stamps to approve what is put before them. And it gets worse.

A new city means a new development authority. Ostensibly appointed but one that will be driven by the developers, will get input exclusively from developers and in no way beholding to the residents of Dunwoody. Unless one of the developers happens to live here--want to be how many that might be? They are more likely to live in Country Club of the South where no one is going to drop a trendy clutter-development in their backyard.

It is this Developers' Authority that does the damage to the schools. First, they will push for "re-vitalization" re-development that will include a residential component, one they will downplay but one that will overload the schools while lining their pockets. And because they don't want to talk about residential they are not likely to coordinate their plans with the school system. Once they've slashed an open wound they rub in the salt. The Developers' Authority have some financial machinations to remove the property from the tax rolls, not just dodging city taxes (remember it is the city's Developers' Authority) but from all taxes. So they overload the schools with apartment kids (yes, these WILL BE rentals) and they make sure the school system's funding is undercut so they cannot remediate the damage even if they wanted.

Picking Winners

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

So the City imposed a moratorium on doing bidness in the Village, shutting down new retail, to apply financial pressure until the City gets what it wants, whatever that might be. This is a tactic Trump would be proud of.

Then the City, through its Development Authority, hands out $2.8 million in corporate welfare for a developer to pave over an urban lake for...wait for it...more retail. In a Tourette of pure bullshit, the head of the Authority uncontrollably blurted:

"[That's] the really big question on all these tax abatements when we do them: if we don't do them are they going to get done anyway?"

The answer from Buckhead is an emphatic YES! And don't we all want to be Buckhead? Aren't we? If not, have you shared the secret with the Convention and Visitors Bureau? Thought not.

But consider this: shouldn't the head of any development authority be able to clearly and completely answer that very question!?!? So why do we get a ponderification instead? Is it because we're being "managed" or because he simply doesn't know the answer? In either case he should be fired. Immediately and with cause.

Holes In CVI Study

Perhaps it was at DeKalb's direction to simply focus on tax revenue and services impact but the CVI study of new city impact on the council misses significant impacts on the folk who actually live here. Fact is these new cities are not about local control, zoning, parks+paving+police. They are about establishing development authorities. Quasi-government organizations with plum jobs for the well-connected. Organizations that by their very nature issue bonds from which they skim significant sums and remove enormously profitable developments from the tax rolls for years on end. All without voter approval and minimal meaningful oversight. By anyone.

These in-the-shadow operations impact more than just the county. Yes, they shift the bond-skimming from county to city but when they decimate the tax base they do so at the expense of the school system. They are robbing your children to enrich themselves, their friends and family and wealthy developers. And no one, not DeKalb County and not CVI are willing to shine a light on these out of control enterprises.

Developing Problems

In their coverage of an on-going pissing contest between the City of South Fulton and Fulton County, or more specifically their respective Development Authorities, the AJC disclosed the real problem. In handing out these tax give-aways these Authorities issue bonds to fund the scam and they skim off the top. In South Fulton this pilfering is estimated to be in the range of $7 million. This is not chump change.

And who are these people and where do they come from? You know, these money launderers and power brokers? Well, they're buddies of the local politicians who appoint them. Fine, fine...they may be family members as well, but usually these folk are given no-show jobs with the developers.

This is what happens when you spawn these cities. It may well be the power/money motive behind creating them in the first place. And make no mistake, when the interests of a Development Authority or their politician friends are not aligned with those of the community, the community will lose. Every time.