Live-Drive-Play Communities?
by Jack Murphy
The Atlanta Regional Commission is the planning organization for our 11 county metro area. Among other duties, they provide data for planning, and convene elected officials to discuss ways to maintain and enhance our quality of life.
One of their most impactful programs is the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI). LCI is a champion for live-work-play areas, originally conceived as a way to take cars off our roads and improve air quality. Today, LCI’s are everywhere. They have grown into beautiful mixed-use destinations like City Green in Sandy Springs and Avalon.
The live-work-play concept is being tested by skyrocketing land prices and a corresponding jump in housing cost. In fact, there is growing evidence that housing inflation, particularly rental property, may be driving a good part of essential workforce out of North Fulton.
The Zillow Rent Index shows a 16% year over year jump in the regions monthly rental costs.
Studio apartments are traditionally the most affordable in a housing complex. Currently, Zillow lists only 5 studio units for rent in North Fulton. All but 1 are on the Perimeter.
The least costly is a 547 sq. ft. unit in Sandy Springs. The monthly rent is $1576.
Alpharetta has the only studio apartment listed north of I-285. It is a 609 sq. ft. unit going for $1995 a month.
Between 2015 & 2020, the US Census reports that 8,130 middle income families moved out of North Fulton.
It is becoming clearer each month that many can only get 1 out of 3 in the live-work-play equation. Developers must have luxury price points for their properties to recover their investment. Workers in the hotels and retail portions of mixed-use developments will continue to drive to work, or leave the area for work closer to home, increasing staff shortages here.
And, this is true in many professions in our area.
The starting salary for a Fulton County teacher in the upcoming year is $4,360 a month. An affordable rent for this new teacher would $1,308 a month. We don’t have any of those on the market right now.
Talk with any teachers you know and chances are, you will find that they have a co-worker who was commuting from another county to one of our schools but recently left. With gas prices, child care costs, and opportunities in competing counties, teachers are choosing to work in schools closer to their homes. Had they been able to live closer to work, they would not have been as susceptible to changes in expenses and drive time. Fulton County Schools currently has twice as many teacher openings now as they did this time last year.* Of course, housing costs are not the only contributor to these vacancies. However, it is having a noticeable impact.
Teachers are not the only essential workers who find it difficult to afford to live here. The same can be said for police officers, fire fighters, nurses and many other professions.
There is a common sentiment among many in North Fulton, that middle and entry level workers should live in other counties until they can afford to live here. The high number of unfilled jobs in area businesses is a direct consequence of that community planning philosophy.
LCI recommends diverse housing options for our communities. But those are just recommendations. They depend on community leaders to apply the recommendations. And community leaders depend on citizens to call for more balanced housing in our communities.
Most of us want a place for our children and grandchildren to able to live nearby. We want to be able to downsize, when the time comes, in our same communities to stay close to our friends, favorite restaurants and medical providers. These are among the things we have been working for all our lives. But we need to be more active in being the architects of our future.
We should be able to solve this challenge. We have time to make changes before we face the seemingly unsolvable housing and workforce problems that exist in places like in California.
We need to be more intentional about the way we are adding housing in North Fulton. We need leaders who understand the cause and effect of unbridled housing costs and workforce supply. We need citizens to speak up. We need true live-work-play communities.
* Click here for job opportunity listings