After more than four years of negotiations, Columbus Redevelopment Authority may be approaching the end of the acquisition process for the Burns Bottom project, said CRA President John Acker.
The status of 18 properties — some owner-occupied homes — are still in flux in the neighborhood, Acker said, a far cry from the 74 CRA began trying to obtain in 2015 when the project started.
“We’re still kind of chipping away at it,” Acker said. “When you get to this stage things kind of slow down. Once our weather clears up a little bit, we can finish the final demolition of, I think, the two houses we’ve got left. … Hopefully this spring, we’ll finish out with everything and at that point then we’ve just got to sit down with those homeowners and figure out what we can do.”
Acker said five of the properties are under eminent domain action in Lowndes County Chancery Court. Last July, CRA began eminent domain proceedings against 12 properties in the area, but Acker told The Dispatch on Tuesday the majority of those cases were settled out of court, while some are still pending. Eminent domain is the forcible sale of private property to a public entity for an expressed public need.
In addition to those five lots, Acker said CRA representatives are in negotiations with heirs to six different properties — a complicated process he says sometimes entails tracking down multiple people who often don’t live in the area anymore — and six homeowners, along with one church.
Those homeowner-occupied residences will probably be last on the list of properties CRA acquires, Acker said.
“Some of that may come down to the developers,” he said. “They may say, ‘Hey, let the residents stay,’ or ‘We’ll work with them directly.'”
CRA can only offer fair market value plus a relocation allowance to homeowners in the neighborhood per state law, according to previous reporting by The Dispatch. However, a private developer would not have those restrictions.
CRA first began trying to acquire property in the area about five years ago with the goal of demolishing most if not all the existing structures and marketing the neighborhood for a higher-value housing development. The area covers five blocks between north Third and Fourth streets, running north-to-south from Second to Seventh avenues. Acker said the remaining 18 properties still to be acquired are scattered throughout that five-block area.
The city has been demolishing the property as CRA acquires it, though City Public Information Officer Joe Dillon said rainy weather has delayed the removal of debris from the most recent demolitions.
Between acquisitions and demolitions, CRA has spent about $1.7 million on the project so far, Acker said. The entire project has been funded through a $3.2 million urban renewal bond which the city council passed in 2017. The bond was back by a 2.5-mill ad valorem tax increase to be phased in between Fiscal Years 2018 to 2020.
The tax will be retired after the bonds are repaid, which Acker previously told The Dispatch should take between 12 and 15 years.
Ward 5 City Councilman Stephen Jones, whose ward includes the Burns Bottom district, said he hasn’t been briefed on the project lately but that he hopes, once CRA markets the property to a developer, that some of the current residents will be able to move back if they want to.
“I would hope to see some type of mixed units, some affordable … to the people that live down there and want to move back down there,” he said.
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