By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
NOV. 8, 2022 | Increasingly, it is obvious that Gwinnett city and county elected officials and zoning board members need to make sure they cross their T’s and dot the I’s by being more responsible in one area. For they are mightily influencing the quality of life in Gwinnett by many recent decisions that could turn against them.
They are approving too many apartment projects. Should these governmental units take one small step that they have not done so far, it would greatly improve all our lives in the county.
What should they do? They should approve fewer apartment units, and instead insist to the developers they will quickly approve more multi-family units as townhouses and condominiums. While townhouses and condos have some drawbacks, they would be far better for the county than the many apartment dwellings that are flooding the county.
Why are townhouses and condos better? They are owner-occupied units, which results in better long range upkeep. Apartments often see occupants come and go, and eventually, they get shabbier, and can turn into tomorrow’s slums.
How does this take place? Apartment developers zoom in, often from other parts of the country, and erect these buildings with great efficiency, though not always using the best materials. Meanwhile, the units attract renters to this area, flooding the county’s excellent infrastructure (roads, schools, hospitals). But the developer is essentially only the construction person, who doesn’t want to be the manager of the apartments.
The upshot is that the developer soon sells to a management company, who fills the unit with tenants, and seeks to manage it at the least cost. This new owner of the units sees it increase in value as it fills with tenants, so ipso facto, they quickly take their profits and then sell (at a higher price) to another management company. Over the years, this cycle continues, and meanwhile, the so-called “high quality” units become no longer fashionable and spiffy, get only extended maintenance, do not flourish, and become slipshod.
You can see deterioration in units after units. Many times you know this is happening as the apartments get a new name, often to try to nullify the bad name of the apartments because of a recent shooting or other incident there.
Now let’s look at the condo or townhouse development. Since people must “buy” these units, they tend to take better care of “their property,” since they have skin in the game. They are the owners, and there is less come-and-go of new residents compared to an apartment complex. Over the long run, the complex continues to look good and increases in value, which benefits the owner-occupants.
There is one drawback: condos and townhomes have homeowner fees. These can be high fees to maintain the common property, if those elected to these boards are people with few business skills. Such boards can be poorly run, and result in bad management. The housing owners must insist that such boards are openly, democratically and professionally run.
In a nutshell, the reason that single-family homeowners tend to be opposed to a high density of multi-family housing is because they are more commonly apartments, which tend to degenerate. If our elected officials recognize that a plethora of apartments signal that the community will degrade the area in the long run, and instead vote to approve far more condos and townhomes, we’ll see a better Gwinnett.
Do your homework, elected officials! The key is in the details. Dot your I’s and cross your T’s by being more responsible by approving far more condos and townhomes in Gwinnett’s future.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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