Atlanta’s next target for turning public land into affordable housing is a former park in the Westside.
The Atlanta Urban Development Corporation issued a Request for Qualifications for the first phase of redeveloping Gun Club Park, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. The winning developer will be tasked with turning the vacant site into a residential community. The submission period will run until Valentine’s Day.
The site spans 44 acres along the Proctor Creek Greenway and any development would prioritize access to recreational amenities, such as Westside Park.
The “trail-oriented development” would include single-family homes, townhomes and small apartment buildings, sporting an even split of for-sale and rental units. At least 40 percent of the rental units would be earmarked for those earning between 50 and 80 percent of the area median income. A quarter of homes for sale would also be affordable.
Overall, the development would deliver more than 200 units of permanently affordable housing.
Gun Club Park was established as the home of a gun range nearly a century ago. It transitioned to a recreational facility in 1957 and a public park a few years later. Since the 1990s, however, the property has turned into an underused dumping ground, leading the city to abandon it in 2003.
Developer Brock Built agreed to buy the site in 2021 in exchange for affordable housing units, green space, and the trade of a small parcel of land owned by the developer, according to SaportaReport. The deal, however, never closed.
Today, almost the entire park is forest space. A developer will need to retain 40 percent of the tree canopy in their project.
Two years ago, Atlanta Housing collaborated with several agencies to establish AUDC, charged with creating mixed-income communities on publicly-owned land with enough market-rate units to support affordable housing options.
The city nonprofit has worked towards more than a dozen deals for mixed-income housing projects across Atlanta, targeting properties such as the Mall West End and the 41 Marietta office building.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens aims to create or preserve 20,000 affordable housing units within eight years.
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