Fulton County’s plan to build a tiny-house neighborhood may yet go forward — but probably not in College Park after county commissioners last month terminated the intergovernmental agreement that would have authorized the project there.
The city has now been formally notified of the termination, according to spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt.
“Our staff are now exploring any parcels owned by the County that would be suitable for this project,” Corbitt said in an email. “We are still in the assessment process at this time.”
A public relations firm for College Park did not answer questions about why the deal fell through. But city officials repeatedly balked at an agreement with the county calling for them to adopt a zoning amendment allowing “cottage home communities” as a conditional use in residential and transit-oriented districts, according to Will Johnston, CEO and executive director of project manager MicroLife Institute.
The county agreed in September with College Park and the College Park Business & Industrial Development Authority for Fulton to take ownership of two parcels, each 0.43 acres, at 3668 Jefferson St. and 1739 Princeton Ave. The land was valued at a total of $126,000, but cost the county nothing, and the land value would not have been included in the house prices.
The county had previously allocated $1 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project, aimed at alleviating a shortage of mid-range affordable housing in Metro Atlanta. In mid-April, county commissioners approved $330,399 of that allocation for MicroLife to manage the project.
MicroLife was the developer of the Cottages on Vaughan, Georgia’s first tiny-house community. Completed in 2021, the eight houses on a half-acre near downtown Clarkston have won several awards.
Johnston has said the plan for Fulton County is “very similar” to the Cottages on Vaughan, with six to eight 500-square-foot houses per half-acre. Now the county is looking for a site of 0.5 acres to 1.5 acres with civic amenities — transit, shopping and services — already nearby, Johnston said.
“The goal of ‘missing middle’ housing is to be already in a community that exists, not to create one,” Johnston said.
The county agreed to manage the “design, development, construction, and construction administration” of the units, choose qualified buyers through a lottery, and help the winners apply for things like down-payment assistance.
Fulton Commission Chair Robb Pitts, a strong proponent of the project, has said prices would likely run from $100,000 to $150,000.
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