Gwinnett commissioners approve affordable housing project in 4-1 vote

Gwinnett County commissioners on Tuesday voted to approve an affordable housing project that will allow a developer to put 168 apartments outside of Dacula.

Commissioners approved the project on 15 acres near Ga. 316 and Winder Highway in a 4-1 vote, after both staff and the planning commission recommended it be denied. Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash, who voted to deny the project, said she didn’t want to comment on her reasons for voting against the proposal.

“My practice is to let my votes speak for themselves, especially on zoning matters,” she said in an email. “I review each case and all the information associated with it in order to decide how to vote.”

County commissioners Ben Ku and Jace Brooks said previously they thought the proposal was a good one for the property, which is rocky and difficult to develop.

In approving the project, county commissioners added requirements for the developer, Birge & Held. They include that no more than 10% of the apartments have three bedrooms or more, that the complex be a gated community and that a future transit stop be part of the property’s design. In the meantime, the county will require that the developer provide a shuttle so residents can get to the nearest transit stop.

The apartment complex is geared toward residents who make between $35,349 and $51,660 a year — or 60% of the area’s median income. Transit access was cited as an important piece of making affordable housing useful to residents who might live there.

Jarod Brown, a Birge & Held managing director, said he needed “to digest” the county’s changes. But he said he considered the commissioners’ vote of approval a “big win.”