A slum for Sandy Springs?

Sandy Springs, Atlanta’s tony neighbor to the north, is about to do the unthinkable: declare part of its city a slum.

Just two months ago, the city was named the ninth-most affluent city in the country.

Tuesday night, the City Council must add the words “slum” and “blighted” to its resume as part of a process to create a redevelopment zone along Roswell Road.

“We are zeroing in on areas that are dilapidated, and that can only improve the neighborhoods,” Mayor Eva Galambos said.

Officials say the move allows the city to qualify as a state Opportunity Zone, which means tax breaks for any new jobs created at businesses in the zone.

But residents who live around the zone, mostly south of I-285, are furious about the potential label and suspicious of the city’s true motives.

“If you have to make money by declaring I live in a poverty zone, is it really worth it?” asked Elizabeth Jayes, who has lived in a brick ranch house on Osden Drive since 1996. “I wonder if there isn’t something else going on that they aren’t telling us about.”

That sentiment is echoed by others who agree that, much as Fulton County does, Sandy Springs has a north-south divide.

For instance, the area inside the Perimeter is packed with condo complexes and $300,000 homes in established neighborhoods.

That sounds pricey until you travel north and see the newer subdivisions and $2 million mini mansions.

The per capita income for the city is nearly $56,000, according to Portfolio.com, which ranked its affluence in February.

But the city qualifies for the redevelopment because of a sole census block south of I-285, where a cluster of large apartment buildings sits in the only area with at least 15 percent of the population designated at or below the poverty level.

However, few expect the city to have any pockets of poverty when the 2010 Census is tallied, because some of those complexes have been torn down and rehab work is ongoing in the area.

So they fear the city is rushing through the process in a bid to give it more power to remake the southern section in the northern area’s image.

“Of course, no one is concerned with improvements on Roswell Road,” said Tom Wells, who has lived on Beachland Drive. “But the big deal is, what does that mean for the neighborhoods you’re calling blighted? Will this motivate a developer to buy whole neighborhoods and assemble our properties for redevelopment?”

The state redevelopment programs, which are overseen by the Department of Community Affairs, constrain just what local governments can do.

Under its application for the Opportunity Zone, Sandy Springs would be restricted from using any eminent domain or similar effort powers, except in extenuating circumstances such as massive disasters. Its new powers would be limited mostly to waivers on local zoning or business laws, said Brian Williamson, DCA’s assistant commissioner for community development.

If approved, it would join cities like Norcross, which has the Opportunity Zone designation for sections of Buford Highway, in a bid to spur new jobs.

Sandy Springs could later create a Tax Allocation District to further encourage redevelopment, but state statues also limit that use.

“We don’t know the motivations of every local government, but everything I’ve seen is, this about redevelopment of commercial and industrial areas,” Williamson said.

Sandy Springs, which surprised residents with its plan just two weeks ago, has tried to impose further limits of its own.

The city is removing any owner-occupied condos and townhomes from its proposed Opportunity Zone.