Atlanta, GA: Mayor Shirley Franklin fulfilled her pledge to Vine City residents to restore their neighborhood after the September 2002 floods by developing a comprehensive plan combining waste- and stormwater treatment with community relocation and redevelopment. The Atlanta City Council in an 11-1 vote approved the Franklin administration's plan for the Vine City community. Residents from the flood-impacted area spoke in favor of the Franklin Administration's position of moving forward with the relocation and redevelopment plan and asked the Atlanta City Council to support their efforts to rebuild their lives through the neighborhood redevelopment plan.
Immediately after the weekend flooding of September 21, 2002, Mayor Franklin requested an engineering assessment of the proposed Mineral Springs Trunk Improvements plan (affecting Vine City). An engineering study indicated that if the Mineral Springs Project was implemented, the City would only "relocate" the flooding from Vine City over to the West End Neighborhood. The Mayor deemed this "unacceptable." After it was determined that the proposed $38 million plus project would not eliminate flooding in the "bowl" of Vine and Rock streets, the Mayor requested engineering alternatives. An independent assessment determined that the "best solution" was to tie drainage of the Vine City area to the tunnel system as mandated in the federal consent degree. The deep tunnel storage, conveyance and treatment alternative was considered the best alternative. By adopting this approach, the city would need to acquire approximately 12 acres for the tunnel worksite, thus impacting the flood area.
In February 2003, a recommendation was made to City Council to move forward with purchasing 70 residential and commercial properties identified as "flood prone" in the flood-impacted area of Vine City and to request the Council authorize this new project to be funded with existing bond revenue.
Coupled with the wastewater treatment project, Mayor Franklin charged Planning Commissioner Charles Graves to work with Tyler Place Community Development Corporation and the Vine City Health and Housing Ministries to construct new homes to be purchased by the affected homeowners. Commissioner Graves noted, "It was the City's goal to take a bad situation for the flood-impacted residents and use it as an opportunity to make improvements, not only to the impacted residents, but overall improvements for the entire community." The end product will be a 12-acre green space that will be the focal point of a new neighborhood development.
Commissioner Graves developed a plan that included:
- An offer by the city to purchase the impacted homes for up to 120% of their pre-flood, fair market value;
- The provision of down payment assistance of up to $50,000 to those residents who decided to relocate in the Vine City community;
- Assignment of responsibility to the community development corporations to absorb the cost of the lots to hold down overall costs, as the lots were initially bought with city funds; and
- Assignment of responsibility to build the replacement housing to the two Vine
City-based community development corporations working in conjunction with the city.
The home replacement program, coupled with the City's ongoing efforts to rehabilitate less severely impacted homes, was designed to help stabilize the Vine City community and to encourage homeowners to remain in this area. Homeowners who wish to sell their homes to the City and relocate elsewhere (outside Vine City) will not be not eligible for the "incentive" package.
The City relocated the 15 homeowners and is providing relocation assistance until they are able to move into their new homes. Additionally, the City worked with 54 families renting in the flood-impacted area to relocate them to other areas of the city or neighborhood immediately after the September flooding.