Dalton City Council approves UPUD rezoning, seeks to create workforce housing

Charles Oliver, The Daily Citizen, Dalton, Ga.
·3 min read

Feb. 6—Cities across the state are trying to catch up with the demand for housing, said Ethan Calhoun, a planner for the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission who handles planning and zoning staff work for 15 counties and 48 cities, including Whitfield County and Dalton.

"Dalton has been well ahead of the ball in planning for urban development," Calhoun said at Monday's meeting of the Dalton City Council. Calhoun briefed the council members on the proposed rezoning of 3.19 acres at 900 S. Hamilton St. for a planned workforce housing development.

Calhoun said the staff analysis came back with a "resounding" recommendation to approve the rezoning of the site from transitional commercial to urban planned unit development (UPUD). UPUDs allow developers more flexibility with site designs and are considered a tool for development, particularly infill development of vacant or underutilized land.

The Dalton-Varnell-Whitfield County Planning Commission also recommended approval of that rezoning at its January meeting.

And on Monday, the City Council members voted 4-0 to rezone the property to UPUD. Mayor Annalee Harlan Sams typically votes only when there is a tie.

The Greater Dalton area is in the midst of a boom in residential construction, with more than 900 multifamily units under construction in the city and hundreds of multifamily and single-family units in the rest of Whitfield County planned or under construction. But officials said that after a two-decade drought in construction, more needs to be done, especially when it comes to workforce housing.

At a work session before the meeting, Believe Greater Dalton Executive Director Allyson Coker told the council members most of that development has been in the middle price range and there is a need for more development at the higher end and at the lower end for low-income and workforce housing.

There is no universally accepted definition of workforce housing. It is typically defined as housing that could be afforded by those making a certain income, such as 50% to 120% of the local median household income or by those working full time in blue collar or public safety jobs.

In January, Gov. Brian Kemp awarded the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Development Authority (JDA) $1.5 million in Rural Workforce Housing Initiative funds to build streets and stormwater drainage and other infrastructure on the site.

The city and the JDA hope to attract a private developer to build workforce housing on the site. Officials estimate the developer could build 39 units there.

The City Council agreed in October to provide up to $622,300 to the project, which has an estimated cost of $2.2 million.

Earlier in October, the council members approved a $22,300 contract with Prime Engineering of Atlanta for engineering services for the public infrastructure.

That property, basically an entire city block, was donated to the city by Mohawk Industries in 2011 and was the site of a chenille plant. The city had the building demolished shortly after accepting the property and transferred it to the JDA last year.

When Mohawk donated the site, the donation included a requirement that for 20 years the property could only be used for green space. The city and Mohawk agreed to remove that provision, and in 2023 the council members accepted a quitclaim from Mohawk removing that provision and then transferred the property to the JDA.