Affordable housing will be the top issue in the race for mayor, according to candidate Tim Denson, who is also planning a “moon shot” effort to address homelessness if elected. Denson wrapped up a series of summer campaign events last week by fielding questions from a small group of voters at Normal Bar. The former Athens-Clarke County commissioner said he would deal with an affordable housing crisis by encouraging building more housing and more diverse types of housing, as well as by bee...| Flagpole
Cobbham residents are asking the developer of a hotel behind the former UGA President’s House on Prince Avenue to reduce the size of the building by almost two-thirds. Gainesville-based Capstone Property Group has proposed an 88,000 square-foot, 116-room hotel on the five-acre property, with the historic house serving as a restaurant, bar and suite. The Historic Cobbham Foundation voted to support a hotel that’s about 30,000–38,000 square feet, in line with The Rivet House hotel at the ...| Flagpole
Earlier this month, Mayor Kelly Girtz announced that, for the first time, Athens had made it through half the year without a single murder. “This has been a team effort with ACCPD, every community support organization, and every resident,” he posted on social media. “We continue to strive for improvements, but this is a huge accomplishment.” That does not mean, however, that Athens no longer has a gun violence problem. From 2021–2024, there were 436 shootings in Athens, wounding or ...| Flagpole
The Athens-Clarke County Commission split along familiar lines in approving Commissioner Mike Hamby’s budget proposal that, in a novel juggling act, uses accumulated interest from sales tax collections to pay for a small property tax cut and a number of requested items, such as raises for sheriff’s deputies. Commissioner Carol Myers had proposed a budget that included a much smaller amount of SPLOST and TSPLOST interest—Hamby’s budget included $6.7 million and Myers’ $1.5 million—...| Flagpole