City Council delays vote on revised apartment moratorium

A proposed apartment moratorium dominated the discussion at the Auburn City Council meeting Feb. 3.
The issue has been under discussion since fall 2014 and has again been pushed to a future meeting on Feb. 17. The ordinance needed unanimous consent to make it to a vote on its first reading, but was objected to by Councilman Dick Phelan of Ward 6.
The moratorium has been proposed to slow the rapid growth and buildup of apartment complexes, such as the currently under construction 160 Ross.
Citizens on each side of the debate spoke to the Council and audience and made their opinions known.
"It's like a feeding frenzy around Auburn right now," said Ray Huff, owner of Auburn Realty LLC. and proponent of the moratorium. "If it's ignored, I'm afraid we'll have a mess that's irreversible."
Huff said at least 10 contractors from multiple states around the country have contacted him in the last week, searching for real estate property to develop in the area.
"It's not every day that you have groups, whether they're local or from California or whatever state they may be from, coming into town and wanting to invest their capital in your community," said Nick Hayes, a citizen opposed to the moratorium. "To take that for granted and to effectively run them off I think is a dangerous practice and something that (the Council) may down the road regret."
Citizen and owner of Badger Realty, Chris Kearns, complained to the Council about his contracts not being able to be completed because of the proposed moratorium and argued his business would likely suffer if the moratorium were to pass.
"Businessmen need to be able to plan ahead," said local property owner Mike Williams, who is against the moratorium, "and also be able to depend on what the city tells us are the rules and regulations."
Williams also said his property value would decline with the implementation of the moratorium.
Many of the proponents argue because Auburn University has made it no secret they are going to begin capping student enrollment at 25,000 students, there is no need to further develop large-scale apartment complexes such as 160 Ross and Creekside.
"I feel personally, and a lot of my friends feel, that we are in too big of a hurry," said proponent Sandy Toomer. "We need to step back a little bit and to adapt the old zoning regulations to accommodate this future growth."
Other topics of the meeting included:

• Bradford Bass from the judicial department and Drucilla Cooper from public safety administration were presented honors as they retire from public service.


• The city passed the development agreement with Orange-Auburn LLC. to construct Newk's Eatery, an ordinance that was carried over from the Jan. 20 meeting after Councilwoman Lynda Tremaine objected.


• A 5-mill tax referendum was passed to allow a vote regarding whether or not to allocate a portion of city funds toward the construction of a new high school. Voting will take place April 28.