A public hearing on a possible moratorium on the construction of apartments drew a large crowd to the Auburn Chamber of Commerce Monday night, Nov. 17.
Mayor Bill Ham Jr. wanted to get the community involved in a decision to stop new apartments being built in Auburn when he brought up the idea at a Nov. 4, City Council meeting.
"I said, I bet if we throw the word moratorium out we'll probably get some involvement," Ham said addressing standing-room only crowd. "Well I think we have."
Ralph Draughon Jr., Ph.D., was the first member of the public to speak at the hearing.
"I'm not only for a moratorium--I'm for a crematorium on multi-family apartments," Draughon said.
Resident Tee Kern wanted to see better zoning regulations.
"Most cities, gosh, have rules that you can't do this kind of thing in their city," Kern said. "That dollar store [Dollar General] that went up, what does that add to Auburn? You know it's a monstrosity."
Other residents brought up concerns with increasing traffic downtown, and buildings being built so close to the street that there is no room to widen the roads.
"Those areas are in our urban core, and so we purposely permit those building to come out closer to the street," said Forrest Cotten, director of the Auburn Planning Department. "And quite frankly, we accept the fact that in an Urbanized area those roads are somewhat designed to be constrained."
City Manager Charlie Duggan addressed some of the residents' concerns.
"One of the reasons we're here tonight, and a lot of people will leave probably frustrated, is that we don't have a lot of answers and that's why we're doing this," Duggan said.
Ray Huff, owner of Auburn Realty, said he wanted the city to form a committee on the issue from regular citizens.
"We got to figure a way to separate student housing versus multi-family housing," Huff said. "I recommend a two year moratorium to get a grip on this, because where I see this going is not good for our community."
Huff added as students flock to newer apartment complexes, older complexes will become vacant or a mix of students and non-students.
"I've been in the student [housing] business for a long time, and when you get a big mixture of students and non-students you have problems," Huff said.
Chris Kearns, owner of Badger Properties, said the demographics of the town have changed over the last 30 years.
"Thirty years ago it was basically, if you want to call them, students, breeders and geezers, that's fine if you break it up that way," Kearns said. "But that's not the way it really is now. There's a lot of people in between 25 and 35 that don't own a house but they still live here."
Kearns said he believes the city should do more to ensure apartments can last after their novelty has worn off, and just because a project is planned, does not mean it will be built.
"The downtown condo boom was two buildings, okay," Kearns said. "Two buildings in this town built after 1987 that were more than two stories tall. It's not New York City. It's not Detroit. It's still Auburn. It's just a little bit bigger than it was before."
After the meeting, Ham said he did not think much resolution came from the meeting, but it was evident from turnout people care about the issue.
Ham added the city would continue to research the next step for the city.
"I really like the idea that was brought up about putting a task force together," Ham said.
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