Citizens, residents and students will have an opportunity to discuss the way growth is being regulated by the City Council of the Loveliest Village on the Plains at a forum on Monday night, Jan. 18.
Keep Auburn Lovely will host a public citizens' forum on the growth of the city at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center from 7-9 p.m. Monday night.
An open forum for discussion and questions will follow a presentation by keynote speaker Bill Wright, chairman of Tuscaloosa's Student Housing Task Force. The Student Housing Task Force was created by Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox to investigate and recommend regulations on the construction of private student housing in Tuscaloosa.
According to Keep Auburn Lovely organizer Susan Hunnicutt, the forum will provide residents an opportunity to learn how another Alabama college town dealt with purpose-built student housing, or private dormitories.
"A lot of times people get busy and they're not aware of all these things that are going on until they break ground," Hunnicutt said. "This is an opportunity to make citizens more aware, voice their concerns or make a few comments."
Hunnicutt and other community members raised concern to city council members at the council's last meeting. According to Hunnicutt, city officials did not properly publicize that the council was voting that night on an agreement with a Birmingham real estate developer to redevelop the Gay Street municipal parking deck.
"A lot of people don't come to council meetings," said Lynda Tremaine, Ward 5 councilwoman. "I don't know if it's just because they don't feel comfortable in that setting. I have encouraged the mayor to have public forums twice a year to let citizens get their concerns out there."
Tremaine said she would be in attendance at Monday night's forum. The City of Auburn will also be hosting a public meeting to discuss the parking deck redevelopment project on Jan. 26, according to a city press release.
"I'll have my ears out," Tremaine said. "I'll be listening."
The Auburn community has been in an intense state of discussion over uncontrolled student housing construction for years, according to Hunnicutt. However, outcry really broke out after the construction of the student housing complex 160 Ross. Keep Auburn Lovely arose out of that outcry.
"Keep Auburn Lovely is a grassroots citizens' organization," Hunnicutt said. "We want to keep that small-town, village feel for people who come back and for future students. If the students would have wanted to go to school in Atlanta, they would have gone to school in Atlanta."
Hunnicutt, and another Keep Auburn Lovely organizer Sherri Griswold, said the organization is not against growth or more student housing closer to campus.
"You've got to have development, but the thing is, can we be smart about it," Hunnicutt said.
Griswold said she is not against students living in downtown, but construction should be sustainable. Apartments specifically built for students, with 2-4 bedrooms of equal square footage centered around a small, common living space, do not appeal to small families, young professionals, graduate students and even many undergraduate students.
"I never had a car when I went [to Auburn University]," Griswold said. "We understand that students need to be close. My concern is that there may be too many of those places and the students will leave them."
Students leave the large apartment complexes when a newer complex is built, leaving the existing complexes in disrepair and low occupancy, according to Griswold.
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