After residents living at the Orchard Apartments in downtown Cumming were notified that they could be displaced due to plans to redevelop the area into a large mixed-use development, the city’s mayor said nothing is set in stone.
Cumming Mayor Troy Brumbalow told the Forsyth County News this week that while he was aware of the proposed development and the effect it would have on the low-income seniors living at the apartments, no plan had yet been approved by city officials.
“I cannot stress enough the point that this has not even been before the city council of the city of Cumming,” he said. “Nothing has been approved, it’s not even been before the council or the planning commission to make a decision to approve or deny.”
Brumbalow said the proposed development dates back to before he took office at the beginning of 2018.
“This development went through the (Development of Regional Impact, or DRI) process. It started in November of 2017 and was later withdrawn, then it was brought back, and it’s still not even been before the council, so there’s absolutely nothing that’s been approved,” he said.
The development, known as Mashburn Village, would sit on 63 acres between Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Atlanta Highway (Hwy. 9.) The roads will be connected through an extension of Orchard Circle.
Last week, officials with the city of Cumming provided the FCN with plans for the development, which is planned for both sides of Orchard Circle. The project would include a public/private parking deck, multi-story self-storage facility, a pedestrian connection to nearby Movies 400, green space, trails, 75,000 square feet of retail/flex space, a restaurant, civic space, a grocery store and other amenities.
For housing, plans show there will be 320 leasable flat units, 85 lots for single-family homes and 31 lots for townhomes.
The project was designed by Atlanta firm Wakefield Beasley & Associates, who were previously associated with construction of the Forsyth County Courthouse and Jail, Halcyon Forsyth and Avalon in Alpharetta, according to the firm’s website.
It is not clear when the project will come to the city planning board, which will give a recommendation before the city council makes a final decision.
Brumbalow said that the owners of the property hypothetically had the option to close the apartments at any time without any approval from the city, whether or not the property was being developed.
Currently, the land where the development is proposed to be built is split into several parcels and owned by Sawnee Valley, L.P.; Orchard Apartments LTD; Marital Trust & Mashburn Farms LP; Martha Mashburn Lappe; and Marcus Mashburn Jr. & Alice S. Mashburn Family Trusts.
The mayor said he sympathizes with those who live at the Orchards. He had first-hand experience with living on a limited income through helping his single-father with bills from the time he was a teenager and his dad living with him for the last 15 years of his life.
“He was lucky enough that he could live with me and my wife,” he said. “There are a lot of other people who aren’t so lucky. It’s one of those things that we don’t want those people thrown out on the street. Compassion sometimes seems to be a rare commodity.”
Issues with affordable housing, Brumbalow said, are far from just a local issue.
“Affordable housing or even housing for the homeless, that is a nationwide issue,” Brumbalow said. “It’s not a city issue. It’s not a Forsyth County issue. It’s nationwide, and the city of Cumming can’t solve it. We can only try to do our part, but it’s much larger than us.”
Brumbalow said there have been talks between the city and a local non-profit about a possible center for either low-income residents or the homeless but said it was still early in the process.
“This is very preliminary,” Brumbalow said. “We’re working right now with a non-profit. I don’t know that right now is the time to say who until something is concrete, but the city would be looking to work with them and potentially providing them the land to create affordable, or in some cases even free, housing for homeless in the community.”