The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority is waiting for a green light from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the approval of rezoning, before it moves forward with the Overlook at Fairgrounds public housing complex across from the Coosa Valley Fairgrounds in North Rome.

Executive Director Sandra Hudson said the development would be done in stages throughout several years.

The housing authority is still working to acquire some additional property and is seeking Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds in the amount of $200,000 to assist with the acquisition of blighted property.

“Right now we’re getting all the property appraised,” Hudson said.

Doug Braden, assistant director of technical services for the NWGHA, said the project includes acquisition of approximately nine parcels that were not a part of the original housing complex, which was demolished in the summer of 2011. The entire gated development will cover nearly 7.5 acres.

“Architect Bill Jones has submitted the development plan to the Atlanta HUD office and from there to the Office of Fair Housing Department,” Hudson said. “The preliminary drawings are basically completed, and we’re basically almost ready to go out for bids.”

All told, the Overlook at Fairgrounds will include 32 units, 14 single-family homes and nine duplex units. The plans call for it to be developed in five phases. The first phase of development, which could get under way as early as this fall, will include three duplex-units; the second phase will involve six single-family homes; and the third phase will include five single-family homes and at least two duplexes.

The complex is designed as a gated community.

“We felt like that would give the overall property a feeling of being a nicer development,” architect Bill Jones said. “Anytime you can do some fencing it just enhances the aesthetics of the entire property. That’s primarily the reason.”

The gated public housing community would also fit in a little better with the Village at Maplewood upscale community less than a half-mile east on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

The initial request for rezoning of the property was withdrawn from consideration by the Rome-Floyd County Planning Commission because it did not include a proper site plan. Braden said a new rezoning application would be submitted for consideration in September.

Hudson said the estimated price tag for the development is about $4.1 million.

“We’re using replacement housing funds, we’re using $1 million of the proceeds from the sale of the Charles Hight Homes property, and we’re also using capital fund dollars that we get each year,” Hudson said.