“Mercy is eager for us to enter into this agreement,” said South Rome Redevelopment Agency Chairman Jim Keaten. “We are going forward with all deliberate speed.”
Mercy Housing is proposing a 77-unit senior living apartment complex at the corner of South Broad Street and Etowah Terrace, a project that is being held up by a challenge to the rezoning of the property.
They had hoped to close by the end of this month.
Opponents of the Etowah Village project won a victory last week when the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed to hear a discretionary appeal of Floyd Superior Court Judge J. Bryant Durham’s dismissal of the legal action in June.
“We’re very fortunate that we picked the right development partner,” said Karen Moore, executive director of the South Rome Redevelopment Agency. “I don’t know if we had picked a for-profit developer that they would have stayed with us.”
Representatives of Mercy Housing were in Rome on Tuesday, meeting with Georgia Power officials at the Etowah Terrace property. Mercy has agreed to pay $420,000 for the property for the first phase of its proposed development in South Rome.
Karen Moore and the Darien DDA did not do the Settler's Bluff projec
May I ask where you got your information? I got mine from Ms. Moore's resume and from the Altamaha Riverkeeper(in Darien no less). Here is a direct quote from Ms. Moore's resume, "Prepared a successful OneGeorgia grant application for $500,000.00 which leveraged a $18,000,000.00 waterfront project including a public park, new docks, a successful seafood restaurant and oyster bar, and 43 condominiums."
That, sourcebook, is Settler's Bluff. Her resume also states her position and I quote, "Better Hometown Manager and Director of Darien Downtown Developemnt Authority (DDA) and Historic Darien, Inc." So why is Ms. Moore back tracking on her own resume?
I think it is time the city say good by and good riddance to Mrs. Moore and disband South Rome Redevelopment. Many communities across the country have managed to turn distressed neighborhoods around by simply empowering the residents and creating community input groups. I am sure this would cost this city much less than the 65,000 – 70,000 a year that they funnel to the Agency and you would see faster results that do not involve multi-family housing.
Also, this is a DCA Low Income Housing Tax Credit Project. As with any government grant funded project there are deadlines. Does anyone know what the illusive deadline date is for Mercy to begin construction or lose funding?