DAHLONEGA, Ga.- The City Council had its first meeting with KB Advisory Group to kick off the housing study and begin outlining what the study will encompass.

The council voted to approve KB Advisory Group for the housing study at the Aug. 15 special call meeting. To review that meeting visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/08/16/first-distilled-liquor-license-approved-by-city/. The housing review has been one of the top issues the council members had on their to-do lists while they were in office.

The study has six tasks that will be completed over the next 16 weeks. The first task is housing study and demand assessment which means that over the next few weeks the group will be reviewing all available data for the City of Dahlonega and Lumpkin County. Their starting point for the data will come from the census, to view that information visit https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dahlonegacitygeorgia.

The second task is a qualitative assessment of local housing preferences. This is where members of the group will interview local stakeholders in the city and also begin hosting public meetings. The council will provide a list of the potential stakeholders that KB should meet.

The potential date for a public open house is Oct. 17 at 6:00 p.m. this date however is not set in stone and more information will be coming out on the public open house. When it does take place the council intends to use the community room at the park and rec to allow more room for the graphs and charts KB will be providing. This will be an opportunity for the community to meet with KB and give their input on what they view as housing needs in Dahlonega.

The third step in the study is comparing regional cities analysis. This step will take a look at cities with similar demographics, tourism, college involvement, and topography to compare with Dahlonega. Council members gave suggestions such as Blue Ridge, Statesboro, Milledgeville, and Carrolington that they thought would be good areas to compare with. KB will take those suggestions and review them and they could use them or potentially other cities for the comparison.

The fourth step is to analyze the housing gap in Dahlonega. This step is to identify where the supply and demand needs are for the city. This will point in a direction for where the next step needs to go.

The fifth step is to align the current policy to the housing needs. In this step, the group will review some of the zoning policies already in place. They will however not be rewriting those policies just making suggestions to the council based on what the study reveals and what is in place.

The final step in the process is for KB Advisory Group to present its findings to the council. The council will then take the findings and decide what steps they need to take to move forward to address the housing needs in Dahlonega.

One issue that was brought up during the meeting was how the topography would affect the study. The representatives for KB did not know that the housing study would be able to solve the issues created with that but that it would be kept in mind throughout the process.

Heard in the clip above is President of KB Advisory Group Geoff Koski explaining that they understand how to tackle this task. Koski was also joined by Director of Real Estate/Urban Planning Consultant Tate Davis at the meeting.

“I think that one of the keys needs to be what we want to become as a city,” questioned Councilmember Ross Shirley.

To review the presentation that Koski and Davis made to the council visit https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/dahlonega-pubu/MEET-Packet-17caeeeb7a394bb08e55532e7b612ce6.pdf. More information about KB Advisory Group can be found at https://www.kbagroup.com/. This was just the first meeting for the 16-week-long study, there will be many more and opportunities for the community to have a say in the process.