Located in northeast Georgia, Athens is known for its historic charm, legendary music scene, and bustling energy from the University of Georgia. Similar to other communities across the country, the high demand and low supply of housing has left new and long-time residents grappling with a lack of suitable rental options and hindered retaining young professionals after graduation. As such, and like so many similarly sized communities, housing is one of the key community missions identified in the adopted 2023 Athens-Clarke County Comprehensive Plan, which states the goal to provide:
"Housing options that meet the varied needs of the community, including housing for families and a diverse workforce. The housing stock will provide quality options with a variety of types, prices, and locations."
Seeing this need, our client, Mallory & Evans Development, contacted us to utilize Opticos’ Missing Middle expertise to create a build-to-rent (BTR) community unlike any in this market: a place that is a series of compact, walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of uses and housing types, not just a monoculture single-family homes to rent that is typical of BTR developments.
The Design Approach
Nestled on 85 acres just south of downtown, bordered by a lake, and with a regional bike trail connection, the development will provide a variety of building types, including seven core Missing Middle types, some single-family homes, and small-scale commercial buildings dispersed throughout four distinct neighborhoods. These centers include pedestrian focused open spaces designed to create a sense of place, that promotes walkability, community, and diverse housing choices. At the main entrance to the development, the Arts & Entertainment District, with 25,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, will be a neighborhood and regional attraction for food, entertainment, and services. The project is designed to take advantage of the surrounding natural beauty with access to the adjacent lake, stream, and wooded area with pathways off of the public greenway that traverses the entire project.
This project uses several types in our Missing Middle Neighborhood Kit™, but expands the catalog of types and provides elevation/character alternatives for the types currently included.
Core Types:
- Live-work
- Mansion Apartments
- Courtyard Apartments
- Multiplexes with 2-8 units
- Mews Homes
- Townhouses
- Cottage Courts
Entitlement Strategy
Athens has a history of being a challenging place to get projects, especially non-single-family projects, entitled. However, due to our national expertise, brand, and previous Missing Middle Housing scan work with the City, the Athens planning staff was excited that Mallory & Evans was bringing an Opticos Missing Middle project to the region. Like many other cities’ requirements, every elevation for every building was required for a typical submittal. Knowing this did not make sense for a unique project of this scale but that the city would want some level of predictability of implementation after entitlement, we proposed creating an Architectural Design Book.
This document identifies a range of architectural themes with specified characteristics and includes several sample elevation designs for the full range of single-family, Missing Middle, and commercial building types that make up the neighborhoods. This gives the city the predictability they want while ensuring the client has the flexibility they need to make adjustments as the market responds to the project and economic conditions shift.
When this deal came along, we had a strong vision in what we wanted to develop and recognized we needed a strong design partner to accomplish this undertaking. Having followed Opticos and their work for quite a while we knew they had the ingenuity and experience to guide this process. Once it was finally time to assemble a design team, they were the first group that I called. Since that call working with the Opticos team has been a very collaborative and enjoyable experience and fit right in with the rest of the team. They immediately understood the vision, the goals, and the path forward to get us to an end result, that at this stage of development process, has been overwhelmingly well received by the planning department and our investors. I look forward to continue working with them on the next project milestone.
— Jake Strickland, Vice President, Mallory & Evans Development, LLC
Looking Ahead
The plan is currently in the entitlement approval phase, having had a positive initial presentation to the City Council. Thanks to the collaboration between Mallory & Evans Development, W&A Engineering, and C3 Studio, Athens-Clarke County City Staff have deemed it highly compatible with the Comprehensive Plan and could serve as an example for future development in Athens-Clarke County. Stay tuned for future project updates as we work to bring more Missing Middle Housing to Athens and many other cities around the country!
Want to discuss how Missing Middle Neighborhood Kit™ housing types can be integrated into your current and upcoming projects? Contact us to find out more.