Decatur, GA — The City Schools of Decatur School Board, at its Sept. 12 work session, directed the superintendent to apply for the necessary permits to move forward with a duplex project.
The school board owns four homes in Decatur and has discussed converting two of them into duplexes that would be used as affordable rental options for school district employees.
“Now that Dr. Whitaker is our superintendent, we just wanted to renew our commitment to this action and look forward to her working with the city of Decatur to bring that vision into a reality,” School Board Chair James Herndon said.
The school board has not said publicly how it will go about subdividing the homes.
“I will work with the city of Decatur to do so,” Superintendent Dr. Gyimah Whitaker said.
On Feb. 6, the Decatur City Commission unanimously adopted zoning amendments to re-allow duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes in single-family zoning districts. The ordinance went into effect on June 30.
Former superintendent Maggie Fehrman said at the Feb. 21 school board meeting that to make sure the homes could become multifamily homes, CSD would need to apply for permits with the city.
“That doesn’t mean this is going to happen overnight. We’ve still got a lot of work to do to figure out timing, how this is going to work,” Fehrman said. “CSD is not going to get into the business of being property managers or overseeing rental properties, but we do want to have and contribute to the opportunity to create middle housing for the city of Decatur with these two properties.”
In other business:
– During the work session, the school board also discussed grading and assessment. In 2021, the district formed a grading task force that was charged with studying equitable grading practices and offering recommendations. Last year, CSD implemented some of the recommendations from the task force, according to the presentation attached to the agenda.
Some of the recommendations from the…
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