This story has been updated.

Tucker, GA — A housing study discussed during the Aug. 28 Tucker City Council work session revealed that while Tucker’s home prices have increased since 2017, its population of school-aged children has declined.

Tate Davis presented a draft of the housing study conducted by KB Advisory Group along with Lord Aeck Sargent. Data for the study was drawn from surveys, the US Census, and information on real estate trends.

To see the study, click here.

Davis said that since 2017, new household formation has grown faster than the population, and there are fewer families with school-age children but more with children under 5, while the number of people over 65 has doubled.

The study also found:

— Median household income as of 2023 is $81,000.

— 62% of Tucker residents own homes; while 38% are renters.  20% of homeowners are cost burdened, meaning they are paying more than 30% of their income.

— Approximately 57% of renters are cost burdened.

— Single family detached housing is 60% of current housing, and Tucker is nearly at capacity for it, with room for about 100 more houses under current zoning.

— The median home sale price grew over 90% from 2017 through 2022. The median home price was just over $300,000 in 2017 and grew to nearly $600,000 in 2022.

“Demand for housing is high, and is likely to remain high,” Tate said.

Tate said that the greatest potential for housing growth would be townhomes and small multifamily developments.

In other business:

— Todd Long of Atlas gave an update on the stormwater infrastructure assessment that the company is conducting for the city of Tucker. Assessment of one stormwater basin is complete, one is in progress, and Atlas anticipates completion of the rest by mid-2024.

“We’re finding a lot of different types of conditions, as you can imagine,” Long said.

The city will be able to plan improvements basin by basin as each is completed, and create capacity models once the survey is completed.

“I never knew in my life I could get so excited about stormwater and infrastructure repairs… but it has been the number one priority in the community,” Councilmember Virginia Rece said.

— Michael Kidd, owner of Root Design Studio, LLC offered an update on plans to repair the dam at Twin Brothers Lake in Johns Homestead Park, expand the fishing pier while making it accessible, improve an existing pavilion, add educational signage, and build new trails.

Kidd said his company is currently working on permitting, planning to have final construction documents in November and start bidding the project out and begin construction in the first quarter of 2024.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Councilmember Noelle Monferdini.

In response to a question from Councilmember Alexis Weaver, Kidd said that the dam project is at least a fifty-year investment.

Kidd said that the dam was originally constructed about 70 years ago to “no sort of code or anything,” and added that engineers on the project had found sites of failure.

Council members Monferdini and Rece expressed the need for urgency because of erosion downstream from the ponds. Kidd warned that repairing the dams will mean a lot of disruption, but said that the results will be worth it.

— City Engineer Ken Hildebrandt discussed plans to create a dedicated left turn lane at Fellowship Rd. and Lavista Rd., and to cut back kudzu and otherwise improve landscaping to improve sight distance at the Lawrenceville Hwy/I-285 interchange.

— Hildebrandt also discussed the results of a North/South connectivity study conducted by Kimley-Horn. The study included Montreal, Cooledge, Brockett, Idlewood, and Fellowship roads, and considered traffic volumes, accidents, congestion, speeding, transit, and possible pedestrian improvements.

Kimley-Horn recommended 35 projects, ranging from minor improvements to significant changes at intersections. Hildebrandt said that his department already had about $1 million allocated for those projects, and would seek federal funding for some of them. Hildebrandt said that his department would be seeking authorization to start on some of the smaller projects.

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