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Stories
When tackling housing issues of older adults meant spearheading a region-wide change in zoning ordinances, the Aging Atlanta Partnership realized it needed help.
As part of the national Community Partnerships for Older Adults program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Aging Atlanta Partnership worked to improve the lives of older adults in Atlanta. And one of the most critical issues the Partnership identified in its early assessment of the region’s challenges was that metropolitan Atlanta’s sprawling residential areas were ill-equipped to handle a rapidly growing population of older adults.
In fact, those residential areas posed a significant stumbling block for that aging population. A lack of pedestrian-friendly elements made it difficult for people who decrease their driving to access basic services such as grocery stores and doctors’ offices. And if a resident wanted to downsize from, say, a large, single-family home to a smaller or more accessible dwelling such as a condo or apartment, they often were forced to move to another neighborhood. The reason? Zoning ordinances blocked neighborhoods from having a mix of dwelling types. “On a basic level, these ordinances segregated the types of housing,” says Aging Atlanta Partnership Director, Kathryn Lawler. “And that was becoming a problem for older adults.”
Initially, the Aging Atlanta Partnership wasn’t equipped to tackle a complex web of county-specific zoning ordinances. But as many of the 50 partnering organizations watched older adults they knew leave their communities — and their well-entrenched social networks —for more suitable housing, they knew something had to change.
As a result, representatives from the Partnership, and the Atlanta Regional Commission, (which housed the Partnership and works with 10 greater Atlanta counties) met to figure out how to widen the group of participants in this important conversation. The Aging Atlanta Partnership ultimately extended its reach into more unfamiliar areas, drawing in volunteers such as land-use planners, transportation experts and architects to help unravel a tangle of municipal and regional zoning ordinances.
“Policy is clearly a big part of this issue, and these are policies that were made without regard to the older population,” says Lawler. “But those of us working in aging issues didn’t have any clue how to talk about code enforcement or zoning rules. We needed partners who could speak the language.”
A problem of design
Atlanta has experienced a population explosion in recent years. From 2000-2008, more than 1.1 million people moved to the metro area -- the second highest influx in the country, behind only Dallas. And that followed heavy growth in the 1990s, with double-digit growth rates in many metro counties such as DeKalb and Fulton.
But while the population grew at a rapid pace, Atlanta’s older adult population was posting strong growth numbers of its own. The older adult population in Atlanta doubled between 1970 and 2000, and is expected to double again by 2015. And by 2030, one in five Atlanta residents will be over the age of 60.
The housing needs of this older population weren’t likely to be served in their current neighborhoods, the Partnership found. The vast majority of residential housing were single-family homes on relatively large lots, and on cul-de-sacs with no walkable access to local services. And if an older adult wanted a less-expensive home or a home with a more accessible layout, they were essentially out of luck. If you needed to downsize, you needed to leave the community Partnership leaders found.
For older adults, that meant leaving behind church congregations and familiar stores, and saying goodbye to friends and family. “Leaving was a big blow to those social networks they’d developed,” says Lawler. “The places people live play a big role in their happiness, so we needed to figure out how we could provide them services and how they could remain in their communities.”
Changing zoning regulations was the key. A shift in zoning ordinances would allow communities to mix townhouses, condominiums and houses in with single-family homes in neighborhoods, thereby allowing older adults to find appropriately affordable or accessible housing without leaving their community.
Finding a local contact to carry the message of zoning change in each of these areas was a key first step. The Partnership started by working with regional stakeholders, including elected officials in each of the 10 counties represented by the Atlanta Regional Commission. “It was important they started to talk our message when they were in public,” says Lawler. “If we were going to be effective, they needed to preach our message.”
Among the first to sign on was Sam Olens, chairman of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners. Olens was particularly effective, speaking at chamber breakfasts and regional meetings about the critical role of older adults in the community, and how the county could do a better job of taking care of these people.
Cobb County in 2005 was the first county in the state to adopt a senior housing zoning ordinance that allowed for smaller, denser housing arrangements for older adults. Gradually, other regional officials followed Cobb County’s lead. In the past few years, the Aging Atlanta Partnership has helped six other jurisdictions adopt similar zoning ordinances. The result: Roughly 1,500 new housing units have been created through these new zoning ordinances. And each new ordinance gets closer to a more livable ideal of encouraging high-density housing —on the order of eight to 12 units per acre — that is located within walking distance services and is on public transit routes.
While that the initial Cobb County ordinance wasn’t perfect, it was a step in the right direction according to proponents. What’s more, the county’s decision to pass the ordinance — and Commissioner Sam Olens’ initial support — was a significant breakthrough in the Aging Atlanta Partnership’s goal to change zoning ordinances throughout the Greater Atlanta’s 10-county core region. “Because Sam Olens was a very influential guy, having him be the first started a chain reaction,” says Partnership Director Lawler. “It was a big win because people started to understand how land-use policy would affect the older population.”
Broadening the circle
While elected officials such as Sam Olens were key to the zoning changes, the complexity of these ordinances led the Partnership to cultivate relationships with other experts. Architects and land-use experts were required to weigh in on issues such as door width codes and zero-step entrances. (Such issues were of critical importance when planning housing that would fit the needs of older adults, some of whom required wheelchair-accessible layouts or designs to accommodate reduced mobility.) And lawyers were needed to make sure new ordinances fit with federal and local regulations. Bringing in such people helped establish credibility for the Partnership, according to Partnership members.
Cathy Berger, the director of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Area Agency on Aging stepped in to help smooth the communications between the groups. In that role, Berger worked with a variety of stakeholders, from planners in the Regional Commission’s office to regional transportation officials. “We had to take our coordinating charge and take it a step further, working with organizations outside our sphere of experience,” says Berger. “And if we were going to step into a planning function and help design communities, we were going to have to all talk the same language. That was a huge, huge step.”
The partnerships forged through the Aging Atlanta Partnership’s zoning project have became part of a broad coalition that today is the foundation of Atlanta Regional Commission’s Lifelong Communities Initiative, an ongoing program that aims to rethink the design of Atlanta’s existing and future communities in ten counties. The Lifelong Communities’ three-pronged approach seeks to tackle not only housing and transportation issues, but also issues around healthy lifestyles and information and access services for Atlanta’s older adult population.
In early 2009, the Atlanta Regional Commission coordinated a series of Lifelong Communities charettes to solicit input on six master plans for sites in three counties and three cities in the Greater Atlanta region. The plans include a mix of residential development that spans age and income demographics, but also aim to meet the needs of the area’s older adults.
The charette was very successful in building momentum for the project in a short amount of time. Looking back on the Aging Atlanta Partnership’s zoning efforts, Project Director Lawler admits the difficulty of keeping the momentum moving forward when dealing with hundreds of people and dozens of groups and agencies. But bringing such a diverse group together to effect change is a potent testimony for the power of Partnerships. “I think people are transformed through Partnerships, both as individuals and professionals,” says Lawler. “The zoning experience was such a great experience — it really made a dent. And when you can make a dent in systems change, you know that Partnerships work.”