The Dalton City Council is scheduled to vote on Monday on the possible rezoning of 3.25 acres at 900 S. Hamilton St. for a planned workforce housing development.
The council meets at 6 p.m. in City Hall. The meeting is open to the public and will be livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel. There will be a work session at 5 p.m.
Members of the Dalton-Varnell-Whitfield County Planning Commission voted in January to recommend approval of the rezoning of the site from transitional commercial to urban planned unit development (UPUD). UPUDs allow developers more flexibility with site designs and are considered a tool for development, particularly infill development of vacant or underutilized land.
In January, Gov. Brian Kemp awarded the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Development Authority (JDA) $1.5 million in Rural Workforce Housing Initiative funds to build streets and stormwater drainage and other infrastructure on the site.
The city and the JDA hope to attract a private developer to build workforce housing on the site. Officials estimate the developer could build 39 units there.
The City Council agreed in October to provide up to $622,300 to the project, which has an estimated cost of $2.2 million.
Earlier in October, the council members approved a $22,300 contract with Prime Engineering of Atlanta for engineering services for the public infrastructure.
That property, basically an entire city block, was donated to the city by Mohawk Industries in 2011 and was the site of a chenille plant. The city had the building demolished shortly after accepting the property.
When Mohawk donated the site, the donation included a requirement that for 20 years the property could only be used for green space. The city and Mohawk agreed to remove that provision, and in 2023 the council members accepted a quitclaim from Mohawk removing that provision and then transferred the property to the JDA.
The Greater Dalton area is in the midst of a boom in residential construction, with more than 900 multifamily units under construction in the city and hundreds of multifamily and single-family units in the rest of Whitfield County planned or under construction. But officials said that after a two-decade drought in construction, more needs to be done, especially when it comes to workforce housing.
There is no universally accepted definition of workforce housing. It is typically defined as housing that could be afforded by those making a certain income, such as 50% to 120% of the local median household income or by those working full time in blue collar or public safety jobs.
The council members are also expected to vote on:
• A contract with Pyrotechnico of New Castle, Pennsylvania, to provide the fireworks show for the city’s Fourth of July celebration. Pyrotechnico has provided the fireworks for the city for the past four years.
• An agreement with Blue Line Solutions to provide photo speed enforcement in some school zones.