2,000-home, 800-acre residential community planned near Athens (Athens-Clarke County, Jackson: 2014, home builder)

[Airforceguy]

A 2,007-home, 809-acre residential community is being planned near Athens, Ga.

The 55-plus active-adult, master-planned development would be 10 minutes from Athens in the town of Arcade, Ga., and be known as The Villages of Victoria Station. According to developer Everett Major, the marketing theme of the development will be a vintage railroad town. The clubhouse is to be designed as an early 1900s era train station with the pool houses and lakeside pavilion being replicas of railway depots of that era.

Major says the primary market is the Athens-Clarke County area with spillover from Gwinnett, Jackson, Hall, Barrow and other neighboring counties.

The actual home builder(s) is still undetermined, and "negotiations are currently underway with several active-adult community builders," according to Major. Homes would be a minimum 1,650 square feet with two-car garages.

The development would be located at 940 Terry Farm Road in the town of Arcade, north of U.S. Highway 129.

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/..._news_headline

[Riggo44]

Any updates on this project? Thoughts about the town and general area around the development?

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by Riggo44

Any updates on this project? Thoughts about the town and general area around the development?

A little bit of research into the town of Arcade yielded this article from 2014:

The continuing prostitution of Arcade - JacksonHeraldTODAY

[Riggo44]

Originally Posted by DJDeadParrot

A little bit of research into the town of Arcade yielded this article from 2014:

The continuing prostitution of Arcade - JacksonHeraldTODAY

Thank you for sharing. This development would be more than the entire population of Arcade and certainly create a majority voting block of homogeneous and like-minded voters who could change the government in a hurry. And we know "old people" vote! This could get interesting.

Do we think this development is another case of "the continuing prostitution of Arcade"?

[JayHey]

Originally Posted by Riggo44

Do we think this development is another case of "the continuing prostitution of Arcade"?

More than likely it's another case of "announced development to never materialize".

Land is zoned as conservation and while the city would no doubt happily allow the covenant to break, the public outcry against this kind of development would be massive in Jackson Co.

[Riggo44]

Originally Posted by JayHey

More than likely it's another case of "announced development to never materialize".

You are likely correct, but the developer keeps submitting new plans, which is a costly process (the latest plan has less density than earlier). You would think he has received some sort of indication of viability from the city/county to go to this expense and the revisions appear to be in response to comments from them.

Should one be leery of any developments in Arcade considering its history?

[citidata18]

Some people really lack patience.

This project was just announced in March and plans of this scale can take several years to break ground, especially with the state of the economy (historically high material costs, historically severe labor shortages, tightening lending standards, etc.)

There's also putting the infrastructure in place in absorb the population boom, such as additional schools, fire stations, police stations, roads, parks, etc. Then there's getting all of the permits in place, which in most of the rural/exurban counties in Georgia the process is still stuck in the stone ages.

[JayHey]

I guess your patience remark was aimed at me. This project has been proposed since May of 2018.

My patience and understanding of how developments like this progress aside, if this gets greenlighted, that's great, but the Jackson County public is against it and the "developer" has no development history, has no capital, and has no signed on builder.

This is a pie in the sky idea. Could it happen? Sure. Will it happen? Unlikely.

[citidata18]

Originally Posted by JayHey

I guess your patience remark was aimed at me. This project has been proposed since May of 2018.

My patience and understanding of how developments like this progress aside, if this gets greenlighted, that's great, but the Jackson County public is against it and the "developer" has no development history, has no capital, and has no signed on builder.

This is a pie in the sky idea. Could it happen? Sure. Will it happen? Unlikely.

Stop being so negative.

As someone stated before, it's obviously a serious project if the developer is still filing paperwork to move forward (which is expensive and time consuming). This isn't 2003 where developers were able to start throwing up a ton of spec houses the very next day.

[JayHey]

Being realistic is not the same thing as being negative.

I'll be the first to congratulate Everett Major Jr when the rezoning is approved and bulldozers start clearing land.