DECATUR COUNTY, GA — A former school building in Bainbridge is now home to a new church, years after a proposal to rezone the property for an apartment complex was rejected by the city.
In 2023, the City of Bainbridge denied a proposal to rezone the former Pathways School into an apartment complex. The building has since been transformed into Connection Church.
A Bainbridge City Council member, speaking off camera, said the new ownership has done a good job of cleaning up the space and bringing value to the neighborhood, even without the addition of an apartment complex.
But local broker Rollins Miller of Premier Group Realty argues the apartment complex would have been a benefit to the broader community.
"It would have been nice to have been able to have that to fill some of the supply because there's a lot of demand for affordable housing — not just in Bainbridge and the surrounding communities, but all over our country," Miller said.
Neighbors say the church has given the neighborhood another place to find peace and a sense of community. Bainbridge neighbor John H. is working to address the area's housing needs in another way — his team recently built a duplex directly across the street from Connection Church.
"People need help, you know. We got a lot of people that don't have nowhere to stay. So trying to build a community up around where people have somewhere to stay at," John said.
Miller said addressing the affordable housing shortage in Decatur County will require action on two fronts — from the city and from neighbors.
On the city's role, Miller said, "It would be great if the city would be open to proposals for housing options for places that may not otherwise have been housing."
On the community's role, Miller said neighbors who want affordable housing must also be willing to speak up for it.
"The people who want affordable housing also need to advocate for it. Because, you know, everybody wants affordable housing until it's in their backyard," Miller said.
Community leaders are encouraging neighbors and the city to work together to move the neighborhood forward.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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