THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WTXL) — Outdated zoning laws have left hundreds of lots in Thomasville sitting empty, but new rules could bring back smaller homes for real families.Video shows
- 1,200 empty lots make up 85% of the city’s vacant land, mostly in traditional neighborhoods.
- A proposed zoning update would allow for “missing middle” housing like duplexes and triplexes.
- Even building on just 10% of those lots could add 100 new homes for working families.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Nearly one in four lots sit empty in some Thomasville neighborhoods.
They've stayed that way for decades.
I'm digging into how new zoning could finally turn these wasted spaces into homes.
"Really the idea was to be able to unlock some of the vacant properties that we have in our traditional neighborhoods to be able to provide more options for more attainable housing, more workforce housing," said Kenny Thompson, City planner.
Right now, the majority of the city's vacant land is within traditional neighborhoods: about 1,200 lots total.
That's 85% of all vacant parcels citywide.
Many have been sitting empty because current zoning rules don't allow for smaller or more flexible home designs.
City leaders say that zoning makes it hard for builders or nonprofits to use smaller, oddly shaped lots.
Now, the city wants to bring back what's called "missing middle housing" — like duplexes, cottages, and smaller homes.
These were common in Thomasville up until the 1950s.
City planner Kenny Thompson says they could still match the look and feel of the community today.
"So the missing middle housing is a way for us to legally allow a variety of housing types that are at the same scale as our traditional neighborhoods. And historically were found in our neighborhood," said Thompson.
Groups like TCDC, the Thomasville Community Development Corporation, are ready to jump in.
Earl Williams, director at TCDC, says the new zoning would let them build more houses on smaller lots, helping keep costs low not just for builders, but for future homeowners too.
"Our end goal with Thomasville Community Development Corporation is to actually build affordable housing. So part of that process is to try to keep all the costs, including the cost of land, as affordable or as cheap as possible, so that we can make sure that we pass it on to the end user," said Williams.
They already have a lot of plans in place.
One of them is an empty lot on Fletcher Street. Current zoning would only allow three homes there. Under the proposed rules, they could build five new homes on the lot.
If the zoning changes pass in August, Williams says TCDC could build 40 new homes in just the first year.
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