Community Corner

Residents Learn of Displacement Mostly Through Word-of-Mouth

Chastain and Versailles apartment residents in Sandy Springs will be displaced for a new development that will include luxury apartments and retail and office space.

It was remarkable that no Chastain or Versailles apartment residents appeared before City Council during the hours-long meeting, Tuesday, for rezoning for JLB Partners mixed-used development project.

Nearby homeowners whose property will be cut as a result of intersection realignment were there to voice their objections before the rezoning was approved. 

“We’re disclosing information but it’s probably because of our demographic,” said Wanda Santiago, a Chastain Apartments manager. “Our demographics are mostly non-English speakers. They don’t know or are not interested because the don’t understand.”  

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The apartment communities located on Roswell Road near Windsor Parkway will be torn down for the 21-acre site, which will include luxury apartments, retail and office space, restaurants and Sprouts grocery store, which is said to have the feel of a farmers market.

Residents React

Many residents are Latino and speak little English, however they manage to communicate successfully on their own, or through children and grandchildren.

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Salomon Arzate-Macedo said he has been living at Chastain for nearly 10 years and learned about the displacement through neighbors.

“They’ve never told us anything,” he said, referring to the leasing office.

Chastain manager, Santiago, said two letters have gone out to residents since last year, however, until an official vote came on the project, the apartment community has been signing people up for leases of various time frames.

“We’re disclosing the information to them. Every time they come in we let them know,” she said. 

Santiago, said she was not aware of the City Council meeting, Tuesday, and the vote to approve the development until she saw it on the TV news, that night.

She was not sure what the next immediate step would be for residents.

Conny Banos, her husband and three small children live with her mother-in-law Savina Herculana, a 13-year resident at Chastain. Banos said a new one-year lease was signed last fall and they learned of plans for the redevelopment two months ago. 

“We feel weird because they don’t tell us anything,” said Banos. “We just go ask and they say they will give us a letter with one to two months notice to leave.”

Domencia Rodriguez said she has been living at Chastain for six years. Her three children attend High Point Elementary School.  “We don’t want to move because of the school but if we have to move, we have to move.”

Rodriguez said she learned of the possible displacement in January.

Pastor: 'I just have a real concern for the city.'

About 179 children from Chastain and Versailles apartments attend High Point Elementary School, commented City Councilman Tibby DeJulio during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Many of the children participate in the Sandy Springs Mission’s afterschool program at the Church of the Atonement.

Sandy Springs Mission board of director Rev. Charles Starr is uncertain if the displacement will impact attendance in the program. Still, Starr said he is concerned about the families and the message that the City of Sandy Springs is sending.

“My biggest concern is that we [will not] make a space for low and moderate income people in Sandy Springs,” Starr said. “If we are into family values. These people area the most wonderful, family-oriented people that I have encountered, and I am just thrilled to be a part of their lives. They have so much to teach us. If we ignore that, that is our loss.” 

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