KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Karen Williams

Episode Date: June 5, 2024

everybody it's your five-star relative to josh for your page progress team brok with peter's team brok with exp listen it's a brand new episode a brand new podcast called dream builders podcast we have a special guest with us councilwoman karen williams how you doing today i am doing great thanks for having me no problem thanks for coming we enjoy helping and i can not leave out the man of the our bradford page of page properties team all right good to see again to see you so miss councilwoman uh we have a question to ask you what are the responsible of a councilwoman and what do you do? Council members, whether they're male or female, we are responsible for policy making decisions.

That means we approve ordinances, resolutions. We also do legal legislation that covers public safety, the welfare, recreation. There's a lot of local legislation that goes in there. We also approve budgets for our city. We are also involved in approving landscape and site plans. We don't necessarily approve what exact business might go into a building, but we approve the building, let's say a strip mall. They may not have who their leases going to be at that moment, but we approve to make sure

that building is zoned for that area. A lot of people think that it's the city making the decisions of why are you letting another McDonald's or why are you letting another McDonald's? Why are you letting another Chick-fil-A there? The city doesn't own that property. There is an owner out there that owns that property, and you can't tell them they can't develop it or build it. And so that's a misconception amongst a lot of residents,

and I hope that we can throughout this just make that clear that our job is to make sure it meets the zoning regulations and it meets the easement. There's a lot of things it has to meet, and if it doesn't, then we say no. but we can't say no just because it's the second McDonald's. We would be sued over every single petition that came before us, and that's your taxpayer dollars,

and I'm very careful with taxpayer dollars. You definitely have a lot of responsibilities, for sure. We do. For sure, for sure. So being that you're a councilwoman in Pooler, Georgia, I don't think we discussed that, what are some key factors that make Pooler an attractive place for buyers, sellers, and real estate agents?

I would say Pooler is unique. because we have two major interstates going through Pooler. We have I-16 and 995. That allows for a lot of growth, and with the Honda plant coming, and all the supporting businesses that are coming to help Hyundai, that's bringing workforce development. We need more workforce development to fill those jobs,

and that's a good thing, and I applaud Governor Kemp for getting all these businesses to come here, but then it gives a problem for people, for pooler itself where do we house them you know then I contacted the school board said are we going to have places for these children to go to school so one will trickle down to other problems and you have to be proactive not reactive that's one of my key things that I always say proactive not reactive because then you're always going to be behind if you're not yeah growth is wonderful we've seen so

many changes in pooler in the time I've lived in the area 28 years and it's amazing well I think super Walmart was the big news out there years ago. And now it's like everything is there. So much commercial, everything you ever want to need or get is right there in Pooler and transportation like the highways and the airport. You know, I mean, it's all right there. I think that's a big selling point for real estate agents to be able to say,

look, this is a, and Pooler is one of the fastest growing, and I'm going to say that again, Pooler is one of the fastest growing cities in the state of Georgia. Yeah. So real estate agents can market that. They can talk about the growth. They can talk about the vicinity. You're hop-skipping a jump from Savannah. You've got these other surrounding cities.

So it's a very volatile market, a positive market for real estate agents, I would think, at this time. Yeah, a lot of pluses for sure. For sure. So I heard that pooler is cooler where it's pooler, right? Pooler where it's cooler. It's cooler and cooler. Yeah. I've been saying lately, get this one.

it's fast and furious. I've been kind of changing that a little bit, but it will always be cooler and cooler. And I kind of tie that into my initiatives with the tree ordinances that I had rewritten to protect our trees because we're doing a lot of clear cutting and that upsets a lot of people. And I'm the one that always ask those developers, can you put more trees when you replace it? Because there's a minimum they have to do. But you can always ask for more. And I have not had one single one say no yet. Oh, wow.

You just have to ask. You have to be proactive. Now, they may have said, we can't. There's utility or easements, but we'll try to fit some shrubs over here. You know, they might play around with a little bit. You just have to ask. Yeah. That's awesome.

So I understand there are upcoming developments in the Pula area. Just like you said, the projects like the Hyundai dealership and other things. but what are the, how significant is the impact of those places in the real estate market in pooling? Well, again, we touched on that briefly, the workforce that's going to be coming to fill those jobs. Yeah. And even just, even if you took the Hyundai plant and all that out of the equation, Pooler itself was growing before that. So we already knew we needed more people to come fill those jobs. But like, for instance, off of Pooler Parkway in the Mosaic area,

You've got Costco now and that whole area is going to fill up more jobs. You know, it is going to be more traffic so we're working on expansions and things throughout the city. But I just think that Pooler was already expanding before that and now it's going to add to all one positive things, but also it can be negative things if we don't get ahead of it. And I don't think, I'm going to be asking for the state to help us with my money. us with monetary funds because why should it be on the shoulders of my residents and Pooler to pay for all the infrastructure that these corporations, large corporations are coming? Yeah.

You know, I think it should be a shared thing. Bring that growth to us but help us out at the same time. Yeah, that's interesting. We've got large things at like the I-95 and Pooler Parkway intersection that we can't afford to do that on our realm. That's a multi-jurisdictional project. And so that alone is something we were looking at and have been working on for years now and now the Hyundai plant is coming.

So we've got major ones already but now we're going to have even more. So I would like to have to see some support at the state level. Oh wow, that's awesome because the next question I was going to ask was as a councilwoman, what initiatives have you addressed with the housing crisis in our community? Well remember it's not just one council person. We have six. Six and a mayor. Mm-hmm.

And I feel that Pooler does really well on our housing we have, but I do feel that we're missing a section. I believe we have the upper level of housing like Savannah Quarters, Worst Lakes, then we have some of the lower income levels for people who, you know, starting a home or their first home. Of course, those entry level prices have done this. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Somebody can figure out what you do about that.

Build more houses. Yeah, but I do believe that like a lot of cities are our size that are growing, I think we're missing what I call and what's been referred to in the market as the middle. The people that are not the lower level of income, but they're not the higher level either. Where do they fit in? They don't always necessarily want to live in an apartment or a townhome. They want a home too. Right.

So I think we could look at possible subdivisions like cottage homes like they have in South Carolina. You know, something a little bit, maybe no lot size, you know, very little yard, but have a home that would be good for a starting out family. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And that's all about builder profitability. If they can build a two-story and pay one and a half. stories yeah one and a half the price of a little cottage and then they can sell

it for almost double because of the square footage so that's always the challenge how you want it affordable for the builders you want to keep doing and keep building yeah but you want good builders yeah we've had some very good builders yeah in pooler really really because it's so beautiful I really see a lot of future growth in pooler and also the word in the community is that you're running for mayor of fuller I am Woohoo! Oh, party, party!

So what initiatives do you want to bring as mayor that you don't see now in the poor community? I would love to have some more community engagement. Really, that's something that's missing. I believe I've been reaching out to local artists and I know there's a lot of artists out there. Why can't we have an arts council so they can meet, say, quarterly and say, why don't we do this event with the artistic community? and then slowly grow that. A lot of cities have these different councils or boards.

They don't make any decisions. But they get together as a collective group that have the same interests, whether it's recreation, whether it's artist, and have that community engagement. So your residents feel like they are engaged. The more they're engaged, the more that they're informed, the more likely they are to be involved in the city. For sure. And they feel comfortable and not listen to rumors.

They'll know more. But these boards or councils could make make a suggestion, bring it to council, and then we could say yes, we can do that or no, we can't go back to the draw and board, see what you can do. You know, but there's several that I have in mind that I would like to do this community engagement. I want to continue my quest of keeping residents informed. I do my best on my councilwoman Facebook page to keep residents informed, and I will strive

to make that even better, but at a city level. I'll have to jump in and give a little testimony to that because there's a big project going on on what I used to consider the original pooler or some people call it old pool or the Route 80 corridor which is yeah which is really been ignored for a while with everything going on north and south of it and I know you were heavily involved in getting the word out about what was going on and had people coming out and actually walked the corridor with you to kind of see what was going on so I commend you I think that's people are excited about

growth but a lot of people are really afraid of growth being mismanaged. So it's you know obviously I'm sure that's a big concern for a long-time residents of a pooler going what's happening to our town it's not a town anymore and how do we get the benefits of all that good stuff without it getting out of control. Does a mayor or council have much control over that or how is that you alluded to it a little bit earlier on about you can make recommendations based on zoning and things like that but we do make the decision planning and zoning makes their planning and zoning board members are a volunteer and they're

appointed by council and mayor yeah we know any of these positions you're not there because you're gonna get rich no they don't get paid at all right volunteer position they make a recommendation to the council then the council makes the decisions and the mayor breaks the tie if there's a tie between the six But you're right, the overlay district was one of our big first of trying to get people's input And a lot of people when they first, oh, they're going to take my property. I'm like, no, we're not doing that. We're getting advice from people who have done this in other cities on how you can make an active highway

A town center that has its challenges. Yeah. So we're looking at lowering the speed limits. We're looking at, you know, a variety of things and they have their final presentation coming up the end of this month. So you'll see that out on my... on my page welcoming people to come to see what their ideas are. It doesn't mean we have to go with them.

But there are things that we can take in. That's one thing I want everybody to understand. As a councilwoman, I don't know everything. I'm not an engineer and I'm not a lawyer and I'm not a real estate agent. Although I was real estate paralegal for 15 years, I must put that plug. I will put that in there. Jim Gardner, if you're out there listening, you're a great boss. So you're the ones to make those attorneys look good.

Well, yeah, but Jim Gardner was a very good attorney. Even though I would look at title searches and stuff and point out things, he always finds something that I could. He was very, very good at that. But now I've lost my train of thought. But anyway, on the overlay district, we don't have to go with everything that they project, but I have seen some of it, and I do like some of what they're saying. And it will come out with time as a business is sold.

maybe the city could buy that business and implement another park or something like that. Some of these are far-off projections. Some of them are right-of-way suggestions. Like we have a lot of crosswalks that have just barely see them. They need to be upgraded. We need to lower the speed limit. We need something to distinguish the overlay district as this is the overlay district. This is our quote, quote downtown.

You could have lamp posts that are different from anywhere else in the city. Some designations. They even have an idea for a logo. So is it kind of, and I haven't dug into it deeply, shame on me, but is it kind of like building around the new town hall and everything? Is that kind of what the envision is to kind of make it a real hometown kind of feel to it? Yes, it is, but I'm very adamant to protect the residents that have lived there. They are the mainstay of Pooleur. They're the ones that were there.

They're the originals. They are the originals, and I think that they should be protected. I believe you can have the taller buildings in the center, but not right shoved into the residents. You know, not everybody agrees with me, but I believe that they should be protected. They've been here long before. And some of the original businesses, like Lozola's pizzas. Love Zolas, I love Lozolos. Yeah, oh, yeah.

Their cowsones are the best out there, go see Lozolas. And then there's spicy relish to put on your son that is out of this world. Yeah, the owner who founded it. It's from Boston, actually. Yeah. So, yeah. Good man. of that community. Yes, they are and very community engaged. So yes, they're a wonderful restaurant.

But yeah, that's some of the type of things that I would like to see continued, have more engagement from the actual residence of the city of four. Yeah, that's great. That's awesome. Well, not to cut a short, but, Ms. Karen, how can the viewers get in touch with you? Oh, that's a good one. Thank you. I have two Facebook pages, well, three actually, believe that. one personal and then I have Councilwoman Karen Williams and then I have Karen Williams for mayor. There is a funny rule with Facebook that if you're running for a different position, I can't post anything regarding my campaign on my councilwoman page. But my councilwoman page, you can like that one and the Karen Williams for mayor

because then you're getting all the information regarding the city, what we've approved. I also put a lot of other information on there, just general information that people might want to use. But then the mayor, Karen Williams for mayor, Facebook page is for the campaign, seeing where my events are, things like that. So I would ask everybody to like both of those pages. And my email address is K Williams at pooler dash ga.gov. That's awesome. That's awesome.

But thank you, Karen, for coming on another episode of Dream Builders podcast where our mission is to help buyer, sellers, and agents connect with the resource and knowledge to achieve their real estate goals. This episode and this production is sponsored by Pays Properties Team, The Dream E&T, Real Estate for a Reason, Make Real Estate Fun again. Y'all be blessed and catch you on the next episode. Peace.