South on Main, Big Picture for Woodstock

Screenshot from https://www.jwcollectionhomes.com/home/south-on-main.

Today I canvassed alone in the South on Main neighborhood. It’s close enough to my apartment that my husband and I sometimes walk through it. The place is beautiful — there’s a community garden, a little stage where neighbors can put on shows, well-kept parks, and homes that all fit together in a thoughtful way. The whole neighborhood feels like a little paradise.

And it’s expensive. The cheapest homes I could find for sale there are over half a million dollars, and many listings push close to a million. What blows my mind is how many people in Woodstock actually can afford that. A quick look at Zillow shows plenty of buyers lining up, and when you canvass you meet folks living comfortably in homes I’ll never touch.

South on Main shows what good planning, walkability, and amenities can look like. The challenge is making sure Woodstock doesn’t turn into a tale of two cities — one where some folks enjoy stages, gardens, and safe streets, and the rest of us are just trying to keep up with rent, traffic, and rising costs.

I don’t exactly mind canvassing alone, but some days I’m just not in the mood. It’s not scarier — it’s just harder. As an autistic person, I’m used to masking: acting the way I think people want me to act in social situations. But I was late diagnosed in 2024, and that’s when I realized a lot of the etiquette and mannerisms I’d defaulted to weren’t just me being polite or being a “Southern lady” the way my mom taught me — they were me trying to act the way other people expected me to. It’s hard to be true to yourself when the real you doesn’t always match what everyone else wants.

Anyway, while I was out today, I met a very nice man trimming his jasmine bushes. We chatted about the election, and I told him plainly that I was not MAGA. He pointed me to the next house, where the neighbors invited me in. They told me their biggest issue right now is that the developer in their area annexed another property and wants to add it to their HOA. They love where they live, but they don’t like being forced to take on the costs and responsibilities of somebody else’s project.

And look, I get it — the guy makes good houses. They’re well-built, the service is solid. But you’ve got to think about the big picture. These are JW Collection homes, John Wieland’s company, and somebody needs to think beyond the brick and siding. Big picture means traffic, livability, long-term community — not just whatever the developer feels like doing.

Because it’s clear he hasn’t listened to the people who live there, even though they love their homes. The fact that they’re showing up at City Council meetings begging for help tells you something’s missing. That’s where City Council should step in — not rubber-stamp, not shrug — step in and help people deal with the problem.

Apparently the new condos coming to South on Main are the same project those neighbors were talking about. The developer annexed another property and wants to fold it into the existing HOA. That means the current homeowners — who already pay significant dues — would suddenly be responsible for the costs and risks of maintaining those new units and amenities.

The residents aren’t against new neighbors. They’re against being blindsided and forced to pay for decisions they didn’t get a say in. And they’re right. They’ve spoken up at City Council, and they’ve been ignored.

And here’s the other piece: these condos aren’t going to be attainable housing. They’ll be priced at the same rate per square foot as the existing homes in South on Main. That means luxury price tags, not new opportunities for regular families.

I even pulled up a listing: a move-in ready South on Main house, 3,500 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 4.5 baths, priced at $929,900. That’s about $265 per square foot. At that rate, a 1,200-square-foot condo would run over $300,000. A 2,000-square-foot condo? Over half a million dollars.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with building beautiful homes for people who can afford them. South on Main proves that good planning, design, and construction are possible here in Woodstock. The problem is that we’re not also building beautiful, well-planned homes that people on smaller budgets can afford — and right now, I don’t see that happening.

But it can happen. Other cities have found ways to require or incentivize developers to include attainable housing. There are tools like inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, or partnerships that bring more housing types into the mix — duplexes, townhomes, smaller condos — at prices that regular working families can actually reach.

We don’t have to accept a future where Woodstock only builds for people who can pay $500,000 and up. We can demand a bigger picture — one where the city grows with options for everyone, not just the top slice of the market.