Tax Allocation Districts may be coming to your doorstep.
As part of the city of Atlanta’s ongoing push to extend six Tax Allocation Districts, or TADs, through 2055, Invest Atlanta is hosting a series of community meetings in each of the existing TAD areas.
“We want to make sure that people understand what the TAD is, and how you use the TAD,” Invest Atlanta President and CEO Eloisa Klementich said.
From Nov. 4-10 the city will host meetings for the following Tax Allocation Districts; Eastside, Westside, Hollowell/MLK, Perry Bolton, Campbellton Road, Stadium Neighborhoods and Metropolitan Parkway.
It’s a chance for the community to see the updated TAD plans. After the release of a June TAD audit, the city opted to update its “redevelopment plans” for each of the seven districts. The new plans will be released in early 2027.
But first, Invest Atlanta wants public input. Klementich said with a process like the TAD extension proposal, “there are many things that may change along the way.”
After the June audit recommended better performance, transparency and “measurability,” Invest Atlanta hired four consulting groups to make some updates.
Together, they created an online interactive map for TAD projects around the city, and worked to create more “measurable” goals around economic growth. But Klemetich said at an October Invest Atlanta meeting that the agency would likely have to redo the “redevelopment plans.”
“We wanted to make sure that every community had the opportunity and the time with the consultants to be able to really flesh out what would be needed for their specific community,” Klementich said.
So, Invest Atlanta kicked off community engagement. The agency has already started online “office hours” for drop-in questions, and shown up to events like midnight basketball and Neighborhood Planning Unit meetings. Soon, they plan to do direct “group engagement” with major players like the Westside Future Fund and Grove Park Foundation.
“What we clearly heard was people didn’t want folks to get in front of a room and just talk at them,” Klementich said. “They want to be part of the conversation.”
The upcoming community meeting series will start on November 4. Klementich teased a “breakout session” model for the event. Attendees may be able to talk with consultants, talk about projects they want to see and TAD projects already in the works.
Still, Klementich knows TADs can be a confusing topic. One TAD conversation hosted by the Center for Civic Innovation spent 45 minutes just figuring out what a Tax Allocation District can even fund.
Essentially, TADs are a property tax economic development tool. Once the Tax Allocation District is created the city will freeze the base property tax value in a given area. For the rest of the TAD’s duration, any increase in revenue or “increment” will be redirected towards redevelopment.
If the city extends the TADs, the ongoing tax revenue increase would go towards major projects like the mayor’s massive Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative.
Klementich said on the ground, she finds it is “most helpful to give examples” and tell people about the “diversity of the tool and how it can be used.” She cited the city-owned Azalea Fresh Market in downtown Atlanta, which was opened with the help of a $1 million Eastside TAD investment.
But the TAD extension plan isn’t a guarantee yet. Atlanta City Council officially passed legislation accepting Dickens’ Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative framework and six TAD extensions in June. But in July, Fulton County declined the proposed 30-year extension.
In a public statement, the Fulton County Commission said it has lost out on $413 million in revenue since 2013. The commission also said the county would have lost in “excess of a $1 billion property tax revenue” if it extended the TADs.
“Tax Allocation Districts are an important tool for redevelopment,” Fulton County Commission Vice Chair Khadijah Abdur-Rahman said in July. “But redevelopment is just one of Fulton County’s many responsibilities. We must look at the whole picture and consider the many needs of our taxpayers – in healthcare, in public safety, in senior services and in the communities across this County that are counting on us.”
The city can still move forward with its plan, as long as Atlanta Public Schools decides to sign on. The school system has yet to take a public position, but the district’s website now includes new “sunset” or expiration dates for the six TADs listed in the NRI framework.
