Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced an ambitious $5 billion neighborhood reinvestment initiative on Tuesday as part of his agenda to turn the city into the best place to raise a child.
“Even as Atlanta has prospered, there is still an untold story that we must confront if we are going to take our city to even greater heights,” Dickens said. “What Atlanta has had is tremendous growth, but what we have lacked is balanced growth for decades now.”
The mayor’s plan, named the Atlanta Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, aims to invest directly into the south and west sides of the city — areas that have long been neglected. Dickens said his team found more than $5 billion in potential investments and projects that could help to “balance” Atlanta’s ongoing development.
“The neighborhood reinvestment initiative is a cornerstone of my Moving Atlanta Forward Agenda, and the north star is making this city the best place in the nation to raise a child,” Dickens said.
It’s a pricey plan. Dickens wants to pay for the major projects using tax allocation districts, or TADs, that are tax proceeds on future growth and property tax revenue specifically set aside by the city of Atlanta, Fulton County and Atlanta Public School Systems.
But the TADs are all set to expire in the next five to 13 years. Dickens said they would have to be extended into 2050 in order for the plan to succeed. He would need support from Atlanta City Council, Fulton County and Atlanta Public Schools to extend the deadline for a host of districts: Beltline, Perry Bolton, Hollowell/MLK, Eastside, Westside, Stadium, Campbellton and Metropolitan.
But the TADs are all set to expire in the next five to 13 years. In order for his plan to work, Dickens needs them to be extended into 2050. He’ll need support from Atlanta City Council, Fulton County and Atlanta Public Schools to do it.
If Dickens succeeds, the Beltline, Perry Bolton, Hollowell/MLK, Eastside, Westside Stadium, Campbellton and Metropolitan TADs will all be extended — and they’ll pay for a host of projects.
Broken down, $1.9 billion will go to expanded transit networks, $1.5 billion will go to trails and greenspace and $1.3 billion will go to affordable housing projects. An additional $170 million will go towards health centers, recreation and groceries, and $88 million will go to public infrastructure. The last $88 million will be reserved for small businesses and commercial development.
The projects come from years of city studies, according to Dickens. He said it’s $5 billion worth of projects that “have come out of all these studies and action plans that you put together over the years.”
At the event, Invest Atlanta CEO Eloisa Klementich said the TADs will allow the city’s economic organizations to raise money through bonds that can pay for “vital projects.”
“At its core, the neighborhood strategy is about people, and that’s exactly what the tax allocation districts, or TADs, are about,” Klementich said. “It’s a flexible tool that creates private-public partnerships that really provide a high rate of return.”
Dickens is optimistic about the tax allocation district extensions, but he emphasized that the city has already made strides through several of the planned investment areas.
“To be clear, we’re already improving the quality of life throughout many of these communities,” Dickens said.
He named a 44 percent reduction in homicides inside the city, more than $30 million in investments in youth services and nonprofits, more than 11,000 affordable housing units and an all-time high 90.5 percent Atlanta Public Schools graduation rate.
“I believe our group project has proved itself to be worthy of investment,” Dickens said.”So now our neighborhood reinvestment initiative seeks to build on our successes and jump start development in specific areas for major investment projects.”
Does Andre get the say as he won’t be mayor in 5-13 years when this expires, unless he fails to be elected next month and is re-elected 4 years from now? Genuine question- as otherwise it seems to defer to the TBD mayor, city council, & APS in wait…
He won’t be there when the bills come due, but he will be there for the spending, groundbreaking, ribbon cutting, and speech making.
It’s from The Atlanta Way gamebook. Gain control of a large portion of the tax base in the city (including what should go to the schools and county) to maintain the power of the corporate-city regime. The Mayor will remain connected to that regime-machine and benefit from it far into the future, just as former mayors Young and Franklin have all these years.
Taking resources from Atlanta’s future children to make sure the developer handout machine is well-greased.
I really need someone to explain why the City needs TADs to issue bonds for neighborhood improvements, but they can issue bonds willy nilly for junk projects like a poorly-planned, underutilized parking garage in Grant Park.
If they paid for this with general obligation bonds, they would need to put it on the ballot and give us a say. They are terrified of that.
This is confusing. Atlanta city is certainly not a place people move to raise families. And it’s not because they are unaware of how great the schools are.
So the Mayor is doing one of two things, he is very ambitious and he is going to completely reverse the entire Metro Area dynamics. He is a man of great action.
Or, like Atlanta has typically been in it’s past (like Falcons attendance numbers lets say) this is the usual playbook of the city being dishonest about itself, and these are chamber talking points that have no reality.
The first question folks need to ask when considering an extension of the TADs is what precisely HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED with the funding so far as measured against what WAS PROMISED would be funded with the TADS. Simple task for advocates – line up the promises/line up the accomplishments. No rhetoric – just facts.
Extending Atlanta’s tax increment financing districts (TADs) another 25 years, when most of the areas are gentrifying/gentrified is bad policy and will actually exacerbate inequality. Most of the existing TADs will see rising property values without a TAD being extended. So the TAD extensions will divert revenue growth that would have happened anyway, away from schools, services, and citywide affordable housing.
TAD spending is not transparent or accountable to Council. Few TAD dollars go to actually providing affordable housing & little of that goes to deeply affordable housing. Less than 12% of units developed in the Beltline TAD, e.g,, have gone to units affordable to those earning <50% AMI (~$50,000 for a family of 4), where the need is greatest.
Not all affordable housing should be forced into TADs. Good locations for developments might be just outside a TAD or elsewhere in the city.
There is a tremendous need for more affordable housing dollars. This should be done through housing bonds and a much larger Housing Trust Fund.
Don’t divert dollars that will otherwise go to schools to fund shadow-government organizations. Fix the undertaxation of large commercial properties & use those funds for citywide affordable housing.