The Atlanta City Council is expected to approve an oversight commission Monday for Mayor Andre Dickens’ $5 billion plan to spur development in some of Atlanta’s historically neglected neighborhoods on the south and west sides.
The resolution would form a 13-member Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative Commission to “ensure fiscal responsibility” and “due diligence” as the body considers legislation to extend eight active tax allocation districts, or TADs, until 2055.
They are set to expire between the next 5 to 13 years.
The oversight commission would convene in January and deliver its recommendations and findings later in 2026. It will review the more than 215 line items in the mayor’s office project list, according to District 8 Council member Mary Norwood, who sponsored the resolution along with Post 1 At Large Council member Michael Julian Bond.
Norwood told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that council members “all agree with the mayor’s goal.”
“Every single one of us wants all communities in the city having access to appropriate resources, to have safe and clean communities, to have healthy outcomes,” Norwood said.
“Though that goal is laudable, the question becomes, which one of these line items … are appropriate for TADs … or are there other ways that we can achieve the goal?”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Council members had agreed to try to complete their work in three months after talks with the mayor’s office on Tuesday, according to Norwood. If the resolution passes, the commission would deliver its findings no later than June 30, the resolution said.
The commission will include representatives from the City Council and the mayor’s office, and four representatives from Invest Atlanta’s TAD Committee, whose members include representatives from Atlanta Public Schools, Fulton County, and the Atlanta Planning Advisory Board.
The chairs of the City Council’s Finance/Executive Committee and the Community Development/Human Services Committee will co-chair the commission. Members will include people from civic institutions, foundations and nonprofits, Norwood said.
Dickens’ press secretary Michael Smith said ahead of Monday’s meeting the mayor’s office was coordinating with Council members as they finalize the resolution.
Dickens and his chief of staff, Courtney English, have said the plan would address persistent income inequality and poor outcomes in historically segregated parts of the south and west sides of the city.
Even so, critics have questioned the wisdom of extending the districts and say they should be allowed to expire so revenue can go to the city’s general fund and Atlanta Public Schools. Some have argued extending the TADs may even accelerate gentrification and price people out of their communities.
English, who is leading the plan, has said ongoing uncertainty about federal funding means the city needs to lean on other sources to create transit, affordable housing, parks and trails, and improve the city’s aging infrastructure.
The chief of staff has said that extending the TADs would give the city more leeway to fund current and future projects and issue redevelopment bonds.
If extended, the base property value in the districts would remain frozen. Tax growth above the base would go toward redevelopment funds rather than the city’s general fund. That revenue is used to repay the bonds for the city’s redevelopment projects.
For example, the Beltline TAD’s base year assessed value in 2005 was $542.9 million. It’s assessed value is now $4.25 billion, according to the resolution.
Council member Matt Westmoreland said that legislation to extend the city’s TADs would come up for a vote after the commission has done its work.
He said there is “universal support” on council for Dickens’ plan. But “in some instances” the mayor’s plan aligns with tax allocation districts “and in some instances they don’t.”
“Thomasville Heights, for instance, is a priority neighborhood. That’s not in a TAD,” Westmoreland told the AJC.
Citing the city’s economic mobility, recovery and resiliency plan, which maps parts of the city that have fallen behind, Westmoreland added that he wanted to make sure lawmakers discuss the best way to lift up communities that fall outside tax district boundaries.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Even though council members have lingering questions, including whether the plan would tie the hands of future administrations, they have given it an overwhelmingly warm reception.
Still, Norwood denied that the City Council is just a rubber stamp for the mayor and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative.
“Anybody who knows me knows I am not a rubber stamp kind of gal,” Norwood said.
The resolution would allow the commission to create subcommittees, including on housing, transit, infrastructure and education, and the meetings will be open to the public under the Georgia Open Meetings Act.
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