I don’t have time for a full post and I hate to push griftdrift’s post down the page so soon, but I think it’s important to point this out. The Fulton County Taxpayer’s Association is raising money to file a lawsuit to stop Atlanta’s Beltline project on grounds of it being against the state’s constitution. Here’s the reasoning:
“The proposed Beltline is the largest TAD in the history of our state,” Sherman said. ” Over the next 25 years, according to the Atlanta Beltline Feasibility Study, the Beltline TAD is estimated to support the development upwards of $1.7 billion in assessed taxable property or, approximately, $4 billion in market value.”
Atlanta currently has five TADs, with a total assessed taxable property value of $995 million, with the Beltline TAD approximating $1.7 billion, Sherman said. Under Georgia law, the total amount of taxes allocated to TADs in Atlanta cannot exceed 10 percent of the “current taxable value of all property in the city.”
The article also says Shirley Franklin wants to raise that ceiling to 15 percent to make room for the project. Thoughts?
That’s okay Rusty. The beltline might be the most profound change in the ATL for a generation (maybe several generations). I admit to being really torn about the beltline and would love to hear some other opinions on it.
This is an interesting development.
I must say that I am becoming very concerned about the Beltline myself, although for totally different reasons than FCTA.
The Beltline was initially conceived primarily as a new transit line around the city, and I think that’s what got a lot of us excited about it at first. However, lately the project has basically been taken over by parks/greenspace advocates, to the point that we are now seeing a very aggressive behind-the-scenes campaign to effectively strip the transit component from the plan altogether. Just a few weeks ago the 5-year “work plan” and budget were released (available at http://www.beltline.org), and sure enough, less than 5 percent of the initial round of spending is dedicated specifically to transit (see slide 22 in the plan).
I have nothing against more parks in the city, and certainly that should be an element of the project, but I really don’t believe the Beltline will have the transformative effect people talk about without improved transit as its centerpiece.
As it happens, several environmental and transit advocacy groups held a press conference today to call for a return to the initial transit-oriented concept — hopefully that will get some coverage.
I suspect that if he does successfully sue, the city and the state will simply change the law to make it fit. Not a serious concern to the Beltline’s chances, I’d wager.
However, I will definately agree that what got most people excited about the Beltline was the alternative transit options. At least that is what got me excited. I wonder if part of what happened is simply that the environmentalists have been so organized over the years that they were able to mobilize and hijack the concept. Certainly well intentioned, of course, but it looks like that is part of what happened.
The other factor is that in terms of development and property values, I was told that park space adds value in ways that transit doesn’t. So developers and the city may have that as a reason to emphasize parks over transit. Bottom line though is that the Atlanta region needs a strong, organized transit group to advocate for people who feel strongly about rail alternatives. I pay attention to transit issues, but the only people I ever see in papers, etc. is the B.S. “Georgians for Better Transportation”, which is nothing but a road-building lobby. A quick google search shows Citizens for Progressive Transit, but I honestly can’t say I’ve ever heard of them. Am I ignoring some group that is obvious and I’m just forgetting about?
Party Switchers
Can we really trust Democrat to Republican party-switching Lee Morris? Why did Lee in his final term in 2001 with the Atlanta City Council try to author legislation naming street signs after his children? Is it true that Lee Morris took a political payoff from Sonny not to run against Karen in exchange for a political appointment and funding in his race for Fulton County chairman this year? Visit Creative Loafing 2003. Public service is not for personal gain. Can we really trust a Republican?
Ben, CfPT has been around for about four years. We, along with the Sierra Club, organized today’s press conference.
Parks and transit both tend to have positive effects on land values, though in different ways. Parks (if they’re done right) tend to enhance property value because they enhance a local area’s quality of life standards. Parks tend to be very fickle in that respect, however, because they can also become havens for undesirable behaviors if they’re not kept up.
Transit adds value over a longer period of time because they enhance access to an area. As long as artificially low densities aren’t enforced (like they are around many MARTA stations), transit generally becomes a centripetal force on land use. Even with heavy-handed zoning enforcement favoring single family homes, the investment eventually pays off for the local tax base.
It’s interesting that we have a modern day General Sherman looking to burn and loot Atlanta.
Sherman argued that Atlanta’s tax burden is among the highest in the country. I would argue that the tax burden is so high partly because densities are kept so low. Of course, it also doesn’t help that Fulton County has been willing to pay for regional services for so many years without any help from Cobb, Gwinnett, Clayton, and in some cases DeKalb.
Once the Beltline TAD expires, CoA, Atlanta BoE, and Fulton County will be looking at a major pot of gold from increased property values.
The story of Atlanta as a Phoenix rising out of Sherman’s ashes is never more true than today. 150 years ago, General Sherman burned a large part of the city but left the people intact. Of course they would rebuild. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, however, the people were leaving, and the city deteriorated.
If the city were whole today, the TAD’s we talk about would be a) unnecessary and b) a smaller percentage of the tax base. It is only because we are trying to revive the city that the current TADs have such a high proportional value. It is only because the city was in such bad shape and because the current TADs have grown so well that they have such a high proportional value.
Any development along the beltline route will cease without the transit component. Legislators see the purchases and planned development and think they can get away with underfunding the rail portion. Nothing will be built until the rail portion is set in stone. These idiots would rather live in their crumbling ghettoes than pay an extra dime in taxes. They are zealots and we cannot allow them to run our government for us.
I have been a long-standing and visible supporter of the BeltLine. Coming from a major northeastern city, with comprehensive mass transit - and the densities needed to support it - I saw the proposed BeltLine as a unique opportunity to make Atlanta function more like a city, and less like an incoherent conglomeration of suburbs with escalating traffic issues. While I remain hopeful that this is still possible, I am suffering some buyer’s remorse. Like one of the posters, I am concerned greatly that this effort is being coopted by the parks/green folks without regard for A) the economic development goals (especially in historically under-invested and under-employed neighborhoods); B)the basic notion that Transit Oriented Developments (TODs) should cluster relatively high densities of dwelling units, businesses and neighborhood facilities around the transit nodes; and C) the need to keep parcels on the tax rolls and generate investment that will create the tax increment required to repay the TAD bonds. I can understand - with some disappointment - that single-issue advocates like TPL and the City Dept. of Parks, Rec’n & Cultural Affairs may tend to see all land use decisions through the prism of their parochial goals. What concerns me far more, is that ADA and the BeltLine leadership seem to be accepting this approach without challenge.
For me, the bottom line is that the BeltLine can be a tremendous asset to Atlanta if executed well. The jury is out now on whether or not that will occur.