FW: Atlanta Business Chronicle: Mayor What the Dickens scales back plan to extend all TADs

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From: Mark Woodall <woodal...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 5:35 AM
To: Neill Herring <neillh...@earthlink.net>
Subject: Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Mayor What the Dickens scales back plan to extend all TADs

 

Story Highlights

What’s This?

• The mayor wants to close two tax allocation districts, including the city's largest, at their original expiration dates.
• The remaining six TADs would be extended through 2055.
• The pivot from the original plan to extend all of the TADs is intended to address some of the concerns raised by local officials.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is pivoting from his original plan to extend all of the city’s tax allocation districts ahead of a series of critical votes.

For several months, Dickens has urged local officials, business leaders and community members to keep all of the city’s TADs in place until 2055. A tax allocation district is a designated area where new property tax revenue is reserved for economic development projects within the same boundaries.

The TAD renewal would serve as a primary funding source for Dickens’ Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative (NRI), which calls for directing billions of dollars into affordable housing, healthcare, transit, trails and other quality-of-life projects in underserved areas.

Dickens told Atlanta Business Chronicle in an interview late last week that he is now proposing that the Beltline and Perry-Bolton TADs end at their current expiration dates in 2030 and 2041, respectively.

Letting the Beltline TAD expire would take away a dedicated funding source for real estate and infrastructure projects, including transit. But he said that letting it lapse would address concerns raised by county commissioners, school officials and council members.

Dickens’ plan hinges on support from Atlanta City Council, Fulton County and Atlanta Public Schools.

“I’m an optimist, so I’m full steam ahead on everybody participating,” Dickens said.

Created in 2005, the Beltline is the city’s largest TAD. The district encompasses about 6,500 acres around the 22-mile trail corridor and captures upwards of $80 million in annual revenue.

The Perry-Bolton TAD covers more than 500 acres in northwest Atlanta. Established in 2002, the TAD collected about $13 million in tax revenue in 2023, according to an analysis from the nonprofit Center for Civic Innovation.

The mayor plans to address Atlanta City Council on May 18. Legislation will be introduced to extend six of the TADs: Campbellton Road, Eastside, Hollowell/Martin Luther King, Metropolitan Parkway, Stadium Area and Westside.

Courtney English, the mayor's chief of staff, told reporters that extending the six TADs is estimated to generate about $5 billion to $7 billion in revenue. He said extending all the TADs would generate about $10 billion to $12 billion.

The Beltline has served as a catalyst for growth and development, spurring more than $14 billion in private investment since its inception, according to an economic impact analysis released earlier this month.

More than 91,000 jobs are located within a half-mile of either side of the corridor, according to the analysis, which also found that the area gained an additional 26,000 residents between 2010 and 2023.

Some say that the Beltline TAD is no longer necessary to spur redevelopment.

Consider the Eastside Trail, the most visited piece of the trail loop that is now lined with luxury residences, trendy restaurants and some of the city’s most expensive office space. It is home to major mixed-use developments such as Ponce City Market, Fourth Ward and the Krog District.

Approximately 18 miles of the Beltline trail loop will be complete in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. That wouldn’t have been the case without the Beltline TAD, which has supported trail construction, affordable housing and other projects.

Extending the TADs would require buy-in from Fulton County and Atlanta Public Schools to capture the maximum amount of revenue. County and school officials have expressed reservations about keeping all of the TADs in place for several more decades.

Atlanta Board of Education Member Ken Zeff, who served on a 13-member oversight commission for the NRI, suggested in the group's final report maintaining the current expiration dates for the TADs and then drawing new ones.

While transit, trails and greenspace are "important civic priorities," Zeff said they shouldn't take priority over APS commitments such as competitive teacher salaries and universal preschool access.

“[The Beltline TAD] has done most of its work,” Dickens said. “... It seems like the appetite of most people is [to] close that out, and that gets a whole lot of cash back in the hands of the school system, Fulton County and the city. We’ll just let that happen.”

However, Dickens said that there is still work to be done elsewhere on the Beltline, particularly along the southwest. He said it would be difficult to fund big projects without the TAD.

Dickens included several Beltline transit lines in a preliminary list of projects that could be funded by renewing the TADs. Streetcar extensions and light rail along the Southside Trail were among the proposed projects.

Dickens estimates that light rail could only be built along one-fourth of the 22-mile corridor without the Beltline TAD, even when factoring in the More MARTA sales tax approved by voters in 2016.

“You can get a good bit of things like bus rapid transit – rubber tires, something that’s like an autonomous vehicle on there,” said Dickens, who retracted his support last year to proceed with light rail on the Eastside Trail.

“It becomes extremely difficult to do a 22-mile loop of light rail without a TAD,” Dickens added. “With a TAD, that becomes more of a possibility.”

Dickens and his allies say that extending the TADs is necessary to address longstanding disparities in access to housing, healthcare, fresh food, jobs, transportation and other essentials.

Some critics have questioned the results of the smaller TADs covering high-poverty areas, including Perry-Bolton and four others collectively known as the corridor TADs. They collect substantially less revenue than the larger Beltline, Westside and Eastside TADs.

The Campbellton Road, Metropolitan, Hollowell/MLK and Stadium Area TADs were created in 2005. APS didn’t agree until more than a decade later to participate in those TADs, limiting the ability to fund projects in the areas, Dickens said.

“After about three or four years of the school’s taxes being in there, now we’re at a point where those TADs are starting to see some money,” Dickens said.

The corridor TADs are set to continue through 2050, and Dickens wants to extend them for several years past that. He said he expects that investment will sweep through the Perry-Bolton TAD by the time that it expires in 2041.

Republican state lawmakers have argued that it would be unlawful to extend all of the TADs. Under state law, a jurisdiction cannot create new TADs if more than 10% of its tax base would be located within them.

Roughly 18% of Atlanta’s tax base is now located within a TAD. Closing out the Beltline TAD would put the city just under the 10% threshold, Dickens said.

Even when the Beltline TAD expires in a few years, the city likely would only be able to create a small TAD to remain under the threshold, Dickens said. It takes several years for a new TAD to generate enough revenue to fund projects, he said.

The NRI focuses on several neighborhoods and corridors, including Adamsville/Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, West Hollowell, Grove Park/Bankhead, English Avenue/Vine City, Downtown, East and West Campbellton, Lakewood/Jonesboro Road, and Thomasville Heights.

Councilmember Matt Westmoreland, who co-chaired the NRI oversight commission, noted in a report that many of Atlanta's census tracts most in need of investment are not located within the TAD boundaries.

Dickens said he plans to create a trust fund to bring grocery stores, housing, health centers and other investments to the priority neighborhoods located outside of TADs.

In addition to extending the six TADs and creating a trust fund, the legislative package from the mayor’s office will include measures aimed at mitigating displacement in changing neighborhoods and putting “tighter reins” on which projects receive funding.

The NRI is supported by many in the business community. The Atlanta Committee for Progress, a group of business executives and nonprofit leaders, is working with the mayor to create a “backbone organization” to raise philanthropic dollars for the NRI.

“What happens in the neighborhood does actually affect what happens in the boardroom and in the corporate landscape,” Dickens said. “Corporations make big investments in their cities to bring employees and customers in. A city that is healthy and safe, and their employees having great communities to live in, is important.”

“It's also important to have a city that has housing at all income levels, because most corporate leaders have employees at all income levels,” Dickens continued.