Mayor unveils $5 billion neighborhood reinvestment plan for Atlanta
Key Points
• Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announces $5 billion Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative.
• The goal of the program is to bring opportunity, jobs, business growth, and choice to underserved areas in south and west Atlanta.
Mayor Andre Dickens has announced an ambitious plan for “direct, purposeful investments” in communities in south and west Atlanta that have been left behind due to decades of neglect.
According to a press release from the city, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative is a key pillar of Dickens’ Moving Atlanta Forward agenda by making the city the best place to raise a child while bringing opportunity, jobs, business growth, and choice to underserved areas.
The initiative plans to jumpstart development in specific areas by using existing tax allocation districts (TADs) to raise money for major investment projects that strengthen affordable housing, public safety, public spaces, health and wellness and dependable government. The areas include Beltline, Perry Bolton, Hollowell/MLK, Eastside, Westside, Stadium, Campbellton and Metropolitan, according to the press release.
The TADs are proceeds from future increases in property tax revenues captured by the City of Atlanta, Fulton County, and the Atlanta Public Schools system.
The initiative has identified $5.1 billion worth of investment through the TADs for citywide projects. The TADs, set to expire over the next 5 to 13 years, need to be extended beyond 2050 for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative to succeed, the release said.
Plans include:
- $1.9 billion for expanded transit networks
- $1.5 billion in trails and greenspace
- $1.3 billion in affordable housing projects both single and multi-family
- $170 million supporting health centers, recreation and grocery
- $88 million reserved for small business and commercial development
- $81 million in public infrastructure
The City of Atlanta has seen a 44% decrease in homicides, $30 million in youth services and non-profit investments, more than 11,000 new affordable housing units, the issuance of 189 owner-occupied rehab grants, and historically high public school graduation rates, according to the release.
“Together, these building blocks serve to create places where people live with dignity, move freely, learn deeply and grow successfully,” Dickens said in a statement. “Atlanta is a group project, an approach that really works when we apply the whole of government and the whole of community.”
Learn more about the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative at atlneighborhoods.org.
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