Beltline ruling threatens other projects (Atlanta, North Druid Hills: zoning, home, investment)

[Atlantasfinest]

Will this ruling stand? Is this another blow to the future of inner city Atlanta and the future development that needs the beltline to help galvanize local neighborhoods. Here the article below...any thoughts?

Beltline ruling threatens other projects | ajc.com

[PeteyNice]

I get the idea from reading the article that this scheme had been used before and noone challenged it. It is certainly bad news if the Beltline gets scrapped. However, iirc, that God awful Sembler project by North Druid Hills was going to be funded the same way. If this ruling knocks that off then there is some silver lining.

[cocopuffy]

Its bad for the Beltline (which I think is a great idea) but I think its was a just ruling...Atlanta has was way too many problems with public education to be using that money for something else. I also have a problem with Atlanta slapping these TAD districts on people to pay for semi-private initiatives.

[south-to-west]

That really sucks. TADs are a damn good way to fund reinvestment inside of the city. Also, it's a good investment for schools since TADs have the potential to increase property values at a rate tenfold faster than they would otherwise without any incentive. Schools are also well-funded by the 1% SPLOST sales tax.

Say what you want about developers--sure they're in it for to make money, but they are also are gutsy enough to take risks that most people wouldn't take. TADs make it possible to alleviate some of the risk, as well as to write-down over-inflated speculative property values that hinder reinvestment in the first place. This ruling will definitely do more harm than good.

[johnatl]

It certainly will. TAD's have been extremely successful here, and are largely responsible for the intown residential boom weve been experiencing.

PeteyNice - The TAD for North Druid & Briarcliff was intended for transportation improvements to the area, and I beleive it passed. It needs to happen with or without the awful Sembler proposal. You do know that Executive Park is getting ready to explode with new redevelopment, right? The zoning is already in place for this one, and they are talking about 650,000 sf of new retail and several hundred thousand sf of new office.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by johnatl

PeteyNice - The TAD for North Druid & Briarcliff was intended for transportation improvements to the area, and I beleive it passed. It needs to happen with or without the awful Sembler proposal.

It's always best to oppose ANY Sembler project. Sembler came into my area with smaller projects a while back. The whole town showed up to show them how a poorly designed entrance/exit at the center caused a very hazardous traffic situation in my neighborhood. They went ahead and built the center as-is anyway, and today we have daily near-accidents and fender benders all the time as a result. There were also some other issues and when people and even tennants in the new center emailed Sembler about it, for the most part their emails and calls went unanswered. So yes, you want to oppose Sembler, because they have zippo concern for the areas they build in.