New South Cobb CID in Six Flags area to fight blight (Atlanta: apartment complexes, homes)

[netdragon]

The Marietta Daily Journal - Taking real action New south Cobb tax district proposed to target blight

It'll start with a a bond for improvements then use tax revenues to pay it off. Blighted properties would be targeted and need to be improved. The idea is to encourage redevelopment of the Six Flags area.

I often forget that there's a reasonably sized chunk of Cobb County South of I-20. I usually think of it as just Six Flags and an industrial park, but it's much bigger than that.

I personally think that this thing should include a MARTA RAIL station.

“There has been success in Marietta, Smyrna, Dunwoody and many others where they have an issue of declining apartment communities and its impact on the neighborhood — of finding a way of remediating that by removing some of the structures,” Johnson said. “I think the important part of that is learning from their successes and how they were able to stabilize an area through this method.”

Tax difference with a true CID:

One difference is that whereas property owners in CIDs agree to the tax, but commissioners would be approving the tax.

[MattCW]

Is it just me, or does everything have to be a CID now? I'm not necessarily knocking them, but they seem to be sprouting up everywhere. I just hope that they don't become too much of a good thing and everything ends up in a CID to the point where they're nothing special anymore and don't accomplish their goals any better than the normal government.

[netdragon]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Is it just me, or does everything have to be a CID now? I'm not necessarily knocking them, but they seem to be sprouting up everywhere. I just hope that they don't become too much of a good thing and everything ends up in a CID to the point where they're nothing special anymore and don't accomplish their goals any better than the normal government.

They work. The first CID was Cumberland, formed in 1984. Due to its success, a lot of other CIDs formed: e.g. Perimeter Center, Buckhead CID, Boulevard, Gwinnett Place, North Fulton, downtown and Town Center. And now there's new ones forming, e.g. Tucker CID.

This new one isn't technically a CID, since it isn't voluntary to join, but that's just a technicality because once you look past how it's formed, it's virtually the same thing.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Is it just me, or does everything have to be a CID now? I'm not necessarily knocking them, but they seem to be sprouting up everywhere. I just hope that they don't become too much of a good thing and everything ends up in a CID to the point where they're nothing special anymore and don't accomplish their goals any better than the normal government.

Originally Posted by netdragon

They work. The first CID was Cumberland, formed in 1984. Due to its success, a lot of other CIDs formed: e.g. Perimeter Center, Buckhead CID, Boulevard, Gwinnett Place, North Fulton, downtown and Town Center. And now there's new ones forming, e.g. Tucker CID.

This new one isn't technically a CID, since it isn't voluntary to join, but that's just a technicality because once you look past how it's formed, it's virtually the same thing.

Think of a CID as an incorporated city with no residents. The "townspeople" are the businesses. They self tax themselves to improve their area. You won't find a lot of residents within a CID, if so they are primarily apartment complexes. Single family homes are rare.

Net, as to your call for a MARTA station, other than serving the park at 6 Flags, there aren't many residents here to justify a line when there are so many other areas more deserving. MHO of course.

[netdragon]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Net, as to your call for a MARTA station, other than serving the park at 6 Flags, there aren't many residents here to justify a line when there are so many other areas more deserving. MHO of course.

I know politicians around there are calling for a MARTA expansion. It's really so close to Holmes that it wouldn't be very hard. http://tinyurl.com/pbfxdvj


There's a lot of business along Riverside, including but not limited to a Google data center. But it's mostly light industrial and small commercial. It's the weakest office market in the inner metro area. MARTA could encourage office growth in that area.

Also, the population density directly around Six Flags is higher than you'd expect. I'm talking about Six Flags Dr, Six Flags Pkwy, etc. It things out as you go out further from there until you get to the outer reaches of Smyrna's influence.

This area is completely cut off from the rest of Cobb, other than Powder Springs and Austell. By connecting it to MARTA, it may some day connect it via rail transit to Cumberland. It'd do so at much lower cost than building the transit through Cobb. It'd really be worth Cobb's while to fund a MARTA station out there. A big win for Atlanta would be getting Adamsville a station.