Council approves funding to complete Atlanta BeltLine trail network
The Atlanta City Council adopted legislation March 15 that will help generate the remaining funds needed to complete the full 22-mile loop of the Atlanta BeltLine.
The proposal creates a Special Service District (SSD) that will provide an additional $100 million toward completing the BeltLine’s multi-use trail loop by 2030 — as well as unlock a $100 million match from Atlanta’s philanthropic community.
These new revenue streams also provide Atlanta BeltLine Inc. with an opportunity to invest an additional $45 million toward housing affordability and $12 million toward support for small businesses around the loop. In addition, the organization has set the goal of spending 50 percent of all future design and construction dollars with firms owned by women or people of color.
The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership has also created a $12.5 million community retention fund to help keep legacy residents in their homes by covering the increase in property taxes.
Council member Matt Westmoreland, who chairs the Community Development and Human Services Committee and serves on the Atlanta BeltLine Board of Directors, called the BeltLine the most comprehensive revitalization project in the city’s history. He added that the project has generated billions of dollars in economic growth over the last 15 years, but also brought with it important lessons.
“We’ve seen the role that new City infrastructure like the BeltLine and Westside Park has played with regard to gentrification and displacement in some of our legacy neighborhoods,” Westmoreland said. “The new BeltLine dollars dedicated toward housing, along with the $100 million housing bond Council passed in January, provide us an opportunity to both complete this historic project while also making a historic investment in housing affordability.”
The SSD will levy a two mill increase on commercial, industrial, and multi-family parcels within the BeltLine planning area, which was established by Council more than a decade ago. More than half of all parcels citywide will pay less than $250 a year, and more than 80 percent of all parcels will pay less than $1,000 annually. It does not include single-family residential.
Revenue from the SSD will be used to pay debt service on $100 million in bonds. The SSD will immediately sunset upon completion of those payments. This initiative complements efforts underway by MARTA to advance transit around the 22-mile loop.
The original legislation was introduced by Council member Dustin Hillis in January. Feedback from more than a dozen community meetings led to several amendments, including a required biannual review conducted by the City’s auditor and the creation of a stakeholder advisory committee composed of SSD commercial parcel owners and tenants and multifamily parcel owners and tenants.
The three adopted ordinances created the area of the district (Legislative Reference №21-O-0049), authorized an intergovernmental agreement between the City of Atlanta and Invest Atlanta to issue bonds for the district (Legislative Reference №21-O-0048), and established a rate of ad valorem taxes on tangible property within the district (Legislative Reference №21-O-0052).
