GWINNETT COUNTY, GA .... A TAD bit excited......for Revitalization in Gwinnett

By: Chuck Warbington, PE - Executive Director, Gwinnett Village CID

As the dust continues to settle over the July primary elections and we analyze the results, Gwinnett took a major step in setting a positive course for our future with the passage of the Redevelopment Powers Law. This new policy allows the County to encourage positive change in depressed and declining areas of the County through a creative financing mechanism.

The ballot question, referenced as the Redevelopment Powers Law, centers around the use of Tax Allocation Districts (TADs). TADs allow local governments to leverage private investment to pay for infrastructure and other community improvements in declining or blighted areas so that those areas can become safe, attractive and productive parts of the community again. As property within one of these areas is redeveloped and improved by private investment, the County uses the increment on the tax revenues as a result of the increase in property value to fund the improvements in the defined area.

So why was this so important to the future success of Gwinnett?

First, Gwinnett County is one of a handful of counties in the metro-Atlanta region that did not have this mechanism in place. 47 states through the nation currently use this financing tool and Gwinnett has consistently been put in a competitive economic disadvantage for projects. As seen across the nation over the past 50 years, the track record of TADs indicate a significant role in attracting high quality, sustainable developments to blighted neighborhoods.

Second, this tool will encourage new economic investment by the private community in depressed and blighted areas. Private investors have consistently focused on green field development in Gwinnett due to the fact that development costs are 30% to 40% cheaper to remove forest and trees rather than demolishing an existing shopping center and starting over with a new high quality and sustainable development. TADs will level the playing field and encourage investors to seek out blighted and depressed properties to redevelop. Since TADs have been used in Georgia, direct private investment in these districts have now totaled just under $18 billion dollars. One example is the Atlantic Steel brownfield site in mid-town that was once an abandoned environmental hazard and is now a positive economic engine for mid-town Atlanta.

The Gwinnett Village CID is very pleased to add this to our redevelopment tool belt as we continue our mission of providing positive change to the southern part of the County. For a more in depth look at TADs in Gwinnett, visit www.gwinnetttads.com .

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