According to the AJC’s DeKalb Election Results, 68% of Decatur residents voted in favor of giving the city the power to create Tax Allocation Districts.

OK, so now that we’ve approved the measure, where do we start?! 

Back in 2007 when the economy still looked quite rosy, Georgia state representatives and senators introduced a bill for the City of Decatur that would give the city the power to exercise the powers under the “Redevelopment Powers Law”.

While the “Redevelopment Powers Law” itself may not ring a bell, the tax allocation districts (or TADs) created by the law certainly might.  TADs are most famous for single-handedly funding the creation of Atlantic Station and the lawsuit that struck down the Beltline’s TAD requiring the passing of a constitutional amendment in 2008 to put the funding option back on the table for many communities.

Then the economy intervened and these days, many TADs are turning sour since they depend on increasing property values to pay off bond debt.

Through all of this bond fun, Decatur has been trying to get the Georgia Legislature to pass a bill that would give the city the option to pursue a TAD district.

At tonight’s city commission meeting, City Manager Peggy Merriss informed the commissioners that after four legislative sessions, Senate Bill 279 was finally passed.  According to Mayor Bill Floyd, the process was initiated back in 2007 at the request of East Decatur Station property owners.

This means that Decatur residents will see this on the November ballot…

Shall the Act be approved which authorizes the City of Decatur to exercise redevelopment powers under the ‘Redevelopment Powers Law,’ as it may be amended from time to time?”

With the current state of the economy, neither the city manager or the city commissioners at tonight’s meeting seemed particularly eager to create any TADs in the near future.  In fact, the main concern of the commissioners in hearing this news was that it would be clear to voters that the November vote would not authorize any specific TADs in the city, only giving the commission the power to create districts if they saw fit in the future.

DeKalb County schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis recently announced at a school board meeting that he will make his position known to the public by the end of the month on whether to sell 31 acres of land at the intersection of Briarcliff and North Druid to the Sembler company. Sembler wants to purchase the land and use it in conjunction with 70 other acres already purchased to create an 100-acre “mini-city” bigger than its current driving nightmare at Edgewood.

The school board has been mulling the issue for over a year. And even after they finish letting this issue percolate, they still have to decide whether to allow TAD money to be taken from school taxes.

The next two school board meetings occur on Jan. 14th and 18th.

No word on whether the distraction of this schools/Sembler development extravaganza has improved DeKalb student test scores.

In the words of Helen Lovejoy, “Won’t somebody please think of the children?!”