City: New 'Blight Tax' crackdown to boost Atlanta neighborhoods ( atlanta.urbanize.city )

City: New 'Blight Tax' crackdown to boost Atlanta neighborhoods
Josh Green
Tue, 07/02/2024 - 11:13
Is a vacant, crumbling house or rotting industrial property bringing your Atlanta street down? A new measure recently introduced by city leaders, if approved, will aim to do something about that.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and District 3 city councilmember Byron Amos have partnered to introduce legislation that would create a “Blight Tax” as a means of cracking down on absentee landlords—including corporations—and neglected properties throughout the city.

The proposal would allow Atlanta municipal courts to hike tax bills by up to 25 times more than current tax rates for properties considered blighted albatrosses that further disinvestment in neighborhoods.

The Blight Tax ordinance would authorize city officials to take advantage of a program approved by Georgia voters in recent years that’s meant to persuade property owners to redevelop or remediate blighted real estate, according to a city announcement.

Broadly speaking, the tax penalties have the potential to “fundamentally [change] the economics of neglectful land speculation” across Atlanta. Similar measures have been implemented around Georgia and other states as a “surgical, judicial enforcement tool” applied to vacant, neglected properties that could have otherwise sat vacant for decades, dragging down local communities, per city officials.

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/sites/default/files/styles/950w/public/2022-02/City%20of%20Refuge%20The%20345%20Affordable%20housing%20Bankhead.png?itok=VyWYiCD5
Condition of Bankhead's long-vacant Danzig Hotel in 2020, prior to its redevelopment as affordable housing project The 345. Google Maps

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/sites/default/files/styles/950w/public/2023-03/The%20345%20City%20of%20Refuge%202.jpg?itok=TJ4gq53W
The 345 project's March 2023 ribbon-cutting. Courtesy of City of Refuge

Some key points regarding the potential Blight Tax:

The program would not apply to any property that’s occupied. (Last thing the city wants is to involuntarily displace residents.)
In hopes of further incentivizing home and property owners, any blighted property that gets remediated and returned to a productive use could be eligible for a discounted tax rate once the work is finished.
Large-scale properties that significantly impact neighborhoods would be special cases. Those property owner would first have to agree to a “detailed redevelopment plan that addresses neighborhood objectives around connectivity, transportation, and public amenities that benefit the entire community,” per the city announcement.

Amos, the councilmember, said the issue hits close to home in District 3, which covers sections of Midtown, the Marietta Street Corridor, and Westside neighborhoods such as Vine City and English Avenue.

The district’s residents “have for too long been subjected to neglected, blighted properties whose owners are content to wait to cash in,” Amos said in a prepared statement. “The Blight Tax will give us much greater leverage in persuading these owners to clean up their property or sell them to a better steward who will.”

Dickens called the new policy another means of rooting out negligent property owners in Atlanta. “[It] will equip the city with a powerful tool for cracking down on corporate, absentee owners,” said the mayor, “who treat property as a cheap investment vehicle rather than part of the fabric of our communities.”

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