Atlanta Taxation Districts
Atlanta is contemplating a tax district to pay for a 22-mile transit loop, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
A tax allocation district uses additional taxes from the increased property values caused by development in a certain area to pay for public improvements in that specific area. Atlanta currently has five such districts, including the Atlantic Station megadevelopment in Midtown.
But former City Council President Cathy Woolard, who has been the Belt Line's most ardent political advocate, said using a special tax district to fund a project like the Belt Line is unprecedented in Atlanta and rare nationwide.
There remains a concern about whether the tax allocation district can actually generate enough tax revenue to qualify for federal funding (50% of the project must be locally funded to qualify for federal funds). Interestingly, they're projecting the cost of building the light rail line at between $250 million and $450 million -- at 22 miles, that puts it between $11.3 and $20.5 million a mile, which seems awful low to me.
[More Information on the BeltLine]
Post Author:
amg | 2:32 PM |
Link
|
TrackBacks
I think part of the low cost can be explained by the fact that most of the right-of-way is already city-owned and that there won't be much ripping up of streets.
Compared to other light rail project costs shown in a table here (a light rail advocacy web site, so perhaps a bit optimisitc): http://www.lightrailnow.org/myths/m_monorail001.htm, the costs appear to be low, but not unreasonably so. (The VTA costs quoted there appear to be accurate, so perhaps the rest of the costs there are as well.)
The Atlanta Beltline rail transit proposal that got everyone excited turns out to be a scam in that: it is now fostering high density highrise developement (complete with mammouth parking garages) FIRST and then maybe, just maybe the streetcar rail service. And maybe not rail, maybe rubber=tired bus trains. So the originally presented time frame for actual transit has been pushed from 3 to 5 years to 2015.
