The documents that decide what Atlanta's tax increment dollars are allowed to pay for are being rewritten, and the city is asking residents what should be in them. Invest Atlanta is holding in-person community meetings in seven Tax Allocation District areas between Nov. 4 and Nov. 10: Eastside, Westside, Campbellton Road, Metropolitan Parkway, Hollowell/MLK, Stadium Neighborhoods and Perry Bolton. The updated plans are scheduled for release in early 2027.

Two meetings open the series on Wednesday, Nov. 4, both from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.: the Eastside district at 209 Edgewood Ave SE and the Metropolitan district at 2040 Brewer Blvd SW. There are also virtual office hours that same morning, 9 to 10 a.m., with an RSVP required. You can RSVP for each TAD Redevelopment Community Meeting here:

What these meetings actually decide

Input here shapes each district's redevelopment plan, which sets the priorities and project types the increment can fund. That is a narrower thing than the headline version of this story, and it is worth being precise about, because a separate and much louder question is still open.

A TAD does not raise anyone's tax rate. When a district is created, property tax revenues are frozen at their level at that moment, and the growth above that line, the increment, is set aside for investment inside the district. When the district ends, all of that revenue returns to the general tax base. Atlanta has eight active TADs.

In June 2026, a City Auditor follow-up to a 2012 performance audit found that the city and Invest Atlanta had implemented all five of the earlier recommendations, but that many redevelopment plan goals remain subjective enough that nobody can really assess whether they were achieved. The recommendation was specific measurable goals with clear outcomes and reporting to match. That audit is the reason the plans are being rebuilt. Invest Atlanta hired four consulting groups, which built an online interactive map of TAD projects citywide and worked on more measurable growth goals, and Invest Atlanta President and CEO, Eloisa Klementich said at an October Invest Atlanta meeting that the agency would likely have to redo the plans.

The audit also found that as of June 2025, all but one of the remaining districts had enough funds to pay off existing debt and potentially close, and that outside the BeltLine, Invest Atlanta has broadened from catalytic projects into community development through smaller grants in each district. The city now requires third-party assessments every three years on where each district stands against its goals.

The extension question is separate, and unresolved

The City Council adopted the Neighborhood Reinvestment Act on June 15 by a 13-2 vote, extending six of the eight districts into the 2050s, with a condition: the city cannot borrow against the extended property-tax growth unless another taxing jurisdiction participates. Fulton County commissioners voted 4-1 on July 15 not to, citing legal concerns and the cost of forgoing property-tax revenue for another 30 years. The Atlanta Board of Education created an independent committee to study the extensions and has not approved participation. APS says it has contributed approximately $969 million to TADs over time. We covered that borrowing condition and the pending decision in October.

One wrinkle worth naming plainly: Perry Bolton is inside this seven-district planning process, but the legislation introduced in May 2026 left Perry Bolton and the BeltLine out of the six-district extension, so those two sunset on schedule.

Speaking to SaportaReport, Klementich said of the engagement effort, "We want to make sure that people understand what the TAD is, and how you use the TAD," and said that with a process like the extension proposal, "there are many things that may change along the way."

My Take

I think the most useful thing a resident can do at one of these meetings is talk in terms the auditor asked for, which is measurable. "More affordable housing" is the kind of goal that got flagged as too subjective to assess; a number of units, at a stated income band, in a stated part of the district, is the kind that survives a third-party assessment three years later. There is already something to measure against, because a $1 million Metropolitan TAD Resurgens Grant sits in the funding stack for Andover Place at 2769 Lakewood Ave, where 79 of 80 planned apartments are reserved for households earning 30 to 80 percent of Area Median Income. The funding behind the extension is genuinely unsettled, and I am not going to pretend otherwise, but the plan document outlasts that fight and governs whatever increment exists. What I will be watching is whether the early 2027 drafts come back with goals you can actually check, and whether the Atlanta Board of Education committee moves before those drafts land. We plan to be at these meetings and will share what we hear.

If you live or own property in one of these seven districts, what has TAD money actually changed on your block?