The deadline for public input regarding tax allocation districts (TADs) in Athens-Clarke County has been extended until July 31st. Originally, the public input deadline was July 5th.
There are currently six proposed TADS that the mayor and commission are considering. Public input will help decide both the location of TADs and the public projects they will fund. Commissioner Melissa Link explains how TADs are developed and used:
"You basically draw parameters of an area, and you freeze the taxes on that area. Any increments that have increased over a certain period of time, those taxes all go directly into the area. The theory is you look at an area that’s ripe for some private development, and it already has some plans, some private investment. You know that the property values are going to start going up. You freeze them at the current level knowing that they’re going to go up so that those increased values are going back into public infrastructure, whether it’s roads, intersections, sidewalks, or parks."
Commissioner Link says that the commission has so far received little public input, so she encourages Athens-Clarke County residents to get involved. "I hope that folks will do a little homework and offer some input on where they believe we need some community investment," she says.
Visit accgov.com/tads to access public input tools by July thirty first, and to view an interactive map of proposed TADs. ACC Gov recently released a second, simplified form for those who had difficulty with the multi-step tool.
The latest news on TADs from the Athens-Clarke County Government can be found here.