GAINESVILLE – Final approval was given to the Westside TAD Urban Development Plan by the Gainesville City Council Tuesday evening.
The 344-acres of the new Tax Allocation District branches out in several directions, all to the southwest of downtown, all including parcels of real estate that city officials have termed “under-performing”.
City Manager Bryan Lackey displayed a photo of one section of the TAD, the Blue Ridge Shopping Center off Shallowford Road. He said, “I have often said this picture here of Blue Ridge is probably the ‘Poster Child’ for the State of Georgia for why a TAD is needed.”
The shopping center once featured a Kroger, a multi-screen cinema and a U.S. Post Office during its prime but now is showing its age. “The shopping center façade could use a little bit of love, the parking lot is in disarray; just generally not an attractive area, a safe-looking area.”
Another argument for creating the Westside TAD is to help ease traffic, especially along the Dawsonville Highway corridor where retail businesses have multiplied.
“The newer shopping centers on the edge of town,” Lackey began, “is where all the newer retail has gone to…causing congestion on the far ends of our city limits and that contributes to sprawl and traffic congestion.”
Lackey said the effort was to try and “pull some of that retail back in, the more-quality retail back in, closer to downtown Gainesville to revitalize some of those aging shopping centers…and we think that will help with traffic congestion…and you’ll see less and less sprawl on the outer edges of the city of Gainesville.”
Lackey stressed that TAD funds can only be used for certain, specific improvements made by the developer. “It’s only for things with a public purpose,” Lackey said. He mentioned sidewalks, parks and public areas, streetscaping and site preparation as projects to which TAD money could be allocated. “It’s really anything on the outside that has a public benefit.”
Lackey explained that TAD funds were reimbursements for those public benefit improvements paid after completion by the developer. “When they do they will bring us their invoices to show they have paid and then we will reimburse them up to what has been approved. They’ve got to spend money before we will reimburse them. We don’t give money up front.”
No one came forward to speak for or against the Westside TAD Urban Redevelopment Plan during the public hearing. The resolution establishing the new TAD passed unanimously.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/11/737254/gainesville-city-council-green-lights-new-tax-allocation-district