Clayton leaders want to create a city around Hartsfield-Jackson

With unaccredited schools, rising crime rates and record foreclosures, Clayton County officials are returning to an old strategy to attract developers: the airport.

“It used to be location, location, location. The new phrase is accessibility,” Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell told developers and government officials Tuesday.

“Our accessibility and location dwarf our education and crime problems.”

The idea is to create a separate city — an “aerotropolis” — centered around the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, complete with more hotels, restaurants, shops, high-rise condominiums, office space and recreation activities. It would involve portions of northern Clayton and south Fulton counties, along with several municipalities.

“It would be four or five times larger than Atlanta Station,” Bell said. “We would have jobs, entertainment, meeting and convention space all being able to be reached without vehicular traffic.”

A consultant of Bell’s met with U.S. Rep. David Scott’s chief of staff, Michael Andel, on Tuesday, seeking $8 million in federal money for a project development and funding plan.

Andel said the money is possible if local government officials first create a development authority or tax allocation district. He said it is too late to tap into a federal stimulus package, but the project could be funded next year with federal transportation money.

Clayton officials say the whole concept hinges on transportation upgrades, including a people mover, a proposed high-speed train from Chattanooga to the airport, and the stalled project to develop commuter rail from Atlanta to Macon.

“The airport — that’s something you can’t match anywhere in America,” Clayton Commissioner Wole Ralph said.

The project would mirror Detroit, Dallas-Fort Worth and Dubai’s airports, which all have aerotropolis projects.

Bell said he has talked to some businesses about relocating their headquarters near the airport, but he declined to identify them.

Ralph said development around the airport is essential to take the burden off Clayton taxpayers, many of whom are out of work or fall under federal poverty guidelines.

“This will allow citizens to get more services by shifting the tax burden to businesses,” Ralph said.

Two weeks ago, Clayton hired a new economic development director, Grant Wainscott, and a planner to focus on moving the county’s development from strip malls to office high-rises. Wainscott said his marketing plan is simple: Clayton has the airport, a good water system and highways.

In December, the Clayton County Commission set aside about 3,000 acres near the airport in two tax-allocation districts. The aerotropolis could be a larger TAD, Wainscott said.

“Our view in Clayton County is we must be a global city,” Bell told officials Tuesday at a south metro development conference. “If we do not move on what we have around the airport forward, our airport in 10 years will be the seventh-largest airport.”

Hartsfield-Jackson is now ranked the busiest airport in the world.