Decatur’s commission approved a 50-acre portion of the city’s east side as a Tax Allocation District during its final meeting of the year Monday.
It’s hoped the TAD will spur re-development in this light industrial area specifically by helping finance infrastructure improvements and a park and a storm water maintenance pond similar to Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward.
Architect Jack Honderd, one of three principal partners of East Decatur Station, which owns 35 of those acres, calls the TAD “a useful tool box for Decatur, [insuring that] the area will serve the community better.”
He and fellow EDS partners Chuck Bosserman and Pat Murphy envision multiple developers contributing mixed-use projects to their property, thereby lending, Honderd said, “variety and different textures to an area that you wouldn’t get with one developer.”
But even with the TAD getting approved that may still be years away.
“There is no timetable,” Honderd said. “It’s based on demographics, economy and the city of Decatur. We are getting older, toward the end of our business career. It may be our kids or grandkids who benefit from this.”
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