The impasse between a prominent developer and the DeKalb County School District shows how reaching common ground around a potentially good deal for all sides can elude even well-intentioned parties these days.
It does not have to be that way. If nothing else, the DeKalb Board of Education and Superintendent R. Stephen Green should grant a formal hearing on Integral Group’s idea to transform a gritty industrial wasteland into a dense, glitzy, live-and-work community of the type arising across metro Atlanta.
The cause of responsive governance should compel the district to hear the case being made by developer Egbert Perry to construct a project called “The Assembly” on the site of the old GM plant in Doraville. Hearing out Perry & Co. in no way commits the Board to signing off on the Tax Allocation District that’s often a vital part of private-sector construction financing.
After listening to Perry’s plan, the Board will then be in the best position to decide by public vote whether to approve or reject participation in TAD funding of $247 million in infrastructure bonds.
Assessing and deciding such matters is an unavoidable reality for modern school boards. After all, Superintendent Green is the CEO of an enterprise with a $955 million annual budget. Gauging the risks — and opportunity — embedded in financial statements is well within the district’s expected level of expertise and competence.
Which explains the raised eyebrows at the district’s argument that it is not best-positioned to be in the development business. Like it or not, current law, custom and practice places the district as a partner in just that space.
School districts’ taxing authority — and the revenues generated over time— are a critical, common financing strategy used by public-private alliances.
So, are there considerable risks to helping cover the construction cost of a project like The Assembly? Yes, there are. But the old saying of nothing ventured, nothing gained holds equally true, especially in a troubled county like DeKalb that’s hungry for development.
Assessing and managing risks should be within the skillset of DeKalb Schools. If it’s not, they could buy expert guidance for likely less than the salary of some well-paid district administrators.
Given that DeKalb schools handle 56 cents of each property tax dollar collected there, the district should accept the sophistication of the accompanying responsibility. Yes, Job No. 1 must be properly educating 100,000 students. Superintendent Green is precisely right on that point.
Yet the district is also a strong player in determining the future of troubled, but still-growing, DeKalb.
That’s an appropriate lens through which to study a project that promises transformation of what’s now largely a well-situated field of gray rubble. The dense housing, retail and businesses planned for the site might be the highest use of a 165-acre tract hard by Spaghetti Junction and a MARTA rail station. It is the type of development planners say will be all the rage in coming decades.
If the TAD does not happen soon, Integral will do what businesses backed into a corner routinely do — pursue lesser options to recover expended capital. That could mean using other tax relief, such as abatements, which could adversely affect money already accruing to DeKalb Schools.
A less-ambitious development doesn’t seem like Atlanta’s style. We are a growing metro that hasn’t hesitated to raze – and replace — buildings that would be seen as still-new in other cities. That go-go spirit is part of The Atlanta Way.
Doing otherwise is more the style of places like Kansas City, Missouri, where Green most recently worked. A charming Midwestern city, it can nevertheless be characterized as “settled,” verging on “staid” overall. It is not a growing Sunbelt mecca.
Smart, mutually beneficial public-private alliances have paid off for Atlanta. The high-rise bling of Atlantic Station is a large example of what a TAD can help create. So it’s no wonder that Doraville officials are looking to replicate that success.
Responsible government should take care of basics first, such as providing the adequate schools Georgia’s Constitution demands. The Atlanta Way, though, also entails an unwritten expectation that government be responsive as well.
In a core county like DeKalb that’s seen more than its share of challenges, public entities — including school systems — should also fairly assess what they can feasibly do to help empower prosperity in their backyard.
Doing that well could be as important over time as any line item in DeKalb schools’ budget.
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