Summary

The Atlanta Beltline plans to wrap around Atlanta. It would take the path of an abandoned trolly line and turn it into a pedestrian path. This would go through some currently low-income areas. The beltline is trendy and increases the value/prices of property around it. Two of these sources are government documents which show how loopholes are created that allow gentrification. The second is a criticism of the lack of affordable housing in the face of an increase in affordable housing. My hometown, Decatur, did the same thing. My Mum has been on the affordable housing task force for years. The city waited till the last minute to put in more affordable housing. As a result, there is too little affordable housing, and it is too late to add more. The same issue is happening with the beltline.

There is a commission who wants to create a beltline zoning district for business. They created a presentation to outline the policies and regulations of the proposed additional zoning district. In one slide, they address the fact that residential areas may be affected by the bletine. Their proposed solution is that “R-1 through R-5”(District, n.d.) will not be under new beltline zoning, this will still leave RG-1 through RG-6 open to zoning from the city because of the beltline(Atlanta zoning districts -complete listing, n.d.). Homeowners are protected while renters are not. 

However, there is some hope. Andre Dickens wants to increase the rate at which affordable housing is being built in the Beltline tax district and the goal is to have 5,600 affordable housing units in the beltline district by 2030. Beyond that, Andre Dickens suggested adding 5,000 more affordable units by 2030.