Stimulus money could create parks from ‘Red Fields’
BY Ken Edelstein • January 14, 2010
The AJC‘s touting a drive among metro Atlanta community improvement districts to raise enough local money to qualify for stimulus money that would help create more parks in Atlanta.
CIDs are districts in which (usually commercial) property owners agree to tax themselves to pay for infrastructure improvements within the districts. They’ve raised $400,000, which could help “Red Fields to Green Fields Atlanta” to qualify for:
financial help in applying for $5 billion in federal stimulus money to buy distressed tracts, turn them into green space, then sell portions later as the commercial market improves. A portion of the original tract, 25-30 percent, would remain parkland, and developers who purchased the adjacent properties would be obliged to maintain the green space.
Tad Leithead, chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission, said the program is gaining momentum and appears to be clearing hurdle after hurdle. It also has adapted into what may become a joint venture between non-profit and for-profit interests. The new model provides for non-profits to raise 25 percent to cover the cost of the parks, while investor groups would supply the balance for the remainder of the land, he said.
The article’s a bit unclear, but apparently the federal money would come out of a Federal Deposit Insurance Commission. More at AJC.
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