TADs are a financing tool Atlanta uses to encourage redevelopment in under-served areas. When a TAD is created, property tax revenues are frozen at their current level. As property values rise due to new investment, the increase in tax revenue — called the ‘tax increment’ — is set aside to help make investments for neighborhoods in that district, such as infrastructure, parks, or cleanup of blighted properties. Once the TAD ends, all the tax revenue — including the growth — goes back to the general tax base.

What is a TAD?

A Tax Allocation District (TAD) is a geographic area where any increase in property taxes is reserved for community development projects within that area. This revenue, instead of going to general funds for the City, School System, and County, is used to fund local projects persuant each TAD's redevelopment plan. There are currently eight active TADs in Atlanta. 

Atlanta has 8 active TADs (Atlantic Station closed in 2025, and Princeton Lakes closed in 2023). 

How are TAD funds generated?

Redevelopment costs are supported through the pledge of future or the expendeture of actual incremental increases in property taxes generated by new development. Taxing entities, including City of Atlanta, Fulton County and Atlanta Public Schools, must elect to participate in each TAD.

TAD revenues are not static—they grow the overall pie. By accelerating redevelopment and preventing further decline in underinvested areas, TADs ultimately expand the property tax base that fund schools, public safety, and city services citywide. In fact, all participating jurisdictions, APS included, have seen healthy revenue growth over the past 15 years, even with TAD participation.

Halo Effect -- TAD investments touch communities beyond the TADs themselves. Statistics show that property values within half a mile of TAD boundaries increased 23% more than expected, reflecting the positive spillover effects TADs have on surrounding areas.

What kinds of projects do TADs fund?

TADs make investments that benefit neighborhoods and the city as a whole. While TADs are guided by redevelopment plans, they have the flexibility to make much needed investments like affordable housing, early education centers, grocery stores, parks, small business development and commercial spaces. Together, TADs investments have reshaped entire neighborhoods.

Food Access/Azalea Fresh Market (link to story): TAD funding was pivotal in launch a first-of-its-kind municipal grocery store, opened in the heart of Downtown Atlanta, serving neighborhood residents and expanding access to fresh, nutritious food. The store opened in Sept. 2025 and is expected to serve 5,500 residents per month and create 30 jobs.

Healthcare/CenterWell Senior Primary Care: TAD funding helped to redevelop a long-vacant building into medical office space, expanding access to senior-focused healthcare in an underserved area on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway.

Homeless Services/Salvation Army Center of Hope (link to story): TAD funding helped transform Atlanta’s largest emergency and transitional shelter in the Westside, including 437emergency shelter beds, and an education and workforce development center. The Center has the capacity to serve over 2,000 people a year.

Early Education/YMCA Leadership & Learning Center (link to story): TAD funding supported the construction of this Westside facility that provides free early childhood education for more than 600 children in addition to serving as a professional development site for YMCA staff.

Greenspace/Katherine Johnson Memorial Park – TAD funding supported construction of Katherine Johnson Memorial Park, a 3.4-acre greenspace located in Atlanta’s English Avenue neighborhood. It was designed as a “Park with Purpose” to address multiple community needs, including managing 3.5 million gallons of stormwater annually, reducing flood risk and improving environmental health.

Comprehensive Neighborhood Revitalization/Sweet Auburn: One of Atlanta’s most historic neighborhoods is another testament to the impact of neighborhood investment through the TADs. Since its inception nearly 20 years ago, the Eastside TAD has provided essential capital for redevelopment, supporting affordable housing, commercial revitalization, and historic preservation in the area.

Together in this one area, the Eastside TAD has brought $271.6 million in new capital investment to a total of 32 projects in the neighborhood. These investments have empowered local nonprofits, preserved historic assets, and fostered inclusive economic growth, ensuring Sweet Auburn’s legacy continues to thrive.

Why do we need TADs?

TAD grants are used to create and preserve affordable housing, support construction of infrastructure, strengthen local businesses, and improve streets, parks and places of historic and cultural significance.

Each TAD has a strategy* to address specific challenges, but there is a common goal across all districts to bring about economic progress, community development, property revitalization, infrastructure enhancement, sustainability and open spaces. TAD-funded projects directly impact people. 

Invest Atlanta is committed to this type of development, and TAD funding is critical to its success. TADs remain the best, most flexible resource to close equity gaps through catalytic projects. They are a powerful resource for combatting market forces that accelerate displacement. Alongside programs like Owner-Occupied Rehab and Anti-Displacement Tax Relief, Invest Atlanta is working to ensure Atlantans are able to remain in place as long as they choose.

*To view each TADs Redevelopment Plan, visit the individual TAD page and scroll to the bottom.

Do TADs raise my taxes?

TADs do not raise your property taxes. When TADs work well, they can alleviate cost burdens on jurisdictions by stimulating economic growth and community revitalization, actually reducing the need for jurisdictions to raise taxes to cover community needs.

Dollars that are collected in a TAD stay in that TAD, meaning if you live within a TAD, your tax dollars are staying local to your community to fund new amenities. If you don’t live within a TAD, your tax dollars go into each jurisdiction’s general fund to be used at the discretion of those governing bodies. 

Atlanta residents enjoy the result of TAD projects everyday, like by visiting Atlantic Station or utilizing the Atlanta Beltline. Whether you live within a TAD or not, we can all enjoy more neighborhood and community services that come with TAD investments.

Who decides how TAD dollars are spent?

Georgia's Revelopment Powers Law defines approved TAD activities. TAD funds are administered by Invest Atlanta on behalf of the City of Atlanta. The Invest Atlanta Board votes to approve TAD projects after projects have been referred by the TAD Committee. 

The Invest Atlanta Board of Directors, which includes representatives from the City Council, Fulton County, Atlanta Public Schools, and community members, must approve every TAD allocation. These meetings are open to the public, include public comment periods, and all agency records are subject to Georgia’s open meetings and open records laws. This means any TAD-funded project must pass through a transparent, multi-jurisdictional approval process which is not unilateral allocation.

Invest Atlanta, through an intergovernmental agreement, reports quarterly on TAD activity both to Atlanta City Council CDHS and FEC Committees. Upon invitation, we also provide updates and reports to Fulton County. 

Transparency and accountability are built into every level of Atlanta’s Tax Allocation District (TAD) program, by both state law and city governance structures. All TAD spending, including that of the Beltline TAD, has been administered and overseen by Invest Atlanta, the City’s legally designated redevelopment agent.