Invest Atlanta administers the City of Atlanta's Tax Allocation District program. Our program team works with neighborhoods, small businesses, developers and others to advance projects that align with the Redevelopment Plan for each TAD. 

What is a TAD?

A tax allocation district (TAD) is a tool used to publicly finance redevelopment in underserved or blighted areas. TADs capture future increases in property taxes in desginated geographic areas and uses it to catalyze redevelopment through infrastructure and capital projects.

TADs pool property tax revenue generated after a base amount is allocated to the City of Atlanta, Fulton County and Atlanta Public Schools to be specifically used back in these communities for redevelopment.

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.

Extending TADs is not a diversion of school resources; it’s an investment in the conditions that improve educational outcomes, family stability, and neighborhood vitality. A strong school system requires strong neighborhoods, and TADs remain one of the few scalable, transparent, and community-directed tools we have to make that connection real.

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 tehres 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 our best, most flexible resource to close equity gaps through catalytic projects. TADs are our best resource for combatting market forces that accelerate displacement. Alongside programs like Owner-Occupied Rehab and Anti-Displacement Tax Relief, we are 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.

Why do we need to extend the TADs?

In September 2025, Mayor Andre Dickens launched a comprehensive new strategy to begin changing the trajectory of these communities called the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative (NRI). 

The City of Atlanta is pursuing an extension of all eight active TADs for another generation, which will allow us to fund our most ambitious and catalytic projects. 

The NRI work is about equity, concentrating investments in communities that have not had the same access to resources historically. Because the TAD boundaries overlap with the NRI priority neighborhoods, we have a built-in tool to bring public and private investment into communities.