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oliveratlanta · 4 years

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Analysis: Georgia has country’s ‘least exposed’ economy during coronavirus crisis

Relative to most other states, Georgia’s economy has kept moving in recent weeks, per a WalletHub study. | Curbed Atlanta

In other COVID-19 outbreak news, Atlanta Streets Alive has made contingency plans, and Decatur taxpayers catch a break

As relayed on these pages in recent days, Atlanta’s approach to dealing with the novel coronavirus outbreak has differed from some cities, in that new construction has not been ordered to shut down, the Beltline and city parks remain open (although with sterner social distancing campaigns), and residential real estate transactions have hardly been obliterated, as observers point out.

On a state level, a silver-lining to the pandemic woes—and one that’s possibly related—could have come today with a new WalletHub analysis that shows Georgia has the “least exposed” economy in the country when it comes to coronavirus impact.

The personal finance website’s study comes on the heels of the federal government’s $2 trillion stimulus package being passed and the U.S. stock market plummeting in value by more than 20 percent.

WalletHub compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 10 key metrics to determine economic vulnerability right now. The data set ranges from the share of each state’s GDP coming from impacted industries, such as tourism, to spikes in unemployment insurance claims.

The Peach State economy is “less exposed to ill-effects from the coronavirus than any other state because it has one of the smallest shares of employment from small businesses [and] the second lowest unemployment increase so far,” WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez wrote in a press release. “Major events like the Masters being postponed will definitely hurt areas of the state such as Augusta, but Georgia is in better shape than other states overall.”

WalletHub

Two metrics that the study found lean in Georgia’s favor.

Louisiana, conversely, is ranked as the most economically susceptible U.S. state right now, owing to “a high share of employment from impacted industries, including tourism and oil, and one of the worst infrastructures for working from home,” per WalletHub’s findings.

Below is a roundup of how Georgia ranks in terms of coronavirus impact, with 1 being best and 25 the average, per WalletHub analysts:

44th – GDP generated by high-risk industries as share of total state GDP;

19th – Share of employment from highly impacted industries;

50th – Increase in number of unemployment insurance initial claims;

48th – Share of employment from small businesses;

36th – Share of workers working from home;

36th – State rainy day funds as share of state expenditures;

34th – State fiscal condition index.

Source: WalletHub

The Georgia Department of Public Health reports the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the state has climbed from 99 on March 16 to 3,817 as of noon today (a spike of nearly 800 overnight), with 818 hospitalizations and 108 reported deaths in Georgia.

Fulton County currently has the most confirmed cases (547), followed by Dougherty (455), DeKalb (325), and Cobb (272) counties, per the public health department.

Atlanta Streets Alive pivots

Atlanta Bicycle Coalition leaders are applauding a move by the City of Atlanta mayor’s office to include bike shops as essential businesses in a revised “stay at home” order, meaning bicycle retailers and repairers are allowed to continue operating.

“Transportation decisions and options [have] become dilemmas, and spaces to practice healthy activities are being reshaped,” ABC leaders noted in a newsletter. “We’re doing what we can to lessen the impact of these challenges.”

ABC has also announced that 2020 programing for Atlanta Streets Alive will happen in the fall this year—the 10th anniversary of the programs—to allow for more time to plan and grow the initiative.

In the works for May is a “fun way to celebrate our birthday virtually,” marking a decade since the initial Streets Alive was held on Edgewood Avenue, officials noted.

Since then, the initiative has hosted 1.7 million participants across 29 different programs and 83 miles of car-free streets.

Decatur lends property owners a hand

As a means to help struggling or worried homeowners, the City of Decatur has extended the deadline for paying property taxes from June 1 to July 15 this year without penalties or interest.

The move came Friday as part of Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett’s third emergency order in 10 days, the AJC reports.

Following the July 15 deadline, Decatur’s regular ad valorem taxes and fees, which carry an interest rate of .646 percent per month, will be applied, per current plans.

The mayor added in a prepared statement: “We know families and businesses are struggling financially while also being concerned about their health and the health of their loved ones ... This extension will provide property owners some extra time to make this payment.”

The Georgia Department of Revenue and U.S. Internal Revenue Service had previously extended income tax filing deadlines to July 15 as well.

source https://atlanta.curbed.com/2020/3/31/21201092/coronavirus-atlanta-georgia-economy-jobs-unemployment-covid-19

#OliverAtlanta

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124southmain · 5 years

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Extension of Replacement Period for Livestock Sold on Account of Drought on Cook & Co. News

New Post has been published on https://cookco.us/news/extension-of-replacement-period-for-livestock-sold-on-account-of-drought/

Extension of Replacement Period for Livestock Sold on Account of Drought

Notice 2019- 54

SECTION 1. PURPOSE This notice provides guidance regarding an extension of the replacement period under § 1033(e) of the Internal Revenue Code for livestock sold on account of drought in specified counties.

SECTION 2. BACKGROUND .01 Nonrecognition of Gain on Involuntary Conversion of Livestock. Section 1033(a) generally provides for nonrecognition of gain when property is involuntarily converted and replaced with property that is similar or related in service or use. Section 1033(e)(1) provides that a sale or exchange of livestock (other than poultry) held by a taxpayer for draft, breeding, or dairy purposes in excess of the number that would be sold following the taxpayer’s usual business practices is treated as an involuntary conversion if the livestock is sold or exchanged solely on account of drought, flood, or other weather-related conditions.

.02 Replacement Period. Section 1033(a)(2)(A) generally provides that gain from an involuntary conversion is recognized only to the extent the amount realized on the conversion exceeds the cost of replacement property purchased during the replacement period. If a sale or exchange of livestock is treated as an involuntary conversion under § 1033(e)(1) and is solely on account of drought, flood, or other weather-related conditions that result in the area being designated as eligible for assistance by the federal government, § 1033(e)(2)(A) provides that the replacement period ends four years after the close of the first taxable year in which any part of the gain from the conversion is realized. Section 1033(e)(2)(B) provides that the Secretary may extend this replacement period on a regional basis for such additional time as the Secretary determines appropriate if the weather-related conditions that resulted in the area being designated as eligible for assistance by the federal government continue for more than three years. Section 1033(e)(2) is effective for any taxable year with respect to which the due date (without regard to extensions) for a taxpayer’s return is after December 31, 2002.

SECTION 3. EXTENSION OF REPLACEMENT PERIOD UNDER § 1033(e)(2)(B) Notice 2006-82, 2006-2 C.B. 529, provides for extensions of the replacement period under § 1033(e)(2)(B). If a sale or exchange of livestock is treated as an involuntary conversion on account of drought and the taxpayer’s replacement period is determined under § 1033(e)(2)(A), the replacement period will be extended under § 1033(e)(2)(B) and Notice 2006-82 until the end of the taxpayer’s first taxable year ending after the first drought-free year for the applicable region.

For this purpose, the first drought-free year for the applicable region is the first 12-month period that:

(1) ends August 31;

(2) ends in or after the last year of the taxpayer’s four-year replacement period determined under § 1033(e)(2)(A); and (3) does not include any weekly period for which exceptional, extreme, or severe drought is reported for any location in the applicable region. The applicable region is the county that experienced the drought conditions on account of which the livestock was sold or exchanged and all counties that are contiguous to that county.

A taxpayer may determine whether exceptional, extreme, or severe drought is reported for any location in the applicable region by reference to U.S. Drought Monitor maps that are produced on a weekly basis by the National Drought Mitigation Center.

U.S. Drought Monitor maps are archived at http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Maps/MapArchive.aspx.

In addition, Notice 2006-82 provides that the Internal Revenue Service will publish in September of each year a list of counties1 for which exceptional, extreme, or severe drought was reported during the preceding 12 months. Taxpayers may use this list instead of U.S. Drought Monitor maps to determine whether exceptional, extreme, or severe drought has been reported for any location in the applicable region.

The Appendix to this notice contains the list of counties for which exceptional, extreme, or severe drought was reported during the 12-month period ending August 31,

Under Notice 2006-82, the 12-month period ended on August 31, 2019, is not a drought-free year for an applicable region that includes any county on this list. Accordingly, for a taxpayer who qualified for a four-year replacement period for livestock sold or exchanged on account of drought and whose replacement period is scheduled to expire at the end of 2019 (or, in the case of a fiscal year taxpayer, at the end of the taxable year that includes August 31, 2019), the replacement period will be extended under § 1033(e)(2) and Notice 2006-82 if the applicable region includes any county on this list. This extension will continue until the end of the taxpayer’s first taxable year ending after a drought-free year for the applicable region.

SECTION 4. DRAFTING INFORMATION The principal author of this notice is Lewis Saideman of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Income Tax & Accounting). For further information regarding this notice, please contact Mr. Saideman at (202) 317-7006 (not a toll-free call).

APPENDIX

Alabama

Counties of Barbour, Bibb, Chilton, Coffee, Covington, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston, Jefferson, Shelby, and Tuscaloosa.

Alaska

Municipality of Anchorage. Boroughs of Kenai Peninsula, Ketchikan Gateway, Kodiak Island, Lake and Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna. Census Areas of Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan, Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon, Valdez-Cordova, Wrangell-Petersburg, and Yukon-Koyukuk.

Arizona

Counties of Apache, Cochise, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, Yavapai, and Yuma.

Arkansas

Counties of Columbia, Lafayette, and Union.

California

Counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Imperial, Los Angeles, Modoc, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, Trinity, and Ventura.

Colorado

Counties of Alamosa, Archuleta, Baca, Bent, Boulder, Chaffee, Clear Creek, Conejos, Costilla, Crowley, Custer, Delta, Dolores, Eagle, Elbert, El Paso, Fremont, Garfield, Gilpin, Grand, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Huerfano, Jackson, Kiowa, Lake, La Plata, Larimer, Las Animas, Lincoln, Mesa, Mineral, Moffat, Montezuma, Montrose, Otero, Ouray, Park, Pitkin, Prowers, Pueblo, Rio Blanco, Rio Grande, Routt, Saguache, San Juan, San Miguel, and Summit.

Florida

Counties of Brevard, Holmes, Indian River, Jackson, Martin, Okaloosa, Palm Beach, Saint Lucie, and Walton.

Georgia

Counties of Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Bryan, Bulloch, Charlton, Chatham, Clay, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Early, Effingham, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Lanier, Pierce, Screven, and Ware.

Hawaii

Counties of Hawaii, Honolulu, Kauai, and Maui.

Idaho

Counties of Bannock, Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Canyon, Cassia, Franklin, Kootenai, Oneida, Owyhee, Payette, Power, Shoshone, Twin Falls, and Washington.

Illinois

Counties of Hancock, Henderson, Mercer, Rock Island, and Warren.

Iowa

Counties of Appanoose, Clarke, Davis, Decatur, Des Moines, Henry, Jefferson, Lee, Louisa, Lucas, Mahaska, Marion, Monroe, Ringgold, Van Buren, Wapello, and Wayne.

Kansas

Counties of Anderson, Atchison, Brown, Chase, Coffey, Dickinson, Douglas, Franklin, Geary, Greenwood, Harvey, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Lyon, McPherson, Marion, Marshall, Miami, Morris, Nemaha, Osage, Pottawatomie, Riley, Saline, Shawnee, Wabaunsee, and Wyandotte.

Louisiana

Parishes of Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, De Soto, Jackson, Lincoln, Natchitoches, Red River, Union, Webster, and Winn.

Maine

Counties of Cumberland, Hancock, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, and Waldo.

Michigan

Counties of Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Kalkaska, Mackinac, Montmorency, Oscoda, Otsego, and Presque Isle.

Minnesota

County of Marshall.

Missouri

Counties of Adair, Andrew, Audrain, Barry, Barton, Benton, Boone, Buchanan, Caldwell, Callaway, Carroll, Cass, Cedar, Chariton, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Cole, Cooper, Dade, Dallas, Daviess, DeKalb, Douglas, Gentry, Greene, Grundy, Harrison, Hickory, Holt, Howard, Jackson, Jasper, Johnson, Knox, Laclede, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lewis, Linn, Livingston, McDonald, Macon, Maries, Mercer, Moniteau, Monroe, Morgan, Newton, Nodaway, Osage, Pettis, Phelps, Platte, Polk, Pulaski, Putnam, Randolph, Ray, Saint Clair, Saline, Schuyler, Scotland, Stone, Sullivan, Taney, Webster, Worth, and Wright.

Montana

Counties of Blaine, Flathead, Lincoln, Mineral, Phillips, Sanders, and Valley.

Nevada

Counties of Clark, Elko, Humboldt, Washoe, and White Pine.

New Mexico

Counties of Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, Curry, DeBaca, Eddy, Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Lea, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, Sandoval, San Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, and Valencia.

New York

Counties of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, and Warren.

North Dakota

Counties of Benson, Bottineau, Burke, Cavalier, Divide, Eddy, Foster, Grand Forks, Hettinger, McHenry, Mountrail, Nelson, Pembina, Pierce, Ramsey, Renville, Rolette, Sheridan, Stark, Towner, Walsh, Ward, and Wells.

Oklahoma

Counties of Beckham, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Carter, Cimarron, Comanche, Cotton, Custer, Ellis, Garvin, Grady, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Jefferson, Kay, Kiowa, Love, McClain, Noble, Nowata, Osage, Pawnee, Roger Mills, Rogers, Stephens, Tillman, Tulsa, Washington, and Washita.

Oregon

Counties of Baker, Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Crook, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Hood River, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Multnomah, Polk, Sherman, Tillamook, Umatilla, Union, Wasco, Washington, Wheeler, and Yamhill.

South Carolina

Counties of Allendale, Barnwell, Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Hampton, and Jasper.

South Dakota

Counties of Brown, Edmunds, Faulk, Haakon, McPherson, Spink, and Ziebach.

Texas

Counties of Anderson, Aransas, Archer, Armstrong, Atascosa, Baylor, Bee, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Borden, Bosque, Bowie, Brazos, Briscoe, Brooks, Brown, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Callahan, Camp, Carson, Cass, Castro, Cherokee, Childress, Clay, Coke, Coleman, Collingsworth, Comal, Comanche, Concho, Coryell, Cottle, Crosby, Culberson, Dallas, Dawson, Deaf Smith, Delta, Denton, Dickens, Dimmit, Donley, Duval, Eastland, Edwards, Ellis, Erath, Falls, Fisher, Floyd, Foard, Franklin, Freestone, Frio, Gaines, Garza, Gillespie, Glasscock, Gonzales, Gray, Gregg, Guadalupe, Hale, Hall, Hamilton, Hardeman, Harrison, Haskell, Hays, Hill, Hockley, Hood, Hopkins, Houston, Howard, Hudspeth, Jack, Jeff Davis, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Johnson, Jones, Kendall, Kent, Kerr, Kimble, King, Kinney, Kleberg, Knox, Lamar, Lamb, Lampasas, La Salle, Leon, Limestone, Live Oak, Llano, Lubbock, Lynn, McCulloch, McLennan, McMullen, Madison, Marion, Martin, Mason, Maverick, Medina, Menard, Midland, Milam, Mills, Mitchell, Montague, Morris, Motley, Navarro, Nolan, Nueces, Oldham, Palo Pinto, Panola, Parker, Potter, Presidio, Randall, Reagan, Real, Red River, Refugio, Robertson, Runnels, Rusk, San Patricio, San Saba, Schleicher, Scurry, Shackelford, Smith, Somervell, Starr, Stephens, Sterling, Stonewall, Sutton, Swisher, Tarrant, Taylor, Terrell, Terry, Throckmorton, Titus, Travis, Upshur, Upton, Uvalde, Val Verde, Van Zandt, Webb, Wheeler, Wichita, Wilbarger, Williamson, Wilson, Wise, Wood, Young, Zapata, and Zavala.

Utah

Counties of Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Daggett, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Piute, Rich, Salt Lake, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, Wayne, and Weber.

Vermont

Counties of Addison, Chittenden, Franklin, Lamoille, Orleans, and Washington. Washington

Counties of Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Klickitat, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, Pend Oreille, Pierce, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Stevens, Thurston, Wahkiakum, and Whatcom.

Wyoming

Counties of Carbon and Sweetwater.

Guam Island of Guam.

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Islands of Rota and Saipan.

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Municipalities of Aibonito, Barranquitas, Cabo Rojo, Cayey, Cidra, Coamo, Comerio, Guanica, Guayama, Guayanilla, Juana Diaz, Lajas, Penuelas, Ponce, Sabana Grande, Salinas, Santa Isabel, Villalba, and Yauco.

United States Virgin Islands

Islands of Saint Croix and Saint Thomas.

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cutmytaxes1 · 4 days

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Looking for a property tax consultant?

If you want to appeal but don't have the time, engage a property tax consultant who will protest and reduce your DeKalb County property taxes every year. Visit https://www.cutmytaxes.com/georgia/Dekalb-county-property-tax-reduction/

#property tax consultant #tax consultant #property taxes #dekalb county #dekalb county taxes #appeal property taxes #reduce property taxes

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oconnor2023 · 3 months

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Property Tax Appeal | Cut My Taxes

Are you a property taxpayer? Cut my taxes has the best residential and commercial services on property tax appeal. To know more visit https://www.cutmytaxes.com/georgia/dekalb-county-property-tax-reduction/

#cut my taxes #property tax appeal #tax reduction #tax appeal #dekalb county property taxes

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appealmypropertytax · 5 years

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Dekalb County Georgia Property Tax Appeal Info

Learn more about appealing your property tax in Dekalb county, Georgia.

#dekalbcountypropertytaxappeal

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wiremenu93-blog · 5 years

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Indicators leading you into the summer market

It’s clear we’re in a transitional real estate market at the moment, but the destination isn’t quite as obvious. While this year has been notoriously difficult to predict in terms of home sales, there are three indicators that can point to the future of your business in a pretty reliable way: pending home sales, new-construction activity and listing traffic.

Sales in the pipeline

Today, the National Association of Realtors released their latest report on contract signings, which revealed a slight decline. The forward-looking Pending Home Sales Index fell 1.5 percent over the month of April. Compared to this time last year, contract signings were down 2 percent, which NAR noted made this the 16th straight month of annual decreases.

Even though pending home sales are a leading indicator for the market overall, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun noted that there are other, more recent factors that may bode for a better summer than the numbers indicate. “Though the latest monthly figure shows a mild decline in contract signings, mortgage applications and consumer confidence have been steadily rising,” he said in a release accompanying today’s report. “It’s inevitable for sales to turn higher in a few months.”

And there’s another bright spot in the data for Chicagoland: As was seen in recent home sales data, the market in the Midwest appears to be faring better than others. It was the only region that didn’t record a drop in contract activity, with the index growing 1.3 percent to 96.8 in April, (though this level is 2.4 percent lower than last year at this time).

Still, Yun specifically called out the higher end of the market in Chicago’s home state as a place of vulnerability. “Price conditions are soft on the upper end, especially in high tax states like Connecticut, New York and Illinois,” he said. “The supply of inventory for homes priced under $250,000 stood at 3.3 months in April, and homes priced $1 million and above recorded an inventory of 8.9 months in April.”

Builders squeezed out beyond the ‘burbs

In a market ruled by inventory levels, new-home construction is also an important leading indicator. And an interesting trend emerged from the National Association of Home Builders’ quarterly Home Building Geography Index this month. In the first quarter of 2019, the only geographic type that registered any growth in single-family permits issued was the exurbs. Such areas are generally defined as farther-flung suburbs that attract wealthy families.

Outlying counties in large metro areas (defined as having more than 1 million in population) accounted for 9 percent of single-family construction for the first quarter of 2019. In that time period, the growth rate in those areas, which include parts of DeKalb County, Grundy County, Jasper County and Newton County, was 6.1 percent, with a 1.6 percent year-over-year increase.

Homebuilders cited construction costs as the primary reason for this finding. “Housing affordability is a root cause of soft single-family permit issuance nationwide,” said NAHB Chairman Greg Ugalde. “A shortage of buildable and affordable lots is forcing builders to increasingly look further outside of suburban and metropolitan areas to find cheaper land that provides more building opportunities.”

NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz agreed, noting that because suburbs and smaller cities are seeing rapid price increases, exurbs are winning the building war. “Housing costs are increasing fastest in large metro suburban counties and smaller metro areas with populations under 1 million where demand for housing is high but supply constraints are tight,” he said. “Supply-side issues that are hurting affordability and raising costs for builders include excessive regulations, labor shortages, rising material costs and a dearth of buildable lots in mid- to high-population centers.”

Buyer traffic slows

A final leading indicator to watch on the residential front is the volume of buyers who are out looking at houses. ShowingTime, a Chicago-based showing software and market statistics service provider for the residential market, puts together a monthly index measuring this activity, and the April data is not all that positive. In fact, the index showed the ninth straight month of decline in showing activity nationwide. But in the Midwest, the news was again better than it was elsewhere. While the West and South saw declines of 11.1 and 8.1 percent respectively, Chicago’s home region only clocked a 7.1 percent decline year-over-year, which was actually a smaller annual drop than we saw during the first three months of the year respectively.

Of course, this doesn’t measure all the showing activity out there. The company bases its reports on a representative sample of more than 100,000 listings from 25 local markets across the United States, focusing on properties listed by agents subscribing to ShowingTime’s software. Though another commonly cited report measuring this activity from Sentrilock hasn’t come out for April yet, their March foot traffic report also recorded a slight decline.

Still, with the competitive year 2018 turned out to be for those on the house hunt, it’s likely many buyers’ agents bringing clients out to listing appointments are thankful for the increased breathing room.

Source: https://chicagoagentmagazine.com/2019/05/30/indicators-leading-you-into-the-summer-market/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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constructionfirm · 5 years

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Property Values Rise In GA Historic Districts

alues for single-family residential properties in the National Register and local historic districts in Georgia rose 13-14 percent and 7 percent before they were designated historic properties, according to research by Georgia State University economist Carlianne Patrick. Patrick decided to do the research when she found there was not a wide array of available research on property values of historic district designation. She is an assistant professor in Georgia State’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.

“I felt that I could design a study to help fill this gap,” she said. “It seemed to me that the often passionate debates around historic district designations would benefit from causal evidence on some of the key issues, particularly causal evidence that differentiated between National Register and local historic districts.”

The research addresses a common belief that historic districts are associated with negative property values.

“Some homeowners are concerned that historic district designation will impose restrictions that make property improvements or sale to potential homebuyers difficult,” said Patrick. “My results suggest that demand for homes in these areas is not hurt by designation, and that the value-added from preserving neighborhood character outweighs any increased costs.”

Historic districts have also been thought to stifle development in surrounding areas. Patrick points out that the historic status does not preclude development. She provides Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn and Grant Park historic districts—which have both seen instances of new development since their National Register designations—as evidence. In the report, published by the Center for State and Local Finance, Patrick uses parcel-level transactions and district boundaries of properties listed to national and local historic registers in Fulton and DeKalb counties. The data focus on the period between 1990 and 2015.

While Patrick believes her findings can provide insight on one of the potential consequences of a change in historic district status, she welcomes additional studies. “More research,” she said, “is needed to understand the extent to which the difference in estimated effects is attributable to preexisting trends as opposed to the preservation grants and tax credits available through listing on the National Register and the added regulation associated with local historic districts.”

About the Author: Carlianne Patrick is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Her research investigates the spatial distribution of economic activity, with a particular focus on the role of economic development policies, agglomeration externalities, and local provision of public goods.

#construction

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nrtc · 3 years

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accounting and tax preparation stone mountain

Chavis & Associates, in the Ingles shopping center has been in business since 2001, providing businesses and individuals in Stone Mountain, GA and throughout DeKalb County with tax and accounting services. We also offer IRS debt resolutions, property tax assessment assistance, filing back taxes, and will help you understand IRS letters.

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oliveratlanta · 5 years

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The Hollywood-DeKalb County land swap debate has reached blockbuster proportions

Southeast of downtown, Blackhall’s studio space today rivals Tyler Perry Studios for the title of second largest in Georgia. Intrenchment Creek is pictured at bottom right. | Photo courtesy of Blackhall Studios

Blackhall Studios is booming and ready to expand, but preservationists fear plans for Atlanta’s greatest urban green space are at stake

They call Pat Culp “the cheerleader” down here. She’s president of the Cedar Grove Neighborhood Association, and for 30 years she’s lived in a section of southwest DeKalb County where tourists don’t venture, unless they’ve gotten lost trying to find East Atlanta Village, just three miles north.

On a recent afternoon Culp says something that could make other underserved, traditionally black communities around ITP Atlanta shudder with gentrification fears: “We’ve been asking for redevelopment for a lot of years, and it just has not come through. We need that growth. We need retail stores, and an open market to service us with fresh vegetables, sandwiches, that kind of thing. And we need residents moving to our area—new housing. It’s not here like it needs to be for young professionals.” Another evangelist for the area, Ingrid Buxbaum, a longtime home renovator in nearby Starlight Heights, puts it like this: “I still can’t believe the rest of the world has not yet discovered us.”

Culp, Buxbaum, and their allies look toward a relatively new neighbor—Blackhall Studios, with its sprawling, high-security campus where Tom Hardy’s Venom and the latest Godzilla incarnation were filmed—not as the area’s savior, but as the vehicle for finally getting on the map. They’re backers of a studio expansion campaign called the Great Park Connection—a reference to new public green space the Hollywood contingent has promised to create in exchange for land owned by the county.

But it wouldn’t be a plot without conflict.

The friction comes via a dueling campaign: Stop the Swap. That’s a reference to three parcels of nearby land Blackhall owns and wants to trade with the county for the aforementioned piece of Intrenchment Creek Park, a woodsy, 127-acre public green space. No financial transactions. No tax incentives. Just land.

Exact acreage numbers are debated, but the deal goes that Blackhall would be giving up roughly 53 acres and getting back less from the county: a 48-acre piece that’s closer to the existing studios, allowing expansions to be more seamless. But what sounds like a straightforward exchange has raised complex questions of fairness and ethics.

Among the swap’s opposition leaders is Joe Peery, an East Atlanta resident and outdoor enthusiast who happens to be an animation director for TV and film. He knows the two land areas in question. He loves the connection with nature the existing park provides. And he doesn’t pull punches.

The existing Intrenchment Creek Park and trails today.

“It’s a bad deal, no matter how you look at it,” says Peery. “I’ve been hiking and biking and building trails in the land for years. So I know when people are bullshitting. I can take you over there, and there’s no way you’ll agree these properties are of equal value.”

Facets of the monthslong drama over the swap—value disputes, proud tree-huggers, protest graffiti and yard signs, lawsuit threats, architect testimonials, dueling petitions, hashtag campaigns, allegations of misleading propaganda and media spin, and racial and socioeconomic differences—could lend themselves to at least one Blackhall production.

It’s a unique case of neighborhoods aligning with Hollywood to push forward a real estate deal—and of a metro Atlanta studio facing substantial backlash in a growing, if threatened, industry valued at $9.5 billion statewide last year. (The record 455 movie and TV productions filmed in the Peach State in fiscal 2018 equated to $2.7 billion in Georgia cash registers, per the governor’s office.) And what happens here could be of huge importance to Atlantans at large as the city evolves.

Just ask Ryan Gravel, the architect who invented the Atlanta Beltline concept and has studied the area in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy, a leading environmental organization. Intrenchment Creek Park, says Gravel, is a critical component of a larger proposed green space identified as the “South River Park” in the Atlanta City Design plan.

“It could be 3,500 acres—bigger than Stone Mountain Park,” says Gravel. “It’s the last chance for metro Atlanta to have a massive urban green space inside [Interstate] 285.”

At stake for the other side, the swap’s supporters say, is the potential for a TV and film studio complex that dwarfs almost all others around Atlanta—and the opportunity for neighbors to be lifted up by their proximity to it.

A visit to Intrenchment Creek Park presents a striking dichotomy.

One minute you see a massive, closed landfill, a wastewater treatment plant, and the infrastructural bones of a failed subdivision; the next brings a creek full of rocky shoals, well-kept older ranch homes on big lots, and serene woods where herds of deer roam within Atlanta’s 285 Perimeter. Enter the park itself, and a six-mile PATH Trail wends through soothing, silent woods—where trail-markers and welcome signs are Swiss-cheesed by bullet holes.

Josh Green

Bullet-ridden park signage.

“I’ve hiked the trails several times as part of this process, and they are scary,” says Buxbaum. “I would not hike them alone.” (The opposition would contend the most menacing thing in the woods might be a wayward Disney executive.)

But in this paradoxical, tucked-away setting, Ryan Millsap, a native Los Angeleno and real estate mogul, saw potential for his big break in the movie-making business a few years ago.

After Wall Street collapsed in 2008, Millsap bought about 8,000 apartments across the Southeast, roughly half of them in metro Atlanta. The same year Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Georgia lawmakers approved juicy TV and film tax credits for productions made here. Soon, the Hollywood of the South—alternately: Y’allywood—was rolling, and Tyler Perry’s Madea was joined by everything from Walking Dead zombies and dystopian Hunger Games sets to Magic Mike male strippers.

Atlanta now competes with five TV and film production powerhouses across the English-speaking world: New York City, Toronto, Vancouver, London, and Los Angeles, the latter being the only hub with more soundstages. Georgia has as many soundstages as New York and all of Canada combined. And in Millsap’s estimation, the state was on the cusp of developing a brand identity and reputation in Hollywood comparable to California’s prior to passage in May of the controversial “heartbeat bill,” among the country’s most restrictive abortion laws. (Legal fights are expected before the law would be implemented in January; Millsap says he thinks of the turbulence as temporary.)

Millsap, who grew up with friends in the film industry, moved here in 2014 with plans for a specialty real estate project. A movie studio, he reasoned, would be akin to something like a medical-office development. “I’m no surgeon,” says Millsap, “but I could build a hospital in a way that surgeons would love.”

Blackhall Studios—named for a street near the University of Oxford, where Millsap once studied philosophy—opened on the site of a former paint distribution warehouse in April 2017. It’s a walled-off campus with nine soundstages just south of the Starlight Drive-In Theatre, an easy eight miles from the world’s busiest airport. And it didn’t take long before the real estate axiom about location proved accurate.

Blackhall was smaller than Pinewood Studios in Fayetteville but more central; actors and crew could jet off to lunch in Inman Park in 15 minutes. It’s more open to outside productions than Tyler Perry Studios, triple the size of Third Rail Studios in Doraville, and more versatile than a mixed-use development with studio components like Pratt-Pullman Yard’s planned revival. It’s for those reasons, says Millsap, that Blackhall’s entire facility is booked through next July—and expansion is crucial.

“When people come to town, we’re definitely the number-one studio in the state from a desirability standpoint,” he says. “We get the first crack at all the big stuff. And our competitors are getting a shot if we’re full.”

Josh Green

A secured studio entrance on Constitution Road.

Right now, between soundstages, offices, and industrial sections used for building sets, Blackhall counts about 850,000 square feet under its roofs. The proposed expansion would nearly double that footprint, making the studios larger than the built-out spaces of the Braves’s SunTrust Park and Hawks’s State Farm Arena combined.

“Once we’re finished with our second phase,” Millsap notes, “we’ll not only be the largest by soundstage space in Georgia, but in North America—and one of the largest in the world.”

Millsap was all set to break ground on that second phase last year, planning to convert the three parcels he already owns. From the current studio entrance, they’re maybe a two-minute drive up Bouldercrest Road, on the other side of Constitution Road, an industrial east-west corridor.

But then he met a local architect with a big idea.

A longtime Atlanta landscape architect and planner, Jay Scott is the 66-year-old head of Green Rock Partners, a firm with offices in Ponce City Market. About eight years ago, the self-proclaimed tree-hugger crafted an overlay district for the area around what’s now Blackhall Studios, a sort of roadmap for development that never came.

The process acquainted Scott with the area’s businesses and neighborhoods, and in Millsap’s initial plans, he was concerned that truck traffic would be channeled too close to a cove of existing homes, and that 50-foot-tall soundstages would tower over backyards. His idea was to instead create open parkland from Blackhall’s three undeveloped parcels, a “greenbelt buffer between industrial and residential areas.” Scott called for a deal with DeKalb County to carve studios and backlots into Intrenchment Creek Park across the road from Blackhall’s existing campus and snake the PATH Trail around them.

Courtesy of Blackhall Studios

The studio’s park proposal, with what supporters stress is improved accessibility to Bouldercrest Road and neighborhoods beyond.

It got him hired by Millsap as a consultant. And they took their proposal to county commissioners in mid-2018 with a cherry on top: Millsap and company would commit $3.8 million toward building new park amenities: picnic shelters, emergency call boxes, enhanced lighting, a second entrance, more parking, and possibly a boardwalk along the babbling creek. They’d also rebuild a runway for the remote-control plane and drone enthusiasts who constitute the park’s main patronage now.

Scott cites statistics from a county study that suggest his idea would boost 10-minute park walkability from 94 neighbors now to more than 1,500. But that’s not the most valuable aspect, as he sees it.

“This park along Bouldercrest [Road] is going to have a meadow similar in size to Piedmont Park, where people can have festivals, movie screenings [of films] shot next door, where kids can toss Frisbees,” Scott says. “There just is not a park like that in southwest DeKalb County right now.”

Culp, the neighborhood association leader, concurs: “We want a big, central green space.”

But Peery, the opposition spearhead, feels strongly that saving the land’s natural ecosystem should be paramount: “[Nearby] Gresham Park has cricket, ballfields, a pool, so there’s no lack of that,” he says. “What we need is forests, trees, water, lakes. That’s where people are spending money—they want to be near that.”

By November, the swap appeared imminent, if quietly so. DeKalb County CEO Mike Thurmond’s office wrote to the Arthur M. Blank Foundation, which oversees part of the park following a 2003 agreement with the Trust for Public Land, that the proposed swap had the makings of a “win-win” and would move forward.

It wasn’t until January that Peery and his East Atlanta cohorts were made aware that almost half of their beloved woods could become huge, fenced-off sheds and backlots for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson movies.

A leader of the park’s RC airfield called Peery to inform him “the studios are taking over,” and Peery was confused, alarmed, and angry. He promised a grassroots campaign that would “bring it to the surface, show everyone what’s happening, and get people fired up.”

Thus, #StoptheSwap was born.

Peery arranged a meeting to discuss a compromise with Millsap at Intrenchment Creek Park last winter. He struggles to suppress laughter in recalling how the studio head arrived near the entrance’s little gazebo and bullet-ridden signage in a stretch limo. What is this, thought Peery, a movie premiere?

As became immediately clear, there’s a fundamental difference in how both sides see the big picture.

DeKalb County owns nearly 1,000 acres of contiguous green space in the area, straddling I-285. That includes Gresham Woods (beside the Gresham Park neighborhood), Intrenchment Creek Park, Sugar Creek Golf Course, Constitution Lakes (home to the otherworldly Doll’s Head Trail), and vast swaths of virgin forest.

via DeKalb County presentation

A general overview of the proposed swap and broader connections of existing green space in the immediate area. Blackhall’s existing campus and ancillary studio properties are shown in dark pink; the undeveloped land it owns is light green.

The pro-swap regiment believes that building a park with the more northern land Blackhall owns—part of it the chewed-up turf of a failed subdivision—would help create an uninterrupted, park-like setting from Constitution Lakes all the way up to East Atlanta. One day, paved trails could weave through it, connecting the area to intown job centers without more streets.

“The plusses here are huge,” says Amanda Brown-Olmstead, part of a PR team hired by Blackhall Studios to promote The Great Park Connection concept. “It’s a time where quality of life, and nature, and recreation come in balance with economic development, and we can make these things work together.”

Conservationists, meanwhile, view the swap proposal as highly unusual and possibly illegal, in that the land was meant to be permanently protected, per earlier deals. Instead of building a bridge between existing parks and forests, they say, the massive studio complex and clear-cutting it would require are tantamount to a roadblock that threatens biodiversity, endangering a rich habitat of fauna, from amphibians to turkeys, foxes, and large deer. “And the precedent of this swap would put all public parks in DeKalb at risk,” says Margaret Brady, a Stop the Swap ally of Peery’s.

“The only thing that would interrupt that contiguous greenspace is [the studio] development” in the park, adds Peery, “and that’s what pisses me off.”

Scott, the architect, sees it differently: “The idea that this 48 acres [of existing parkland] is somehow sacred to this entire 1,000 acres is kind of absurd to me.”

Also at stake is a future Beltline connection, as the existing PATH could eventually be extended northwest to link with the Beltline’s Southside Trail. (Pro-swappers say that PATH could simply be rerouted, at Blackhall’s expense.) The loss of mature trees in the forested park is another concern, a threat to sewer water and erosion control, but Scott argues that land the county would receive is dotted with big oaks, 30 to 50 inches in diameter, while most trees in Intrenchment Creek Park are “eight-inch pines or less—a very early-stage forest.”

Images courtesy of Rashawn Johnson

These materials, distributed by PATH at a Southside neighborhood meeting in May, illustrate how the system could connect Intrenchment Creek Park’s current PATH Trail to the Beltline’s Southside Trail.

What’s probably the biggest bone of contention, however, involves sheer value.

Swap detractors say the trade would give Blackhall about 20 additional acres of developable land that’s not in a floodplain, as with some land the studio owns now, worth about $2 million more that the studio’s current acreage. Not so, says Scott. He contends that appraisers hired by DeKalb determined the swap would mean a $515,000 net gain in land value for the county.

“It’s about an even trade,” Scott says, “in terms of the amount of open, cleared space and trees.”

In May, as swap-related tensions heated, Trust for Public Land officials insisted “a robust public conversation” was needed, and DeKalb commissioners Larry Johnson and Kathie Gannon convened what’s been the only community meeting devoted to the subject thus far at nearby McNair High School. It’s where one observer noticed a clear distinction along racial lines: Almost all swap naysayers where white, and supporters black.

Courtesy of Blackhall Studios

Swap opponents decry a neighborhood event held recently at Blackhall Studio as propaganda.

“The real shame of it is, [Blackhall reps are] pitting neighbor against neighbor, going into these really low-income areas and promising the moon,” Peery asserts. “Unfortunately, more recently, I feel like Blackhall has really amped up efforts in terms of propaganda, and they’re overstepping their bounds.”

The public relations push has spurred cheery news stories on TV and in print this summer (these pages included). One subject was cleanup efforts on Blackhall’s land that removed towering piles of illegally dumped tires, now set to be recycled as playground surfaces. What wasn’t mentioned, per Peery, is that Blackhall had allowed some 4,000 tires and trash to accumulate for months despite neighbor complaints. The edges of that property are now dotted with pro-swap yard signs, while a graffitist has left his “Stop the Swap” sentiment in red paint on the trail’s nearby concrete.

Josh Green

The tagline used by opponents of the land deal, in graffiti.

Josh Green

Pro-swap signs dot the area.

In June, Blackhall studio heads flung open the doors for the first time so neighbors could tour the facility, and some 250 turned out. “What I’m hearing, from neighborhoods, is that they’re so jacked up about this [swap],” Brown-Olmstead, the spokeswoman, said after the event. “They’re going door-to-door, to their neighbors, to their friends… there’s a real sense of pride.”

At the time, Culp said the shoe-leather campaign among neighborhood leaders had garnered 700 pro-swap signatures. “This is not something online, not a petition on Change.org,” she said. “And it’s not easy, I can tell you.”

“We beat that in two days,” said Peery, referring in June to his contingent’s Charge.org petition, versus the signature tally pro-swappers brought before commissioners. “Currently we’re over 2,500.”

Ammunition for pro-swappers came last month when Katerina Taylor, DeKalb Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, and Emory Morsberger, South Metro CID president, announced support for the Great Park Connection “movement.”

The land exchange would “serve as a major economic development initiative,” said Taylor, while Morsberger called Millsap “the kind of business leader we’re looking for” in the same press release.

The opposition’s own heavyweight, Beltline visionary Gravel, takes a longer view, calling swap plans “a short-sighted vision for a part of the county that’s poised for rapid change and growth over the next 20 years.”

Exactly when a victor might be declared in this protracted drama isn’t clear.

DeKalb County spokesman Andrew L. Cauthen III said Blackhall’s proposal is being vetted by county legal staff, the chief operating officer’s office, and other departments to weigh operational and legal issues and conduct environmental studies. Following all those assessments, a recommendation will be sent up to Thurmond, who could ask for more studies, reject it outright, or give the swap his blessing. The final decision will be made in a public board of commissioners meeting.

When asked to estimate how long the process might take, Cauthen replied via email: “It’s not really possible.”

It’s a safe bet the studios will expand, one way or the other. While Millsap is moving forward with the construction of new studios in London and possibly others in Canada, he says Atlanta will remain home base. And he seems genuinely enthused when talking about creating synergy with a part of town that’s seeing an influx of capital.

“There’s going to be a whole bunch of kids who grow up in these neighborhoods who say, ‘I watch movies and televisions, that sounds cool, how are they made?’” says Millsap. “They start to realize that on every production, there’s 300 jobs. What you really want to be able to do is tie them into the Georgia Film Academy, and have the academy have a presence at McNair High School and [nearby] Perimeter College. If Disney’s here making movies, maybe smaller connections could be made, with directors visiting schools, maybe finding a student they like.”

On a busy day at the studios now, with all productions filming, Millsap says 1,000 highly paid workers are on-site (granted, most of them commute from elsewhere in Atlanta and beyond). He says their local spending on everything from lumber to tacos translates to between $500 million and $700 million annually, figures that would ostensibly swell if the studio space doubles.

Pro-swappers like to point to a nearby KFC that’s doubled its business since Blackhall moved in.

Peery, Gravel, and other swap adversaries are quick to call the studios an obvious boon, with growth projections that they applaud. But should the proposed land trade move forward, with a section of Intrenchment Creek Park to be lost, Peery says a lose-lose for taxpayers is inevitable, and that his group will sue on grounds, in part, that land deed restrictions were violated.

“We know a lot about what they want—we’re not being snowed here,” says Peery. “We want a big regional park, incorporating what’s there now, and we’ve been working on it for years. They come along in the past couple of years and decide they’re going to build our park for us, and that doesn’t work.”

Josh Green

The park’s main entrance today.

source https://atlanta.curbed.com/2019/8/15/18761677/blackhall-studios-atlanta-intrenchment-hollywood-land-swap-dekalb

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