Atlanta City Council Says No To Independent Gulch Deal Review
CIM Group, a real estate developer, wants to turn the 40-acre piece of largely empty land beneath State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta into a massive mixed-use development.
John Bazemore / Associated Press file
The Atlanta City Council voted down a resolution that would have requested that the city auditor coordinate an independent, third-party review of the proposed development deal at the Gulch.
CIM Group, a real estate developer, wants to turn the 40-acre piece of largely empty land downtown beneath State Farm Arena into a massive mixed-use development.
After Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tried to push the deal through two weeks ago, City Council members requested more time to study the deal that requests $1.75 billion in public financing. See here for more details.
Some council members have said they still need more clarity on the 600-plus page deal, which council member Jennifer Ide called likely the “biggest financial deal this council is asked to vote for [in this term].”
Ide and other council members had sponsored legislation requesting an independent review.
Many members of the public spoke in support of that idea at Monday’s meeting, but it still failed. The vote was 6 to 5 with four no votes, but it didn’t pass because it didn’t have a majority of eight.
Council member Cleta Winslow, who represents the Gulch’s district, said she does not understand the opposition to the deal, given the new opportunity and the developers’ commitments of things like economic development and affordable housing funds and minority/women-owned businesses. (Again, more details here.)
“Until we start getting developers interested in southwest Atlanta, it’s not going to look good,” she said. “I just feel that the Gulch is going to be a gateway to southwest Atlanta.
“We’re going to have to continue with these tax incentives if we’re going to continue to build up the city of Atlanta,” she said.
Council member Marci Collier Overstreet, who also voted against the independent review resolution, said there would be no need for that since the mayor’s office has apparently already asked the Georgia Municipal Association for one.
“We’re supposed to be asking for an independent look. And that’s what this is to me, from the Georgia Municipal Association,” she said.
Council member Amir Farokhi said while he doesn’t doubt the independence of the association, for something to be truly independent, it would need to come through City Council. The mayor’s office negotiated the development deal.
Former Atlanta mayoral candidate Vincent Fort has been speaking in opposition to the deal.
“My question is what does the mayor and council have to hide? Why don’t they want an independent review?” he said following the vote. “It’s all the more reason we need one when you have the administration fighting tooth and nail to keep eyes off of this.”
Julian Bene, a former board member of Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm, has also spoken in strong opposition to the project overall. He called the deal “grotesquely out of balance between the cost to the public and any public benefits” and said it should just be voted down.
“[Atlantans] want their sidewalks. They want their roads,” he said. “They certainly don’t care about the Gulch and making a couple of California billionaires even richer.”
The city has said this is a big opportunity to generate tax revenue from an empty parcel of land that has generated almost no tax revenue of any kind for decades, and that the land, which is below street level and split among five landowners, makes it so complex that it’s unlikely another developer will volunteer to take it on.
Correction: The City Council vote totals have been updated.
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