housing development and new construction around the
Olympic Park in Downtown, the Atlanta Neighborhood
Development Partnership (ANDP) was approached by
the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to spear head what
is being call the "Mixed Income Housing Initiative."
ANDP engaged MXD+MANIS, as one of its consultants
on this initiative, to assist them in presenting the concept
of attracting middle income residents back to intown
neighborhoods in an effort to foster holistic mixed
income communities.
MXD+MANIS was charged with providing ANDP with
demographic information on downtown Atlanta and its
surrounding neighborhoods.
The neighborhoods were divided into inner ring and
outer ring areas. These rings encompass some 50
neighborhoods which is 25% of Atlanta's "recognized"
neighborhoods.
We utilized geographic information systems (GIS)
and other in-house computer aided design (CAD)
and database software for this effort. We put the
demographics and issues raised by developers and
community development corporations (CDC's) on
what it will take to bring middle income residents
back to intown neighborhoods in a multimedia
presentation.
Issues of physical neighborhood deterioration, crime,
inadequate public schools, the cost of land and a slow
building permit approval process by the City were cited
as major inhibitors to attracting a more affluent population.
The information uncovered presented, however, a more
promising picture than the perception of most of the
some 20 people interviewed.
Both population and housing growth are on the rise and
projected to increase significantly. This growth is built
on top of the 1/4 of a billion dollars spent on neighborhood
revitalization prior to and following the 1996 Summer
Olympics.
This multimedia presentation commissioned by ANDP helped
give Atlanta's "movers & shakers" the background information
they needed to support ANDP in taking a key leadership
role towards the development of some 20,000 new housing
units. This is part of an overall effort to attract 65,000 middle
income residents back into the downtown area by 2008 A.D.
A major part of ANDP's role will be to help accelerate the
development process for both CDCs and private developers.
MXD+MANIS will assist in this effort by helping ANDP
setup a computerized database of intown properties ready for
development and information on CDC neighborhood
development activities.
ANDP will serve as a property/development clearing house
and will collaborate with, the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta
Development Authority (ADA), Fulton County via the Land Bank
Authority, and the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to name a few.
In 1999 the initiative was changed to The Mixed Income Communities
Initative (MICI). Cross reference MICI under "Research" under the
MXD+MANIS Tab.