34 | Perimeter Business
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The PCIDs marks 20 years of shaping Perimeter Center Continued from page 25 an estimated 9,000 people already living there and more large-scale, mixeduse projects in the pipeline. It remains to be seen whether the PCIDs will join similar business groups in leveraging residential property owners into the self-taxing district. “The CIDs’ story, in some ways, is a mirror of the story of metro Atlanta,” Hanlon says of the growth. “I’m excited to see what the next 20 years brings for Perimeter… Metro Atlanta is changing so rapidly and Perimeter is no different.”
Pioneering Projects
Self-taxing Community Improvement Districts are authorized by state law. Virtually any business area can form one and institute the tax, as long as a majority of commercial property owners representing 75% of the local property values agree and the state legislature gives permission. The PCIDs’ district in Perimeter Center is roughly bordered by Ga. 400 to the west, I-285 to the south, and residential areas of Dunwoody and Sandy Springs to the north and east. Another rule, and the one responsible for the PCIDs somewhat awkward plural name, is that a single CID cannot cross county lines. Perimeter Center happens to be split nearly in half by DeKalb and Fulton counties. The PCIDs is a joint staff that operates on behalf of two separate CIDs: the DeKalb CID, the one that formed in 1999 and is the basis for the 20th anniversary celebration, and the Fulton CID, which followed in 2001. Today, there are 27 CIDs in the metro Atlanta area, according to the Council for Quality Growth. But in 1990s CIDs were still a novelty. “The CID was really a novelty,” Hanlon says. Cobb County’s Cumberland CID was the first, founded in 1988. Another early example was Central Atlanta Progress in that city’s downtown. Buckhead attorney Chuck Palmer had worked on the CAP legislation and was drafted by Perimeter Center leaders to form the DeKalb CID. “There was a group of property owners
who believed they really needed to focus on transportation out there… and that they would come up with some solutions for that,” Palmer said. “…Basically, these property owners are putting their money where their mouths are.” Yvonne Williams, then the president of the SPECIAL Cobb Chamber of ComDunwoody Mayor Denis merce, was brought on to Shortal, left, and PCIDs lead the new CID – partly Executive Director Ann because the Cumberland Hanlon pose on a new CID had been an affili- multiuse trail connecting the city’s Georgetown ate of the chamber, givneighborhood with ing her experience in that Perimeter Center. The world. Williams led the trail opened in April. PCIDs for 17 years, leaving in 2016, and is now president and CEO at the Greater Macon Chamber of Comerybody was frustrated with Ga. 400” and merce. long-stalled road improvement ideas to re“We went in reverse, [by] not having a duce its infamous congestion. The PCIDs strategic plan in the beginning,” Williams joined the Sandy Springs Development recalled. “We decided to get a project done Authority in partnering with the state to very quickly” to show the value of the tax add a new half-interchange on Hammond dollars — relatively minor crosswalk and Drive in 2011, which Williams called a landscaping improvements to the inter“game-changer.” section outside Dunwoody’s Crowne PlaAnother huge project, the Ashfordza hotel in the Ravinia complex where the Dunwoody diverging diamond, followed CID was based. in 2012, helping to establish the PCIDs’ rep“We started with small projects with utation as a big builder and partner with small wins to engage the public,” Williams the Georgia Department of Transportasaid. “Then, of course, it just evolved to be tion. The intersection, where traffic crisshuge.” crosses the street for better flow and safeThe PCIDs came into being when the ty, was the first of its kind in Georgia and is Fulton side joined in 2001. At an April now widely imitiated. 25 20th anniversary reception, held in Brookhaven’s Hyatt Regency at Villa ChrisCities Join the Picture tian, founding DeKalb CID board memThe cityhood movement trigged by ber Bob Voyles recalled that gathering Fulthe incorporation of Sandy Springs in ton property owners was “more fractious” 2005 swept Perimeter Center, with Dunbecause there were more of them, with woody coming in 2008 and Brookhaven smaller businesses. Another founding in 2012. It was reportedly something of a board member, Diane Calloway, was honsurprise to PCIDs leaders who had come ored at the reception for her work, which to view Perimeter Center as its own locaincluded wrangling those Fulton propertion. As Voyles said at the 20th anniverty owners. sary reception, “Business owners think Williams soon found herself advocatmore about the region. And we don’t see ing for projects much larger than landPerimeter as cities. We see it more as an scaping. On the Fulton side, she said, “Eventity.”
Williams said the PCIDs always got along well with the new cities and saw itself as a “uniting partnership” among them. But there could be some frustration as well, as the PCIDs was used to dealing with the much lighter project review process of a single county. “You can’t erase history” and the partnership with new cities was good, Williams said. But, she added, “You can’t always have things go as smoothly” and projects could sometimes face a “smorgasbord” variety of review processes that made them “labor-intensive” and a “heavy lift.” “[City reviews] probably adds another layer of complication to it,” says Palmer, the attorney who continues to advise the DeKalb CID, adding that there is good cooperation. At the city of Dunwoody, which recently partnered with the PCIDs on a new multiuse trail connecting the Georgetown neighborhood with Perimeter Center, Mayor Denis Shortal and City Manager Eric Linton had effusive praise for the organization. “They’re just a tremendous partner,” said Linton. “They understand that their success is our success, and our success is their success.”