Continued...

Courting the Stakeholders

The BeltLine Partnership (BLP) manages the capital campaign for the BeltLine, works to build community support for the project, and actively addresses social concerns associated with its implementation. Executive Director Valarie Wilson knew that the specter of displacement and gentrification could cause real damage to the project—not only its public perception, but to the very real potential it holds to bring new quality of life and opportunity to neighborhoods long ignored by Atlanta’s economic growth.

“We were extremely concerned about displacement, and about preserving affordability in neighborhoods that would be impacted by BeltLine development. Not just preserving it, but preserving it long-term,” Wilson says.

Determined to enact a proactive strategy, BLP began a national search for best practices. But research into displacement-prevention strategies associated with large redevelopment projects in Portland, Ore.; Arlington, Va.; Pasadena, Calif.,; and others revealed that none had addressed the topic proactively. All had progressed with redevelopment significantly before realizing that displacement would be a problem.

BLP board member Mtamanika Youngblood suggested CLTs as part of the answer. Youngblood, who works with the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site, had actually been involved with the first CLT in the country, New Communities, Inc., incorporated in 1967 in Albany, Georgia.

The community-based control and perpetual affordability of CLTs convinced BLP staff to look into it. They invited local government agencies, nonprofits,

community-based organizations, corporate foundations, and others knowledgeable about affordable housing to a presentation on CLTs by John E. Davis of Burlington Associates. “If we were to be successful with this concept, we needed everyone involved in affordable housing development to be in the room with us. Stakeholders from all sectors had to be at the table from the beginning,” Wilson says. The result of this meeting was a cross-sector consensus to explore how to best bring CLTs to Atlanta, and especially BeltLine neighborhoods.