Author Archives: jimgilvin

Fulton County property taxes… the gouging has to stop

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I received my 2011 Fulton County property tax assessment this weekend and the amount has gone down some from last year but it still an unrealistically high assessment. If the county is willing to pay me that much for my house I’ll gladly take them up on it.

Last year I calculated that my property tax assessment was 10-15% too high but decided against filing an appeal because of the hassle involved compared to the savings. This year despite the lower assessment the county is still trying to charge me 15-20% too much and my patience has run out. Average property values in Atlanta are back in the year 2000-2001 price range and paying taxes based on a 2005 assessment is getting old, especially when the state is planning to raise my sales taxes next year anyway. This year I am appealing.

If you are being gouged too I recommend you do the same. The deadline for appealing your assessment is 6/21/2011 if you wish to join me.

Feds investigating Alpharetta mosque decision

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AJC has this article about the federal government’s intrusion into the local expansion of a mosque that was denied by the Alpharetta City Council.

The underlying issue is complicated and I don’t feel strongly about the outcome one way or the other. When it comes to zoning issues that don’t directly impact my wallet or family I prefer to let the people who do feel strongly about it work it out.

But I do think some people may misinterpret what is going on here. The problem is that when mosque supporters originally asked to zone the property for that use the neighbors welcomed them into their community based on promises that the mosque would not be expand into something more intrusive. Now the mosque supporters want to expand into something that will dramatically increase the size and impact. I don’t blame the neighbors for being mad about that so for me it just comes down to the fact that the mosque backers made promises to their neighbors and the city decided to make them live up to those promises.

I am not naive enough to think that the building being a mosque doesn’t matter to any of the opponents but I do remember when the Jewish Temple on Kimball Bridge Road wanted to expand dramatically  and their nearby community fought it too. Trying to make this a religious discrimination issue is an oversimplification. I also wish the federal government would spend more time trying to balance their checkbook instead of imposing their will on local zoning issues.

But regardless of the outcome I do savor this opportunity to watch some of the same people that have staunchly defended the private property rights of politically connected developers as they now staunchly defend the right to trample those rights. Schadenfreude anyone?

A modest MARTA proposal

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Lately there has been a great deal of talk about the need to bring mass transit trains to and through our fair city of Alpharetta. I previously explained here how the Mayor of Johns Creek advocated the urbanization of Alpharetta because he feels that his constituents are underserved by MARTA. I also showed you how the rainmaker for the local chamber of commerce is pushing a train system that would run through my neighborhood to serve residents in Johns Creek and Duluth.

I personally abhor taxpayer subsidized trains because I believe they waste money on an inflexible and inefficient transportation system. I won’t rehash my reasons for this position now but you can click on the transportation tag to the right of your screen for more background. But for the sake of argument let us assume that trains will be built to serve Johns Creek and Duluth.

The question then becomes, “Why go through Alpharetta to get to Duluth when there is a much more intelligent and economical solution to extending trains into North Fulton and Gwinnett counties.” Below is a proposed path for a MARTA rail extension that would only require about 10 miles of rail as opposed to the 30 necessary for the plan currently being suggested.

The smarta MARTA

The route shown above requires only 10 miles of new rail lines which is 1/3rd of what would be required for the plan proposed by DOT board member and Chamber of Commerce CEO Brandon Beach. Not only would this route save BILLIONS of dollars but it could be completed in a fraction of the time. That is a tremendous amount of time and money that could be better spent making other much needed infrastructure improvements.

In addition to saving Georgia taxpayers time and money my proposal is also superior to the one being floated by Mr. Beach because it would relieve traffic congestion on both I-85 and GA 400 simultaneously. If you extend MARTA along GA 400 it would only relieve congestion along one existing main artery but by placing a train between two of the most congested highways in Atlanta we could actually double the impact for one third of the cost.

So as you can clearly see, if we decide to expand rail into North Fulton and North Gwinnett then the obvious way to do it would be to extend the Doraville line up the Hwy 141 corridor. And since the solution is so obvious I hope Mayor Bodker will immediately begin pushing land use policies for Johns Creek to help facilitate this important regional initiative. Undoubtedly Mayor Bodker’s constituents will be thrilled with his vision and leadership on this matter.

Brandon Beach pitches trains in Windward on the news

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Earlier I covered curious events surrounding a presentation to the Alpharetta City Council by Mr. Brandon Beach. Mr. Beach is a board member of the Georgia Department of Transportation and also serves as the CEO of the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce as well as Director of the North Fulton CID which represents the commercial property owners in the Northpoint Parkway area of Alpharetta.

You can read the previous posts here and here for more details. But after Mr. Beach decided not to present his transit plan to our city council you can imagine my surprise when I heard that he had instead chosen to present the plan on WSB’s newscast last night. You can see the clip by clicking on the picture below.

I have seen Mr. Beach give a similar presentation but it didn’t mention taking the train through my neighborhood to Duluth. Needless to say I am not a fan of expanding costly and inefficient trains through my neighborhood and now I understand why he didn’t even bother presenting the plan to our City Council.

In a completely unrelated matter I noticed a few pictures of Mr. Beach in the Alpharetta Revue today. The odd thing was that standing right there with Brandon was Penn Hodge, the developer that owns the land adjacent to the Windward MARTA property. Looked like they were having a great time together at the Ritz Carlton. Small world isn’t it?

But back to the matter at hand, I did like one part of the WSB news story. The clip where Mr. Beach says,”You’ve got Windward… up here… with jobs.” The rest of the clip… not so much.

Alpharetta City Center update

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I am told that the new Alpharetta City Center plan will not be unveiled next week as many people expected. It seems the city may prefer to wait until they hear whether Fulton County accepts the city’s offer to donate land downtown for the new library.

The new tentative date is May 23rd.

The new and improved Alpharetta City Center

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There is an article on the Patch this morning that suggests the new city center project will be unveiled on Monday. Good. For at least a couple of years the city of Alpharetta has been assembling land downtown and it is about time the residents picking up the tab see what is being planned for their tax dollars.

While city council members have been hyping the project to me for months they have refused to provide any hard details so I have no idea whether the project will be worthwhile or not. I will reserve judgement until I have a chance to see what is proposed.

But if you are curious what may be coming I suggest you take a look at the changes the city has proposed for the downtown area in the new land use plan (that council hasn’t approved or condoned but submitted to ARC for approval anyway). The city of Alpharetta has been working on the new city center ever since the last one failed so I think it is safe to assume that they would not be proposing a new land use plan that did not conform with it.

Downtown changes

City Center

According to the proposed CLUP changes the area noted above as P-3 will be zoned as “central business district”. Since we aren’t privy to the city’s intentions yet let us assume that the area will include a new city hall as proposed before, the land that the city has already voted to donate for a new library and other such commercial uses.

Then note that the vast majority of land covered by the new city center is identified as P-4. According to the legend of the new CLUP that property will be developed as high density residential. We can’t know for sure but based on the failed city center proposal there will likely be a large condominium development surrounding an open space designated as a park.

The map above is a fact but there is always the unlikely chance that it doesn’t conform to the new plan to be unveiled soon. The rest is simply conjecture based on what the city tried to do before. The rumor mill says that the bond issue needed to pay for the new city center would cost between 25 and 30 million dollars.

I know the same people that supported the last city center project are once again lined up behind this one. And I know that there are others that didn’t like the last proposal that are already on board this time. I am glad the public may soon see what is being cooked up so we can make a decision for ourselves.

The incredible disappearing transit machine

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Last Friday an agenda item about a transit presentation by Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce CEO, Northpoint CID Director and Georgia DOT Board member Brandon Beach magically appeared on the Alpharetta City Council docket for Monday night. I was surprised to see such an item appear out of thin air and wrote about it in this post over the weekend.

Well apparently I wasn’t the only one surprised. Several City Council members told me that they didn’t know anything about it until last Friday either.  Then yesterday, as magically as it appeared, the transit presentation disappeared and never took place. Curious stuff.

Maybe Mr. Beach saw the recent article “The Public Transport Revolution – Why does it never Arrive?” on Newgeography.com and realized that MARTA trains were a waste of time and money. You can read the whole article here but below are a few highlights.

Urban economist, Anthony Downs, writing in “Still Stuck in  Traffic?” reminds us:

“….trying to decrease traffic congestion by raising  residential densities is like trying to improve the position of a painting hung  too high on the living room wall by jacking up the ceiling instead of  moving the painting.”

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One of the arguments used against building more roads – and  especially against more motorways – is that as soon as they are built they  become congested again because of “induced demand.” Such “induced demand” is  surely the natural expression of suppressed demand. It seems unlikely  that motorists will mindlessly drive between different destinations for no  other reason than they can.

However, let us accept for a moment that “induced demand” is  real, and suggests that improving the road network is a fruitless exercise. Advocates  of expensive rail networks claim they will reduce congestion on the roads and  improve the lot of private vehicle users as a consequence.

But surely, if the construction of an expensive rail network  does reduce congestion on the roads then induced demand will rapidly restore  the status quo. Maybe the theory is  sound after all. It would explain why no retrofitted rail networks have  anywhere resulted in reduced congestion.

This is the time to invest in an enhanced roading network while  making incremental investments in flexible public transport. Roads can be  shared by buses, trucks, vans, cars, taxis, shuttle-buses, motor-cycles and  cyclists – unless compulsive regulators say they are for buses only. Railway  lines can be used only by trains and if we build them in the wrong place they  soon run empty. The Romans built roads and we still use them.

So maybe the incredible disappearing transit machine shows that local business leaders now realize raising sales taxes to pay for expensive, inefficient trains is a waste of time and money. And maybe the Georgia Department of Transportation will make up for decades of neglecting roads in what has been one of the fastest growing areas in the nation.

And maybe I’ll ride a flying pig to Braves games this Summer.

Nothing to see here… move along… move along

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A curious thing popped up on the city of Alpharetta’s website the other day.

It comes as no surprise that Brandon Beach wants the Alpharetta City Council to accept his billion dollar vision for taxpayer subsidized public mass transit. Mr. Beach simultaneously acts as the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce’s CEO, the North Fulton Community Improvement District’s Executive Director as well as the 6th District representative on the Georgia Department of Transportation and I have personally heard him pitch his vision to the Windward Rotary Club as covered here at the Alpharetta Patch. I have also noticed that local Chamber of Commerce officials along with representatives of area Community Improvement Districts are currently conducting an extensive public relations campaign to promote taxpayer subsidized trains on the northern perimeter of Atlanta. You can see what I mean here and here.

So Mr. Beach’s proposal is not a surprise and there is nothing wrong with businessmen and their employees lobbying Metro Atlanta taxpayers to pay an additional 8 Billion dollars in sales tax which will be spent on transportation projects. When the projects could make them billions of dollars it just makes good business sense. Kind of like when the Cobb County CIDs spent $150,000 to make sure the local SPLOST tax passed.

The only surprise is that once again the Alpharetta City Council is making crucial decisions about the future of our city without actively soliciting the consent of their constituents. I pay a great deal of attention to what is going on in the City of Alpharetta and take care to read every public notice and press release I find. Yet the appearance of the transit item on Monday night’s Council agenda was a complete surprise to me.

I think it is fair to say that 99% of Alpharettans won’t even know the transit issue came up unless the local print media bothers to publish a story after the fact. The decision of approving Mr. Beach’s transit vision of the future is a crucial one. It is a decision that could affect every person in this city for generations to come and may decide how billions of dollars in taxes are spent. Yet there are only a handful of people that even notice what is going on.

Nothing to see here… move along… move along.

Hmmm…

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Newgeography.com:

Cities across America have invested enormous sums into  downtown redevelopment and major projects in selected districts.  The good news: these investments have shown  some ability to move the needle in terms of attracting young professionals  downtown.  The bad news lies with the  fact that these developments have been extremely costly, and have not  transformed the overall demographic or economic climates of the cities that  tried them.  This demonstrates the limits  of the policies. Those who aren’t in the  young professional, empty nester, or creative class demographic have rightly figured out that they are no longer the target market of city leadership. No surprise then that many of them have decided to vote with their feet.