Mary Norwood's Citywide Partnership

Making Atlanta work for you takes a partner you can rely on: someone who keeps you informed while listening to your issues, someone who holds city offices accountable and working for you, and someone who forges citywide alliances to foster the kind of development where families and neighborhoods can thrive. We’re a team.

I am promoting three ordinances to make Atlanta serve you better.  They are:

The goal of this legislation is to eliminate even and prevent the debilitating impact of vacant properties on our neighborhoods. This ordinance requires owners of property vacant 90 days or more to register them, enabling us to identify and more easily locate vacant property owners. It also requires submission of a Vacant Building Plan, committing the owner either to demolish properties with maintenance violations or return vacant property to productive use. The Plan must be recorded on Fulton County’s property records and will ‘travel’ with the property until Plan is completed, even in the event the property is sold. To read the proposed vacant property registration ordinance, click here.

This legislation provides a civil process to prosecute City code violations as civil matters, as an alternative to the current criminal process. Think of it as “Environmental Court.” Because prosecutions before the Board are civil and not criminal, it will be much easier to prosecute cases against absentee property owners, for example. The Board is to be made up of seven citizens (appointed by Councilmembers) who have the power to issue fines and, unlike a criminal court, can order compliance, and compliance is the goal. The Board’s decisions may be appealed to Superior Court. Fulton County established its Board in 2000 and has been very effective in correcting violations.To read the proposed code enforcement board ordinance, click here.

The proposed infill revisions are important to both small scale and large scale residential development. These revisions to the Zoning Code clarify the City’s existing regulations. They clean up language and close loopholes that exist in our Zoning Ordinance (which was adopted in 1982). The regulations have been proposed by the Atlanta Infill Development Panel, a group of professionals in construction-related industries, working in conjunction with the City’s Planning Department. The City of Atlanta, working with the Atlanta Infill Development Panel, has been consistently sensitive to the balance between zoning ordinance controls and property rights. To read the proposed infill regulations, click here.

Our neighborhoods and the quality of life our families enjoy in them deserve support. Your City Hall can be that kind of asset. It’s all about Partnership.

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