Small towns need a fifth filter when evaluating highest and best use, political palatability. A project that is legal, physical, financial, and productive can still fail if the public will not support it.
Vision plans and strategy documents are meaningless without measurement. Here's how downtown boards track whether revitalization is actually working.
Downtown revitalization often displaces the merchants who survived the downturn. Here's how boards can retain existing businesses and create pathways for entrepreneurs to stay and grow.
Georgia's historic preservation tax credits represent one of the largest downtown financing tools available. Here's how boards use them, why they work, and what to watch for.
A practical look at when downtown events create lasting district value and when they mostly generate temporary foot traffic without durable redevelopment impact.
A practical Georgia-focused guide to what hotel-motel tax revenue can realistically support, and where local boards should avoid treating it like a general downtown redevelopment fund.
A Georgia-focused guide to using low-cost tactical urbanism pilots to validate streetscape and downtown capital projects before committing permanent funds.
A practical Georgia-focused guide to structuring downtown public-private partnerships without tripping over legal or financial pitfalls.
Traditional DDA funding shifts with politics and grants come with rigid rules. A Tax Allocation District directly captures the value a board creates and reinvests it into the district.
A Georgia-focused guide to treating sidewalks, street trees, and streetscape improvements as real economic infrastructure with measurable returns.
A Georgia-focused guide to how DDAs use leasehold structures, PILOT agreements, and bond-for-title transactions to create lawful property tax abatements, grounded in a real Downtown Griffin mill redevelopment.
A Georgia-focused guide to using land banks, in rem foreclosure, and redevelopment agreements to return abandoned lots to productive use.
Drones reduce inspection costs, improve property marketing, and provide high-resolution data for downtown redevelopment decisions.
A practical case for moving from broad downtown visioning to a live shortlist of real sites, real owners, and real next steps.
A Georgia-focused framework for turning distressed downtown buildings into financeable adaptive reuse projects.
A Georgia-focused guide to using Rural Zone job, investment, and rehabilitation tax credits to close financing gaps in small downtown redevelopment deals.
A practical Georgia-focused guide to the difference between Opportunity Zones and Enterprise Zones, and when each tool is useful in a downtown redevelopment strategy.
A Georgia-focused argument for treating downtown parking as a management and walkability issue before spending public money on more supply.
