A Job and a Half

By Ben Smith

James Shelby didn't have an easy job to begin with, but then came Atlanta's foreclosure crisis and the international financial meltdown — both of which greeted Shelby in October 2008, when former Mayor Shirley Franklin named him Commissioner of Planning and Community Affairs. Not only did he have to guide the growth of a city with perennial problems like traffic-plugged roads and an eroding infrastructure, but he had to deal with the fallout of budget cutbacks. He also had to oversee a development industry that had been brought to its knees.

The foreclosure problem is still there, the building industry and general economy are still sluggish but improving, and Atlanta area traffic is still, by many accounts, horrible. But in Shelby's four years as the permanent head of planning and community affairs — after stints as the deputy director and acting commissioner — he points to significant successes. His department reorganized the city's building office and streamlined the permitting process. And the city has bought and rehabilitated hundreds of foreclosed homes for resale with federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants, although critics say it's a drop in the bucket compared to the size of the problem.

Shelby also cleared the path for rezoning the BeltLine — to turn an abandoned railroad corridor around central Atlanta into multiuse trails, green space, and eventually light rail — and the Atlanta Streetcar, which will connect the Martin Luther King Memorial with downtown Atlanta.

There were setbacks. Shelby's 2012 proposal to raise development impact fees to help pay for roads, parks, police, and fire stations faced considerable blowback from Atlanta builders and never got a city council vote. In July 2012, voters rejected a one percent regional transportation sales tax, leaving the metropolitan area without a clear-cut solution for its traffic woes.

Still, after nine years in Atlanta — following jobs as the community development director of cities in Illinois and Mississippi — Shelby said in an October interview that he remains excited about the prospects in his adopted city. 

BEN SMITH: When people think of Atlanta, the first things that often come to mind are bad traffic and hot weather. As a planner, what would you say are some of the things this city has going for it that others of its size don't?

JAMES SHELBY: Its people, its Southern atmosphere. It has Southern charm, but it also has that big-city feel.

When people think about Atlanta, I hope they think about more than just traffic. We have a very lush landscape and a very tight ordinance that has helped us to maintain the tree canopy in the city. I hope they also think we are a progressive city.

It sounds kind of hokey, but Atlanta is a great place to live. We're still one of the most affordable large cities around. And it's a terrific place to work and raise a family. I think it has something for everybody. There are museums, there's shopping. We have major sports teams here. Here we also have the 22-mile BeltLine getting ready for construction, one that is going to end in additional green space. It's going to be an economic engine for jobs. It's going to be a transportation marvel.

B.S.: How is the BeltLine progressing, and how do you predict it will change the city?

J.S.: I think we're on target. We've opened up several trails and parks over the last several years, and we are looking at federal funds for transit along the BeltLine. We have a lot of development occurring there. We're getting a lot of permit requests from people (along the route).

I think the BeltLine will eventually connect to other transit systems like the (Atlanta) Streetcar. It will connect to MARTA. We're getting into TOD — transit-oriented development — so I see a lot of energy around that. We want to become denser, more walkable. So I think we're going to see a lot of this as a result of the BeltLine.

B.S.: This city has seen many transit plans that ended up on shelves. What is the status of the Connect Atlanta Plan (a comprehensive transportation plan for the city that has been in the works since 2007)?

J.S.: We've implemented a lot of projects. This plan is a living, breathing document. A lot of the things that we're doing with our bicycle initiatives and the streetcar project came out of that. But the transportation plan concerns more than just transit and bicycle trails. It's a comprehensive plan.

B.S.: Many Atlanta residents have long believed their local government favors certain areas based on race or socioeconomics. How do you deal with that perception?

J.S.: It might be human nature to think that. As planners we think about the quality of life for all of our citizens, not just one community. And I can give you an example. We just finished our housing study and we reviewed all 228 neighborhoods that have names. We did an inventory of all the structures, their condition, whether they were stable or deteriorating, or in good shape. 

This will give us an opportunity to determine where we should invest and what kind of investment we should make in each community. It could be that one community needs only a little investment, whereas another community might need a lot. That way we're able to determine how the city's resources can be used in order to achieve the quality of life that people want.

B.S.: In the past, communities near Atlanta's stadiums have complained that the city and its sports teams ignored them. A new stadium has been approved for the Atlanta Falcons just south of the Georgia Dome. Are nearby residents also going to be disappointed?

J.S.: I think you're going to see a different scene this time. With (Falcons owner) Arthur Blank investing dollars into that community and the city contributing dollars to those areas, I think we'll see a lot more development. These communities may take a much different stance than [others] have in the past.

B.S.: Two years ago the city council voted to overhaul a cumbersome permitting process that developers had long complained was a hindrance to economic development. How is that working out?

J.S.: Under this mayor we created an enterprise fund. That means that all fees go back into the building department. And we're able to increase our technology. We're able to hire more people. We're able to be more efficient than we were in the past.

One of our goals is to review plans within 10 days, and we've been doing very well with that recently. We have an advisory committee made up of developers and community people to help us oversee and make suggestions and recommendations on how we can make improvements. So I think we've come a long way.

B.S.: How has your department fared through leaner budgetary times?

J.S.: We've been very fortunate that we have very talented staff that has been able to combine their duties with the duties of those that we lost. We're like any other city, though. We lost a couple of planners. But we also gained some in areas that we really needed, like transportation. We've increased our transportation (planning positions) by four people because that's a very important area for the city right now.

Housing is primarily funded by federal funds. We do see the CDBG funding and HOME funds dwindling, but we've been able to keep our heads above water. And the building department is now self-sufficient because it's (paid for with) enterprise funds.

B.S.: Planners in other cities such as New York have replaced "sustainability" as a planning concept with "resiliency" in anticipation of the predicted effects of climate change. Is that shift likely here in Atlanta?

J.S.: No way. We have an office and that's what they deal with all day long: sustainability. We deal with sustainability in terms of how we collect our garbage, how we get rid of our garbage, and the type of fuel we use for our vehicles and whether our vehicles are energy efficient. It's something that's been engrained in all of the departments.

B.S.: What population trends do you think are going to shape this city in the future?

J.S.: You're going to see a lot more young people who will want to be where the restaurants and entertainment are located. Our permits are way up in terms of apartment complexes. You're going to see a younger, more transient population, people who want to walk to work. and not get in their cars.

B.S.: What do you want to have accomplished by the time you leave this job?

J.S.: I hope we will be able to revitalize neighborhoods that have deteriorated over the years, that we will stabilize those communities, that we will improve the quality of life for those citizens. When I look back I hope we have doubled the bike trails we have in the city of Atlanta, and that people are actually riding their bikes to work and parking their vehicles on the side and leaving them in their garages.

I hope I would do all of this thinking and reminiscing while running along the BeltLine. My wife and I have decided this is where we are going to retire.

Ben Smith is a freelance writer and former politics and government reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Resources

Image: Atlanta's dense tree canopy — protected by a tight ordinance — is one of several things that set the city apart, says chief planner, James Shelby. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Photo of James Shelby courtesy Buckheadview online news service.