The city of Villa Rica will now ask voters to give the city authority to dole out infrastructure and other redevelopment costs within a specially defined tax allocation district. This is after Georgia legislators approved the proposal last week.

TADs are meant to encourage developers to build in certain underdeveloped areas of a city. As a property is developed, an agreed upon portion of the increase in tax value is returned to the developer for a specific period of time to help offset the development costs.

“Really what we are asking the voters for are redevelopment powers that are granted through the state. And the redevelopment powers will allow us to have tax allocation,” said Villa Rica’s Director of Economic Development, Christopher Pike. “One thing that is important for people to understand is that it is not a tax increase. People who are in tax allocation district, they pay the same tax rate as everyone else and they don’t notice any different. The only thing is that internally, it’s where the city and the school system and the county allocate the tax revenue.”

Villa Rica residents will decide whether the city should have the power to designate tax allocation districts at the polls this November.