Atlanta government leaders are hoping to send a message to deadbeat property owners on the city’s Westside by way of condemnation. 

Mayor Andre Dickens’ Administration has requested a specially called Atlanta City Council meeting as soon as possible in hopes of putting condemnation proceedings in motion for five blighted properties that have long burdened communities in places such as Brookview Heights, English Avenue, and Vine City, officials announced today.  

The proposed resolutions, if approved by city council, would authorize the mayor’s office to initiate the process of condemning properties to remedy blight according to Georgia law, per city officials. 

The five properties in question include long-shuttered houses near greenspace jewel Rodney Cook Sr. Park and a multifamily building in the heart of English Avenue. 

Also included is 2795 Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway NW, a former Texaco gas station property—shuttered for a decade and ½—near the entrance of the ongoing Bowen Homes redevelopment, where the last of Atlanta’s public housing projects was razed 17 years ago.  

According to Dickens’ office, the action would support the administration’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative—a controversial plan to tackle longstanding disinvestment in specific areas by channeling more than $5 billion in Tax Allocation District spending toward infrastructure improvements and affordable housing. 

It would also continue the city’s efforts to address long-blighted properties large and small, per the mayor’s office. 

Two years ago this month, Atlanta City Council adopted a “blight tax” ordinance designed to hike property tax bills up to 25 percent for owners of unoccupied, blighted properties. The city announced in April that “powerful tool” was being strengthened with new NRI legislation, but Atlanta Civic Circle reported the following month the city had yet to collect a single dollar from the supposedly toothier blight tax. The delay involved a long process of ensuring the tax was legally sound and hiring proper officials to enforce it, officials said at the time. 

Now, with the proposed condemnation proceedings, the mayor’s office specified that condemning the properties wouldn’t mean the city owns them—and that any acquisition would be based on fair-market appraisals by an outside party. 

“If eminent domain becomes necessary,” noted today’s announcement, “the city would be required to pursue the matter through legal proceedings in Georgia Superior Court, where the acquisition would be evaluated for consistency with applicable state eminent domain laws.” 

This 2795 Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway NW former gas station closed about 15 years ago. Construction of Bowen Homes' redevelopment is ongoing nearby, at right, today. Google Maps

District 3 city councilmember Byron Amos, who sponsored the blight tax legislation in 2024, said each of the properties in question has long been a concern for nearby residents pulling for neighborhood investments. “Addressing these properties,” said Amos in a prepared statement, “creates an opportunity to remove longstanding barriers to neighborhood revitalization and [helps] move the Westside forward.”

The unoccupied properties now under city consideration are:

Dickens said blight in Atlanta is more than a neglected property or abandoned building—it's a burden on safety, residents' quality of life, and economic opportunities in nearby areas, per the city's announcement. 

“Our administration is using every appropriate tool available to us to address properties that have remained distressed for far too long," said Dickens. "This action is about protecting our residents, enhancing neighborhood pride, and making sure all of Atlanta’s communities can benefit from the growth and investment happening across our city.”

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