A $1 Shirley Place transfer would start a three-year housing clock

Atlanta would transfer its interest in fenced-off Shirley Place NW to the Metro Atlanta Land Bank for $1 under a proposal linking the parcel to more than 200 planned affordable rental homes in Dixie Hills.⁠[1][2]

The price is nominal. The condition is not: the deed would reserve a city reversionary interest—a right to recover the land—if permanent affordable housing on the parcel does not receive a city-issued certificate of occupancy within three years of conveyance. The clock would start with the transfer, not a committee vote.⁠[2]

Councilmember Byron D. Amos’s proposal, Ordinance 26-O-1590, is scheduled for the Community Development/Human Services Committee’s Oct. 27 meeting at 1:30 p.m. Council referred it Oct. 19; that was a referral, not approval of the transfer.⁠[1][2]

The ordinance says LDG Development and its affiliate, Verbena Family Development, intend to build more than 200 affordable rentals across a larger assemblage called Verbena Gardens or Verbena Street Redevelopment. The Shirley Place parcel would be one piece of that site—not the location of all 200-plus homes by itself.⁠[2]

The proposal also says the Georgia Department of Community Affairs selected the project March 10 for a $25 million bond award through its 2025 housing-tax-credit/private-activity-bond competitive round. That funding selection is described in the city ordinance; it does not establish a completed financing closing.⁠[2]

We previously reported on the proposal to remove Shirley Place from the public street system. That separate measure, Ordinance 26-O-1535, remains held: Transportation Committee held it Oct. 14, and council returned it as held Oct. 19. Its next listed committee review is Oct. 28 at 10 a.m.⁠[2][3]

According to the abandonment ordinance, the street has been fenced off to vehicles and pedestrians since Verbena Gardens was demolished because it no longer serves occupied or actively used properties. The two measures address different steps—removing the public right-of-way and conveying the city’s property interest. The records establish neither a completed abandonment nor a completed transfer.⁠[1][2]