Wednesday, May 20th, 2026
The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) announced today it will provide critical planning and technical support services to five metro Atlanta communities through the agency’s Community Development Assistance Program (CDAP).
The projects were chosen through a competitive process that solicited proposals from local governments, Community Improvement Districts (CID), and nonprofits across the Atlanta region. ARC will provide a combination of staffing resources and grants to the selected communities to support a wide range of initiatives that aim to improve the quality of life for residents.
Each project addresses at least one of six regional challenges: Access to healthy food, creative placemaking, historic preservation, housing affordability, smart technology, and impacts of climate change.
“This year’s recipients are focused on one of the region’s biggest challenges: housing affordability and stability,” said Samyukth Shenbaga, Managing Director, Community Development. “These grants will help study housing stock, housing instability, affordability, historic preservation, infrastructure, and placemaking.”
The City of Clarkston will receive assistance studying housing affordability, displacement risk, and housing conditions across the city’s diverse populations. The project will engage renters, homeowners, refugees, and immigrant households to ensure strategies are grounded in technical data and lived experiences.
The East Atlanta Community Association project will examine the current state of the core commercial district in terms of active businesses, vacancies, and a general overview of employer and employee perspectives. This information would inform a visioning and planning process to draft a small-area plan that addresses economic development, creative placemaking, and housing affordability.
This project will help guide future development in Sweet Auburn while protecting the neighborhood’s historic character, affordability, and cultural identity. The Historic District Development Corporation will receive assistance to create a small-area plan addressing housing affordability, commercial and cultural space, public space improvements, mobility, historic preservation, and infrastructure needs. The plan will identify appropriate land uses, prevent duplication, support legacy residents and businesses, and align public and private investment.
Through this project, the City of Atlanta will study how neighborhoods can better support older adults through safer streets, accessible infrastructure, and community-centered design by incorporating ARC’s Lifelong Community Principles into its planning work. The city will conduct a case study in Sweet Auburn, partnering with Sweet Auburn Works, focusing on engaging the aging population in urban design needs and infrastructure. The result would be the Lifelong Neighborhoods Engagement Toolkit that the city could replicate across the different neighborhoods.
*Because two proposals focused on the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, the Georgia Tech Urban Design Studio recommended combining portions of the two projects into a coordinated planning effort. The partnership will allow the City of Atlanta, Sweet Auburn Works, and the Historic District Development Corporation to align community engagement and planning activities.
With grant assistance, Henry County and its partner cities, McDonough, Stockbridge, and Locust Grove, will conduct a comprehensive housing study to better understand housing affordability and instability and identify future housing needs that are supportive of the county’s vision. This study will provide a technical, data-driven analysis of the current information on housing, specifically related to rent burden, housing instability, and low-income overlap. The data will inform and enable policymakers to prioritize investments in areas where help is needed the most. The plan will include recommendations on policy improvements, public-private partnerships, and strategies for emergency and temporary housing.
The CDAP program provides planning assistance through partnerships with organizations such as ULI Atlanta, Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, and the Georgia Conservancy. ARC staff also provide planning, public engagement, and data assistance. In addition, the program offers 80/20 matching grants for local governments and Community Improvement Districts to help fund eligible projects. Nonprofits are not eligible for grant funding.
