Glossary
Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)
A legal and regulatory term for a second house or apartment that shares the building lot of a larger, primary house. Also known as an in-law unit, secondary dwelling unit, granny flat or carriage house. An ADU has its own kitchen, living area and a separate entrance. An ADU may be attached to a house or garage, or it can also be built as a stand-alone unit.
Affordable Housing
Is defined as a person paying no more than 30% of their income for housing costs/expenses. For an individual earning an annual salary of 50K, monthly housing costs should not exceed $1250 (15K annually).
Architectural Plans
A design and planning for a building, can contain architectural drawings, specifications of the design, calculations, time planning of the building process, and other documentation.
Area Median Income (AMI)
The midpoint of a region’s income distribution – half of families in a region earn more than the median and half earn less than the median. For housing policy, income thresholds set relative to the area median income such as 50% of the area median income, identify households eligible to live in income-restricted housing units and the affordability of housing units to low-income households.
Bike Share
A service in which bicycles are made available for shared use to individuals on a short-term basis for a price or free. Relay Bike Share is in Atlanta.
Certificate of Appropriateness
A plan review process resulting in an approval or denial for work occurring in a historic or landmark district or designation.
Certificate of Occupancy (CO)
A document certifying a building’s compliance with applicable building codes and other laws and indicating it to be in a condition suitable for occupancy.
City Design
The Atlanta City Design is a guide for the City of Atlanta. Its purpose is to articulate an aspiration for the future city that Atlantans can fall in love with, knowing that if people love their city, they will make better decisions about it. These decisions, then, will be reflected in all the plans, policies, and investments the city makes, allowing Dr. King’s concept of the Beloved Community to guide growth and transform Atlanta into the best possible version of itself.
City Plans
A type of technical drawing that shows information about grading, landscaping, or other site details.
Community Improvement Districts (CID)
A geographic region and organizational mechanism for property owners to address problems endemic to urban areas, such as economic decline, by levying an additional property tax (or other fees). CIDs provide supplemental services such as landscaping, street cleaning, public safety and transportation improvements.
Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP)
A guide to the growth and development of the City of Atlanta. It sets forth the development vision, policies and an implementation plan for the City and its neighborhoods for the next twenty years. It is a requirement for local governments called for by the Georgia Planning Act of 1989.
Historic Designation
Any structure, site, building or district which, individually or collectively, meets the criteria for nomination and designation to any category of historic protection defined by the Historic Preservation Division.
Impact Fee
A fee that is imposed on a new or proposed development project to pay for all or a portion of the costs of providing public services to the new development, includes parks and recreation impact fees, public safety impact fees and transportation impact fees.
Inclusionary Zoning (IZ)
A policy that requires the private market to subsidize affordable housing. The City of Atlanta has IZ requirements in the Beltline and Westside Overlay Districts.
Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU)
The City of Atlanta is divided into twenty-five Neighborhood Planning Units or NPUs, which are citizen advisory councils that make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council on zoning, land use, and other planning issues.
Overlay District
A regulatory tool that creates a special zoning district, placed over an existing base zone(s), which identifies special provisions in addition to those in the underlying base zone.
Placemaking
The process of creating quality places where people want to live, work, and play.
Promise Zone (Westside)
High poverty communities where the federal government partners with local leaders to increase economic activity, improve education- al opportunities, leverage private investment, reduce violent crime, enhance public health and address other priorities identified by the community.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control/QAQC
The combination of quality assurance, the process or set of processes used to measure and assure the quality of a product, and quality control, the process of ensuring products and services meet consumer expectations.
Safer Streets
A Federal transportation initiative to address non-motorized safety issues and help communities create safer, better connected bicycling and walking networks.
Sealed Survey
A boundary survey or site plan of a property signed and sealed by a licensed surveyor.
Site Plan
A landscape architectural plan, and a detailed engineering drawing of proposed improvements to a given lot. A site plan usually shows a building footprint, travel-ways, parking, drainage facilities, sanitary sewer lines, water lines, trails, lighting, and landscaping and garden elements.