Atlanta has 12 districts. A district is a section or area of a county or city, marked off for administrative, electoral, or other purposes. The Atlanta City Council is made up of representatives from each of the 12 districts. The City Council is the Legislative branch of the city government. The Council makes the laws that run the city.
All of Atlanta's neighborhoods fall in 25 Neighborhood Planning Units (NPU). Each NPU is represented by a letter, A -Z (excluding U). A NPU is a neighborhood advocacy group and each NPU represents several Atlanta neighborhoods. (For example: NPU-L represents the Atlanta neighborhoods of English Ave. and Vine City). This encourages communication between neighborhoods as well as with the City. Planning and zoning proposals are first sent to the NPU system for review before the City government takes action.