Smart Growth News

Georgia

Atlanta Continues to Pursue Street Cars Despite Loss of Grant Funds

Despite the recent investment of TIGER grant funds to mass-transit projects across the nation, the City of Atlanta did not receive a grant to start building a streetcar down Peachtree Street. ''We worked very hard on this project, and we will continue to,'' said Luz Borrero, the city’s deputy chief operating officer. “It was disappointing to learn that we did not get the grant, but at the same time, it is encouraging to see the commitment of our partners remaining intact.”

According to this report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta will continue to pursue money for the streetcar line through other grant opportunities including another $600 million in federal grants that would soon become available.

Streetcars had been in operation throughout the City of Atlanta until 1949. The city and business groups have already paid $8 million towards the project, improving sidewalks and landscaping through the proposed streetcar corridor. Although Atlanta may have lost out on the streetcar grant, the article notes that other projects funding by the transportation grant program will have a benefit to the city including the Crescent Corridor Intermodal Freight Rail project which would improve a rail line that currently runs through the city.   2/17/2010

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta’s BeltLine Project Moves into Crucial Design Phase

''The eyes of the nation are on Atlanta’s BeltLine as a model for smart growth and urban redevelopment,'' said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed as the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. (ABI) chose the lead design team for a $2.5-billion transformation of an old 22-mile railroad corridor around the city into a network of light rail, compact development, parks and trails. Chosen in competitive bidding, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Leon Stafford, internationally known Chicago-based Perkins+Will and New York City-based James Corner Field Operations will guide 17 other multi-disciplinary firms with expertise in architecture, urban planning, landscaping, surveying, transportation, structural engineering, historic preservation and related fields.

Calling a public space such as Beltline envisions, ''with pedestrian-friendly rail transit, trails, greenspace and abutting development in one corridor,'' nonexistent in the nation so far, ABI President and CEO Brian Leary said of the 25-year endeavor, ''By creating a design which will integrate all of the BeltLine’s components in a comprehensive way, we are building the BeltLine foundation.''

The BeltLine will connect 22 miles of planned light rail to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s (MARTA’s) train and bus lines, while its 22-mile trail loop will reach into inner neighborhoods with another 11 trail miles for easy two-way access. It will also create a 1,200-acre linear park along the trails, ensure at least $240 million for construction of some 5,600 affordable workforce-housing units over 25 years, and generate more than $20 billion in economic development, while creating 48,000 year-long construction jobs and about 30,000 permanent jobs.

Planned from inception with unprecedented community input that will continue as the project proceeds, the BeltLine is expected to become increasingly eligible for federal funds, with its prospective trails reaching the ''shovel ready'' status. Perkins+Will Urban Designer Ryan Grovel, who first envisioned the BeltLine in his Georgia Tech 1999 graduate thesis, is ''particularly excited'' to participate in the design of this national ''model for sustainable strategies and public space.''

James Corner Field Operations Director James Corner shares the excitement, confident that the greenbelt ''will recast the identity of Atlanta, reconnect its neighborhoods, and enrich public life for all of Atlanta’s citizens,'' while revitalizing old industrial and railroad infrastructure, and retooling it ''for new social and environmental purposes.'' Learn more about the BeltLine at www.beltline.org.   2/10/2010

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta Retrofits Congested Streets to Help Pedestrians and Revitalize Downtown

In a car-ruled urban landscape, where non-motorists feel like targeted species, a basic smart-growth move such as Atlanta’s $2.1-million remake of a hazardous quarter-mile of Decatur Street along Georgia State University (GSU) and farther downtown into a slow-traffic walkable haven was bound to vex most drivers. But ''that sort of road diet and pedestrian retrofit, particularly in a high-pedestrian area like a college campus,'' points out Smart Growth America Communications Director David Goldberg, ''makes a lot of sense.''

No longer ''a dangerous and unpleasant obstacle course for thousands of students and other pedestrians,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Ariel Hart, the street now lets drivers use the curbside lanes each way for turns only, with the two center lanes for through traffic weaving around sidewalk extensions, median islands and planters, some of the latter already damaged by ''confused or heedless'' drivers or trucks and buses that lacked turning space – mishaps the city wants to prevent by replacing the planters with solid concrete or stripped pavement.

Mayor Shirley Franklin, who backed the Decatur remake proposal in 2003 – and who is leaving the office to Mayor-Elect Kasim Reed next month – had said the overhaul would further ''our city’s goals of making downtown Atlanta a better place to live, work and play'' and contribute to ''our vision for downtown revitalization.'' The project, the writer adds, subsequently won federal funding, and now ''the Obama administration has given official backing to the concept of land-use planning, forming a partnership between the U.S. departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency.''   12/8/2009

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Local Georgia Governments Earn ARC Green Communities Certification

(ATLANTA, December 2, 2009) – Two counties and four cities in the Atlanta region are the latest jurisdictions to earn Green Communities Certification for leadership in reducing their environmental impact. The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) presented the certifications to local officials at today’s board meeting. DeKalb and Douglas counties and the cities of Atlanta, Fairburn, Roswell and Suwanee earned their certifications by implementing sustainability practices and policies in 10 categories, ranging from energy efficiency and green building to transportation and water efficiency.

ARC launched the Green Communities Program late last year to foster greater environmental stewardship by recognizing local governments that invest in programs leading to a more sustainable Atlanta region. ARC’s Green Communities program is the only program in the country that seeks to transform a region by promoting sustainability through a ''green'' certification program for local governments.

''We congratulate the elected officials and staff of Atlanta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fairburn, Roswell and Suwanee for earning Green Communities certification and for their commitment to sustainability,'' said Chick Krautler, ARC director. ''Their leadership in reducing local government’s environmental impact is helping to create a greener region.''

These six jurisdictions bring the total number of Certified Green Communities in the 10-county Atlanta region to nine. Cobb County and the cities of Alpharetta and Decatur received certification in July. ARC will again accept applications for Green Communities certification in the spring of 2010 and annually thereafter.

City of Atlanta
All new city-owned buildings greater than 5,000 square feet must be LEED certified, and green buildings are encouraged in affordable housing initiatives through the Home Investment Partnership Program and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Seven city buildings are under energy performance contracts, resulting in more than 6.6 million kWh saved and over $2 million in energy savings and O&M cost avoidance in 2008. The remaining buildings will have energy audits completed or performance controls within the next two years. The city’s telework policy, discounted MARTA cards and participation in ARC’s RideSmart program and the Clean Air Campaign encourage city employees to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips. The Connect Atlanta Plan includes bicycle and pedestrian-friendly policies encourages the construction of sidewalks and a system of bicycle routes. Curbside recycling and yard debris collection are available to residents of single-family homes. The Power to Change Campaign focuses on individual actions such as water and energy conservation, reducing solid waste and emissions and improving the rates of recycling. The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory and Report identifies and measures city emissions by source and type as well as recommends approaches for reduction.

DeKalb County
DeKalb‘s Gregory A. Adams Juvenile Courthouse is LEED-certified and has an Energy Star rated cool roof. Energy performance contracts on more than 150 government facilities have reduced costs by an estimated $1.5 million annually. The county’s lights out/power down policy ensures all non-emergency building lighting and electronic equipment are turned off when not in use and at the end of the work day. Its Green Energy Facility at Seminole Road Landfill generates 3.2 megawatts of electricity from captured methane gas. The county’s green fleet policy encourages the purchase of hybrid, fuel-efficient and low emission vehicles. DeKalb became the first jurisdiction in Georgia to adopt an ordinance that requires structures built prior to 1993 to replace inefficient plumbing fixtures with low-flow plumbing fixtures prior to obtaining new water service after the sale of a property.  An ozone system at the county jail which converts oxygen to ozone, significantly reduces the need for hot water, detergent and rinse cycles in the laundry. It has resulted in more than $25,000 in energy savings annually.

Douglas County
New city-owned buildings must achieve Energy Star or EarthCraft Light Commercial certification. Expedited plan reviews and permitting are available for developers planning to build LEED, EarthCraft, and Energy Star certified projects in the county. Low-flow plumbing fixtures have replaced inefficient ones in all county-owned buildings, and all new city-owned buildings must install high-efficiency plumbing fixtures such as WaterSense certified toilets, urinals and faucets. The retention pond at Boundary Waters collects rainwater that is used to water ball fields at the park. Douglas’s Community Transportation Plan includes a complete streets policy that calls for the design and construction of roads that adequately accommodate all users of a corridor. Traffic signals have been synchronized to decrease trip time, idling and fuel usage. The county has an environmentally preferable purchasing policy as long as the purchase price does not exceed 10 percent of the cost of a less sustainable product.

City of Fairburn
Fairburn’s sustainability policies and procedures are compiled in the Fairburn Clean and Green - Guide to Sustainability in Municipal Operations. All new city-owned buildings greater than 5,000 square feet must be LEED certified. Expedited plan reviews and permitting are available for developers planning to build LEED, EarthCraft, and Energy Star certified projects in the city.  LED bulbs have been installed in all traffic signals, and the city has a lights out/power down policy.Fairburn has conducted water audits on all local government buildings and anticipates implementing recommendations by June 2010. All new city-owned buildings must install high-efficiency plumbing fixtures such as WaterSense-certified toilets, urinals and faucets. City policy requires Xeriscaping and drought-tolerant landscape practices at government facilities to minimize the use of chemicals and encourage the use of native plant species. Fairburn offers curbside recycling for single-family, multi-family and commercial establishments. Recycled materials include glass, newspaper, magazines, plastics, aluminum and bi-metal cans. Zoning ordinance provides incentives for smart growth in residential subdivisions by providing for in-fill, residential cluster and planned developments.

City of Roswell
An ENERGY STAR partner, Roswell’s Energy Strategy for the Future sets forth the city’s fundamental commitment to protect the environment through the continuous improvement of its energy performance. The city estimates that it will save $62,000 annually from the replacement of traffic signals and school zone flashers with LED bulbs. The Leita Thompson Park dog park lighting is solar powered. The city has a no net loss of trees policy, and trees that cannot be replaced onsite will be planted on other government property.  The Tree Planting Partnership is a public-private partnership to improve tree canopy and density on public lands. It has resulted in the planting of 788 hardwoods and 3,838 shrubs and flowers. Roswell offers commute options to staff that include a flexible work arrangements policy provides for telecommuting, compressed work week and flex time. Recycling containers government facilities are located at individual desks and in common areas for traditional and non-traditional recycling. Residents of single-family homes have curbside recycling, and multi-family complexes are required to provide recycling. Roswell’s zoning ordinance provides incentives for mixed use zoning districts and the Midtown Roswell Overlay District.

City of Suwanee
The city’s zoning ordinance addresses light pollution and energy efficiency for outdoor lighting by restricting wattage, requiring enclosed bulbs and downward pointing lighting. New city-owned buildings must install high-efficiency plumbing fixtures such as WaterSense certified toilets, urinals and faucets. The Recreation and Open Space Needs Assessment focuses on greenways, and passive greenspace and trails throughout the city connect the community. The Comprehensive Landscape Inspection Program enforces the city’s tree ordinance, which includes a continual maintenance clause for trees and landscapes. Properties with approved landscape plans are inspected to insure landscape plan is being maintained. As a result of the inspections, 824 trees were planted in 2008. The zoning code calls for shade in parking lots by requiring one overstory tree for every seven parking spaces. Suwanee’s complete streets policy assures that new roadways and roadway improvements include adequate infrastructure, where appropriate, for all users. The community bicycle facility policy requires bike racks for a minimum of five bicycles to be located at all parks and community facilities. The city also requires businesses to have one bike parking space for every five parking spaces.   Complete information about ARC’s Green Communities Certification Program, including the measures the certified communities have implemented, an instruction manual and the checklist of measures for which local governments can earn points, is available at www.atlantaregional.com/greencommunities.   12/2/2009

New Committee Planning for Region-Wide Transit in Atlanta Area

After a unanimous vote at today’s meeting of the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Board of Directors, governance over a region-wide transit system has a new home. The Transit Implementation Board (TIB), consisting of elected and appointed government officials, will transition to the Regional Transit Committee (RTC) as of January 1, 2010, and will be an official committee of ARC.

The TIB was formed as the Transit Planning Board (TPB) in 2006 under an agreement between ARC, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). The TPB developed a region-wide transit plan called “Concept 3” in August, 2008. Having completed its plan, the body changed its name to the Transit Implementation Board and has met under that title throughout 2009. The TIB will cease to exist as of December 31, 2009, and the RTC will become active on January 1, 2010.

As the RTC, the committee will undergo significant changes to its structure and procedures, giving it the support and stability required to begin the critical next steps of financing projects and hiring staff. The RTC will continue the work of developing a region-wide fare structure and payment process that would allow riders to traverse the Atlanta region - changing providers as needed - in a seamless, consistent manner.

“TPB brought all the transit providers around the region, from road to rail, to the same table and asked them to work together,” said Eldrin Bell, TIB Chairman and Clayton County Commission Chairman. “Because of those collective efforts, we can aspire to reach Concept 3 and, in the meantime, continue to enhance and expand the transit offerings throughout the region.”

The Transit Implementation Board will hold its final meeting on Thursday, December 10 at the Loudermilk Center for the Regional Community at 40 Courtland Street, NE, Atlanta, GA 30303. The inaugural meeting of ARC’s Regional Transit Committee will be held in January, 2010.   12/2/2009

Resource(s): www.atlantaregional.com/

Bipartisan Mayors Launch Piedmont “Megaregion” Alliance

They’re quite a mayoral couple. From Atlanta: Shirley Franklin, Democrat, African-American, spunky, results-focused, no-nonsense. From Charlotte: Pat McCrory, Republican, white, business oriented, driving force of the new light rail system destined to remake Charlotte in the next generation.

Working in tandem, with bipartisanship rare in today’s America, Franklin and McCrory have been pushing for a common action plan to build imaginative and “green” infrastructure systems for the South’s dominant “megaregion” string of metro areas, centered on Atlanta and Charlotte but extending as far as Raleigh on the east, Birmingham on the west.

In late November, with other regional mayors, they gathered in Greenville to steer and name their new organization–the “Piedmont Alliance for Quality Growth – Mayors, Business, Academia.”   11/29/2009

Resource(s): http://citiwire.net/

Dalton, Georgia, Administrator Eyes Recreational Trail Development

When Dalton, Georgia, city administrator Ty Ross looked at the various creeks crisscrossing the Dalton area, as well as the railroads that pass through, what he saw was miles of bicycle and walking trails. Now he’s working to bring such trails to reality.

According to this report in the Daily Citizen, a local cycling club has been looking for ''a safe way to get from town to the routes on the north end of the county and the west end of the county,'' and Ross has requested that the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission map out possible routes as it looks to expand bicycling opportunities across the region.

When complete, ''the trails would connect the various parks and recreation facilities across the county as well as undeveloped greenspace.'' According to Ross, Dalton state and federal transportation funds could be available for the project. “It’s all very much doable, but even if we accomplish only 50 percent, we immediately become one of those pedestrian and cycling friendly communities that make those national lists for quality of life,” Ross said. Mayor David Pennington supports the plan, saying it “fits into the city’s efforts to make the area more attractive to young, educated people.”   11/8/2009

Resource(s): http://www.northwestgeorgia.com/

Editorials Offer Contrasting Views on Value of Transit

''Things get done when people put their personal agendas and egos aside and work toward common outcomes,'' said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, former Illinois Republican Representative (1995-2008), at a recent Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) forum, telling listeners that the Obama administration will link investments in transportation, housing, air protection and water infrastructure through its Livable Communities program, and urging the state to ''get its act together'' and help secure stimulus funds for high-speed rail in the Southeast -- his statements welcomed by many, but derided by Georgia Public Policy Foundation (a ''free-market think tank'') Vice President Benita Dodd.

''Waxing lyrical about Atlanta's 'sustainable' communities, about bicycles, rail, pedestrian improvements and streetcars connecting 'livable centers,' LaHood enthused about federal funds going to local governments for 'smart growth' approaches,'' she ironizes in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece, splitting mobility from livability, arguing that one is needed more than the other, and vilifying federal aid.

''Local governments become dependent on the federal grants and subsidies and are sucked into federal intrusion and mandates that force behavior and lifestyle changes on residents.''

At the same page, ARC Director Chick Krautler and AJC Editorial Editor Andre Jackson present a diametrically different view.

''The Obama administration has made available $28 billion in stimulus funds for transportation improvements across the nation -- some $900 million to Georgia, with the Atlanta region receiving about $603 million,'' observes Director Krautler. ''This unexpected cash infusion prevented ARC from having to slash by half the planned regional transportation investments for this metro region over the next six years.''

Noting that Secretary LaHood hailed ARC's 10-year-old and highly successful Livable Centers Initiative as a model for the federal Livable Communities program, Director Krautler hopes the region can overcome local differences and engage other Southeast metro areas in cooperative planning to make regional high-speed rail a reality.

Writing for the AJC Editorial Board, Editor Jackson calls transit ''a track to metro's prosperity'' and cautions that Georgia ''is at risk of seeing economic growth bypass us if we don't figure out how to climb aboard.''

Glad that the state ''has shown early signs'' of joining the national movement toward transit, including some passenger rail support from Republican Governor Sonny Perdue and recognition of the ''formidable'' importance of trains in the Georgia Department of Transportation's 2009 rail plan, the editor expects state lawmakers to take on the issues and act during the next legislative session.

''No major improvements, road or rail, will come easily. In these times, hard choices must be made about spending. Paying for trains means we spend less elsewhere. Surely, though, we can at least begin making incremental improvements,'' he concludes. ''We must act on the most efficient ways to move people and goods. That can mean using rail lines as economic development tools much as we've used roads in the past.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/28/2009

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

More Transportation Options, Better Education Top Wish List in ARC Survey

Education and transportation top the lists of concerns for residents of the Atlanta region, according to a recent telephone survey conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). The survey was taken as part of ARC's Plan 2040 initiative, which includes 30-year transportation and land development plans for the region.

When asked, ''What are the most important public or private investments to ensure the region remains economically competitive?'' 28 percent said K-12 education and 26 percent said transportation, indicating that those two topics topped the list for more than half of all respondents.

Digging a little deeper on the transportation question, pollsters asked respondents, ''What is most lacking in the region's transportation system?'' Some 46 percent selected ''Transit options, like rail,'' while 21 percent chose, ''Alternate routes other than interstates'' -- showing that more than twice as many respondents would elect to ride transit rather than drive on a new road.

When asked to select their ''First choice of travel alternatives to the car,'' an overwhelming 38 percent chose rail. Another 18 percent would opt to share a ride, and 12 percent prefer a bus. ARC points out that as respondents' income rose, so did their support for rail.

A total of 654 respondents were surveyed, covering the 18-county ARC region for transportation planning. Polling was conducted by Insider Advantage/Majority Opinion Research.

The 18-county region includes: Barrow, Bartow, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Newton, Paulding, Rockdale, Spalding and Walton counties.

Click here for a complete report on the Summer 2009 Regional Poll. -- Atlanta Regional Commission   9/24/2009

Resource(s): www.atlantaregional.com/

Transportation Secretary Praises ARC's Livable Centers Initiative Program

Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation discussed current transportation issues at a forum sponsored by the Atlanta Regional Commission's Fifty Forward initiative and later touted ARC's groundbreaking Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) program on his blog, ''The Fast Lane.''

LaHood said that LCI, which helps local governments devise and implement strategies that reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality by better connecting homes, shops, offices and transit (where available), is a good model for the federal government's Livable Communities Initiative, which has similar goals. The federal program unites the departments of transportation, housing and urban development and the Environmental Protection Agency with the White House. ''We know that transportation plays a major role in our ability to create the kinds of neighborhoods people want to live in and where businesses want to locate. More transportation options near more housing choices and more mixed land-uses mean greater access to jobs, education, medical treatment, retail and other vital services,'' said LaHood's blog. ''And, Atlanta already knows this. The 2009 Atlanta Regional Commission study of their Livable Centers Initiative shows a dramatic decline in the number of Vehicle Miles Traveled in communities that have coordinated land-use and transportation planning. Simply, the lower the Vehicle Miles Traveled, the more residents are able to get where they want to go without using their cars.''

LaHood said that livability would be a major watchword for transportation moving forward and hopes that other communities will examine programs like LCI.

Since 1999, LCI has assisted 94 communities with more than $141 million in grant awards. More than 85,000 residential units, 19 million square feet of commercial space and 38 million square feet of office space are either planned, under construction or complete in these areas. Regionwide, more than 60 percent of all new office space has been built within LCI areas.

Visit www.atlantaregional.com/LCI for a list of grant recipients and more information about the Livable Centers Initiative, or read Secretary LaHood 's comments at his Fast Lane blog. -- Atlanta Regional Commission   9/21/2009

Resource(s): www.atlantaregional.com/

Growth Gap Narrows Between Atlanta's Inner and Outer Communities

The recession and residential market slump have suddenly put brakes on the fast population growth across the 10-county Atlanta metropolitan region, but its gain of just 24,700 residents between April 2008 and April 2009 still left the growth rate at an average of 77,200 a year since 2000 -- more than ''the average annual increase for 41 states,'' reports Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in its newest Regional Snapshot, with Atlanta's growth declining in the 12 months before April from an annual average of 7,600 to 3,400 new residents, but still accounting for 14 percent of the regional total.

The city lost almost 80,000 of its 495,000 residents from 1970 to 2000, but has since made a rapid comeback -- its population reaching some 480,700 now despite the recent growth slowdown.

The economic crisis has particularly depressed growth in the five outer, ''suburban'' counties of Cherokee, Douglas, Fayette, Henry and Rockdale, which were gaining residents much faster than the five inner, ''urban'' counties -- Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett.

''Housing values were one of the primary drivers of suburban growth earlier this decade. Thus when the housing market faltered and few could sell their current house, growth rates in the suburban counties dropped significantly,'' points out ARC's Research Division in its population snapshot. ''While the annual growth rate in the five suburban counties was almost triple that of the urban counties earlier this decade, as of 2009, the gap between the two has narrowed significantly.''

Commenting on the change, Atlanta Creative Loafing magazine writer Thomas Wheatley cites other ARC news ''that'll at least put a smile on the faces of smart-growth aficionados and urban planners'' -- the agency's decision to extend its popular Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) program until 2012, at a constant of $1 million a year in grants.

Created in 1999, to help local jurisdictions plan and implement strategies aiming at multimodal transportation improvements, efficient land use and overall sustainability, the 18-county LCI program won the 2008 U.S. EPA Smart Growth Award in the Policies and Regulations category.

''It was expected to run out of funds and go into limbo late last year,'' the Creative Loafing writer observes, ''but the $3 million promise of cash means metro residents might have a better chance of seeing blas‚ suburbanscapes turned into enjoyable places once the economy recovers and development begins anew.''

Click here for details of the ARC snapshot or click here for information on the EPA Smart Growth Award. -- Atlanta Regional Commission, Creative Loafing   8/18/2009

Resource(s): www.atlantaregional.com/ ; http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Index

ARC Hears Results of Lifelong Communities Charrette

The nation's second fastest-growing metropolitan area this decade, just behind metro Dallas, Texas, the Atlanta region has gained an average of 121,000 residents each year since 2000, and even though the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) expects slightly slower growth ahead, it still must accommodate another three million people and 1.6 million jobs by 2040, with New Urbanism co-founder Andres Duany, principal of Miami-based Duany, Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) firm, telling an ARC audience at his presentation of results from a joint February charrette on ''Lifelong Communities,'' to prepare now for rapid demographic and lifestyle changes, and especially for the needs of the aging population.

''Whatever worked before, won't work now,'' he said, advising area officials, developers and others to take advantage of the protracted economic slump to set a new course. ''Now there is time to think, so it's a perfect time to do something different.''

The nine-day ''Lifelong Communities: A Regional Guide to Growth and Longevity'' charrette, say ARC press releases, brought together experts on aging, health, active living, housing, transportation, planning and architecture, producing six master plans for sites in Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnet counties, and in Atlanta, Conyers and Fayetteville.

The plans incorporate seven lifelong-community principles -- street connectivity, pedestrian access and transit, neighborhood retail and services, social interaction, varied dwelling types, active living opportunities, and consideration for current area residents.

See the charrette report at www.atlantaregional.com/html/4921.aspx. -- Atlanta Regional Commission   6/24/2009

Resource(s): www.atlantaregional.com/

ARC Awards Nine Atlanta-Area Governments Smart Growth Assistance

The more local officials seek sustainable development, the fewer means they have to pursue their vision in these hard fiscal times and the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is doing the best it can to help, with its Community Choices program receiving a record 28 applications for this year's assistance and just announcing 9 winners -- Newton, Henry, Cobb, and DeKalb counties, and the cities of Fayetteville, Avondale Estates, Roswell, Alpharetta and Auburn.

The counties will receive tools, resources and staff assistance, respectively, for work on a mixed-use ordinance, audit of all planning documents, integration of a Complete Streets program into transportation and land-use policy, and a comprehensive internal and external review of the development process.

Similarly, each city will get what it respectively needs to audit planning documents, review and enhance a sign ordinance, prepare a planning charrette and redevelopment of ''Arts Village,'' facilitate home modification and construction of accessory dwelling units, and draw up architectural design guidelines for the newly created Downtown Overlay District.

Essential for helping local officials assess their options as they move to ''create and sustain quality communities,'' notes the ARC online, is the Community Choices Toolkit.

It contains conceptual plans, case studies and detailed guidelines in six categories.

They include Residential Development -- conservation subdivisions, infill development, mixed-income housing, and traditional neighborhood development; Transportation/Mobility -- active living by design, bicycle and pedestrian planning, context-sensitive streets design, retrofitting corridors, and transit-oriented development; Commercial Development -- greyfield development, mixed use development, and overlay districts; Planning for Sensitive Groups -- aging in place, crime prevention and safety through community design, and school siting and land use planning; Internal Analysis -- conducting a quality growth audit, fiscal impact analysis, and planning in a fast growth environment; and General Tools -- public involvement, green building, historic preservation, and jobs-housing balance.

See details at www.atlantaregional.com/html/392.aspx. -- Community Choices   4/2/2009

Resource(s): www.atlantaregional.com/

Fulton County Eco-Community Thriving Despite Uncertain Economy

The nation and the state still endure a housing and foreclosure crisis, with home prices down nearly 37 percent last year, but a modern and pedestrian-friendly Serenbe eco-village, started by Marie and Steve Nygren four years ago amid 40,000 acres of Fulton County's forest just 32 miles southwest of Atlanta, continues to grow, reports CNN writer Tess Eastment, finding 102 ''green'' homes and business spaces built so far -- four, plus five new lots sold since January -- several boutiques and galleries also popular among visitors, and business in three restaurants brisk.

''We're intentional in the way that we respect the environment,'' says Maria Nygren about their 1000 acres, almost three-quarters of which will remain green space, with the rest hosting three ecologically conscious hamlets: mostly completed Selborne, farming-focused Grange now under construction, and planned Mado, for the Creek-Indian ''things in balance'' notion. ''It's about the way you live, the way you interact, the way you eat.''

A community of 160 residents, mostly young families with Atlanta area jobs, the self-employed and retirees, the writer observes, Serenbe offers varied-type housing, from live-work units, townhouses and cottages to larger estate homes, in the $350,000-$500,000 price range, all certified to the EarthCraft Homes company's green standards. ''People are looking for what's important, quality of life, for them and their children,'' says Steve Nygren. ''Many of the residents want to know their neighbors, and we're creating public spaces where they can meet.''

The village features sidewalks, walking trails, horse stables, water and other recycling facilities, composting sites, and 25 acres of organic-certified farmland, four of which grow a variety of vegetables and other plants, from beer flavoring hops to sweet peas.

An owner and chef of the popular 18-months-old Hil on the Hill restaurant, Hilary White takes most products for her dishes straight from the soil a few steps away.

''We don't have as much of a roller coaster (economic) ride,'' points out her husband and business partner Jim White, ''people are traveling to see us, and they come because of the whole farm-to-table concept.''

With one of Sernebe's first full-time residents, former Atlanta Woodruff Arts Center head Shelton Stanfill, telling the writer he saw the village as a ''poster child for the anti-sprawl mentality,'' Steve Nygren notes that developers were initially skeptical about his eco-community.

But now many ''are coming with tape measures and cameras'' to investigate its success, he adds. ''They're realizing that high-quality environmental development sells.'' -- CNN.com   3/18/2009

Resource(s): www.cnn.com/

Green Project Slated for Atlanta's Beltline Corridor

In a joint ''green'' development endeavor, the Atlanta-based Capital 33 commercial real estate firm, its Holliday Fenoglio Flower (HFF) investment advisers, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and the Georgia Office of Trust for Public Land (TPL) are preparing construction of a 325-unit rental apartment complex on five acres off Glenwood Park in the city's Beltline corridor of future light rail, open spaces and mixed uses, with the adjacent neighborhoods extensively consulted and informed about project details during a year-long zoning process, and all apartments slated to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

''Our ability to acquire financing in the nation's worst economic climate since the Great Depression speaks volumes about this project's quality and potential. Development opportunities are still possible if you are offering the right product, in the right place and at the right price,'' said Capital 33 Principal Partner Colin Cavill on a WSB-TV, Channel 2 program, with Partner Mark Mecholwitz stressing, ''We look for areas where residents can make the most of their urban environment, including being able to walk to restaurants, shops and parks.''

Pointing to the complex's ''unbeatable location in the heart of intown Atlanta,'' HFF Director Michael Cale said, ''Its accessibility to Glenwood Park, combined with Capital 33's strong development experience, made the project compelling to investors.''

And Georgia Office of TPL Director Helen Tapp added, ''We selected Capital 33 as a partner because its community-focused philosophy dovetails with those of the Beltline Redevelopment District.''

Called 880 Glenwood, the upscale five-story complex, reports WSB-TV, will offer apartments from 650 to 906 square feet, all with 9-foot ceilings, balconies, patios, Jacuzzi bathtubs, high-end countertops and stainless steel kitchen equipment, with ''green'' features including energy-saving windows and appliances, low-water-use plumbing, and eco-friendly roofs. -- WSB-TV, Atlanta-Journal Constitution   1/13/2009

Resource(s): www.wsbtv.com/ ; www.ajc.com/

Cost of Forsyth County Green Space Questioned

Buoyed by last February's voter approval of a $100 million bond issue, including green space acquisition money, a three-member Forsyth County Commission majority decided to spend $17 million on 245 acres in two tracts -- paying $48,000 an acre for a 185-acre tract in the county's north, and $135,000 an acre for a 60-acre one in its more populous south -- the prices questioned by the other two commissioners and some residents as too high in a time of falling real estate values nationwide.

Commission Chairman Charles Laughinghouse and Commissioner Jim Harrell, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Nancy Badertscher, tried in vain to avert at least the northern purchase, hoping to reappraise the tract and search for alternatives.

''Get an appraisal in today's environment,'' pleaded real estate appraiser Terry Smith. ''It's a beautiful piece of property, but in today's market, that land isn't worth $48,000 an acre.''

Cumming resident Bill Dickerson voiced similar concern.

''No one is buying property unless it is really cheap, except the county,'' he observed. ''Why don't we get a bargain for the taxpayers?''

Still, Commissioner Brian Tam and outgoing Commissioners Linda Ledbetter and Dave Richard voted for the double deal.

''Maybe it is a little expensive, but it's a beautiful piece of property. To put it off might mean we won't get it,'' commented Commissioner Ledbetter about the northern tract, with Commissioner Richard adding that its purchase for preservation will scuttle plans for 400 houses and that he was ''elected to slow down growth, and this is a good way to do it.''

Smart Growth Forsyth Deputy Director Claudia Castro backed the deal.

This acquisition, she said, ''represents a first step for the county'' and shows its willingness to protect the watershed and preserve the area's quality of life. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/1/2009

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta's Beltline Underway With Opening of First Trail Segment

Despite the national economic downturn, Atlanta's ambitious Beltline project along idle historic railroad tracks around the city -- expected to cost $2.8 billion over 25 years, create more than 1,200 acres of green space, and eventually link 45 neighborhoods through 33 miles of trails and light rail -- is under way, report Atlanta Union-Constitution writer Donna Williams Lewis and Associated Press writer Greg Bluestein, with ground just broken for its first park, the opening of the first trail segment on October 18, and hopes high for job growth and redevelopment in blighted areas.

''The Beltline is always going to have challenges, but these elements are moving forward,'' stressed Mayor Shirley Franklin at the park groundbreaking event just east of downtown. ''As soon as the credit markets, the funding markets in Washington and New York settle down, we'll continue to move forward.''

Atlanta Beltline Inc. President and CEO Terri Montague said, ''These are the first tangible projects coming online for the Beltline,'' and City Council Member Kwanza Hall called the city's delay in sale of $120 million in Beltline bonds ''a little blip,'' which is ''not going to stop us.''

The first Beltline park will cover 35 acres of industrial land weaving south through neighborhoods between North Avenue and Ralph McGill Boulevard, with a central stormwater detention pond helping to reduce overflows in lower areas.

The first 2.3-mile multi-use trail segment, a 12-foot-wide concrete path, connects three parks, Joseph Blown Middle School and the Kroger Village shopping center, ensuring pedestrian and bicycle mobility under I-20 and across the West End and Westview neighborhoods.

Details at www.beltline.org. -- Atlanta Union-Constitution, SunHerald   10/15/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/ ; www.sunherald.com/

Atlanta Developers Follow Atlantic Station Formula to Create Infill Neighborhoods

Atlanta's protracted population decline is over, with redevelopment of a former midtown steel mill site in the booming Atlantic Station mini-city over the past several years ushering in smaller mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly infill projects both in the city and its suburbs, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Paul Donsky, quoting Smart Growth America Communications Director David Goldberg, who calls it all ''the tip of the iceberg'' as people increasingly realize they are not ''automatically required to live in a suburban place where you drive everywhere.''

Having brought up their children in the suburbs, the writer observes, many baby boomers are downsizing and -- worried by the ''infamous'' area traffic and high national gas prices -- choosing intown locations, while the children, ''raised on TV shows like 'Friends' that made city living cool, are graduating from colleges'' and searching for similar urban settings and lifestyles.

In the response to the market, developers ''are snapping up warehouses, factories and other industrial properties and converting them to housing and retail,'' though obstacles remain.

Atlanta planning commissioner Steve Cover told the writer since the city ''needs a strong industrial base,'' it is evaluating sites sought for redevelopment to keep those that generate good tax revenue and ''provide a lot of jobs.''

In addition, developers often face neighborhood opposition over density and prospective traffic, while finding it hard to secure financing because of the economic slowdown and tight credit.

As a model of a successful mid-size urban infill project, the writer cites a stretch of North Highland Avenue on the outskirts of the Inman Park neighborhood -- some two miles southeast of Atlantic Station -- where a closed paper plant and a metal yard invoked an image of ''a ghost town'' until four years ago, but now trendy restaurants, clothing boutiques, a wine store, a cigar shop, and about 1,000 condos, townhomes and apartments invite and fill once-empty sidewalks with residents and visitors.

The transformation began and advanced with the opening of 350-apartment Highland Walk by Perennial Properties, which also built a complex of 239 apartments, 24 loft condos, restaurants, cafes and shops, while Wood Partners, Brunning & Stang, Ultima Holdings and a few other firms completed similar mixed-use Inman Park Village nearby.

''The intown market as a whole was doing very well. And there definitely was pent-up demand,'' recalled Perennial CEO Tim Schrager, with Wood Partners development director Jimmy Baugnon adding, ''It's just turned into a great vision. The negotiations with the neighborhood, although complicated, were productive.''

Indeed, the writer notes, area residents are happy, especially with the variety of retail.

''I think,'' said Inman Park Neighborhood Association President Lisa Brunette, ''everyone is really enjoying the benefits of being able to walk and bike to places, not to have to get in your car to do the things we do day-to-day.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/29/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

High Diesel Costs Send School Officials Scrambling for Fuel Funds

Hurt by diesel price surges from an average of $2.07 to $3.99 a gallon between the 2006-07 school year and past May, Georgia school systems will spend about 60 percent more on fuel this school year, needing at least $415 million to also cover bus maintenance, replacement and driver salaries, but the GOP-controlled Legislature added only $3 million, less than 2 percent, to last year's school transportation budget of $168 million, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Kristina Torres, finding school officials ''scrambling to figure out how to deal with the sticker shock.''

Nationwide, she notes, some school systems have considered busing cuts to ''make more students walk,'' an option metro Atlanta officials have evaded so far.

Instead, they may delay textbook purchases, cancel field trips, combine or eliminate some routes, and otherwise conserve fuel.

In Atlanta, where school officials expect diesel to cost them an additional $500,000 this year, system spokesman Joe Manguno said, ''We are instructing drivers not to idle for more than three minutes.''

In Cobb County, whose school system budgets $6.6 million for fuel alone, transportation director Rick Grisham said more school busses will reduce mileage by parking on campuses rather than at county depots, while schools will pay $3 instead of $2 per mile for field trips, with new software planning more fuel-efficient routes.

And in DeKalb County, which estimates that each one-cent price increase in diesel prices will cost its school system an additional $22,500 a year, Superintendent Crawford Lewis commissioned a task force to study all related issues and recommend solutions by early fall. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/5/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Editorial: Atlanta's Transportation System Falling Behind Other Metro Areas

Atlanta boosted its prestige and economy through spirited investments long before others saw the need, but has rapidly ''fallen behind other metro areas regarding transportation,'' writes Atlanta Journal-Constitution deputy editorial page editor Jay Bookman, contrasting decisive Phoenix and Houston shifts toward light rail with his city's inertia, which he blames on lack of leadership at both the metro and state levels, due partly to the regional political structure and partly to election of ''risk-averse'' officials.

In Arizona's Maricopa County, he explains, where Phoenix voters authorized a 20-year transit sales tax in 2000 to build a 20-mile light-rail system that will open this December, and where county voters passed a 30-year transportation sales tax in 2004 to expand roads and extend light rail for another 37 miles, its single government takes care of 3.8 million residents -- 400,000 more than in five core metro Atlanta counties -- and it can move faster than a region with power fragmented among numerous jurisdictions.

What's more, Arizona Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano leads a coalition of business groups and others that is working on a statewide ballot initiative to raise $42 billion over 30 years for transportation projects ranging from roads to commuter rail.

''Without a regional mechanism to exert power, metro Atlanta has no choice but to look to the state for leadership,'' the editor writes. ''So far, it has looked in vain. While other states mark the opening of new rail systems long in the making, in Georgia it's major news when the governor concedes that a commuter rail line might be a good idea someday.''

For years apparent in its declining quality of life and attractiveness to business, ''the consequences of metro Atlanta's failure to build a transportation system for the future'' become especially risky ''with the era of cheap gasoline coming to an end,'' the editor points out. ''Our infrastructure, economy and way of life have been built on an expectation that long commutes would always be possible and that no alternatives were necessary. Now the world is changing and we aren't close to being ready.''

While Phoenix' light-rail line has attracted some $6 billion in new condos, offices and mixed-use retail project alongside, Atlanta's MARTA -- conceived in the early 1970s and ''a favorite target of those who dismiss transit as an option'' -- suffers from the region's fragmentation and the state's lack of ''vision and courage.''

Financed by just two of the dozen metro counties, it is ''the only major rail-transit system in the country that receives no financial support from state government,'' the editor writes, stressing, ''Until we address those issues, MARTA won't work and Atlanta won't work.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   6/23/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta Community Thrives With Blend of Urban and Suburban Living

On the bleak 20-county metro Atlanta housing market, where sales fell 22 percent last year and resale prices have slowly slid by 6.5 percent so far, the only bright spot has been ZIP 30339 in Cobb County -- a postal zone of 17,000 people, some 10 miles northwest of central Atlanta -- where prices and sales rose 57 and 21.5 percent, respectively, both boosted by strong buyer activity in affluent unincorporated Vinings, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Kevin Duffy, finding Vinings ''a hybrid neighborhood,'' or ''the perfect blend of urban and suburban'' that lets residents downsize and upsize.

An ''amalgam of families, young singles and retirees,'' Vinings features vintage split-level and ranch homes mixed with McMansions on quiet residential streets and cul-de-sacs, condos and townhomes along busy thoroughfares, and a ''town center of sorts,'' Jubilee, with Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, some restaurants and ''a faux historic look of wood and brick that harkens back to the community's 19th century origins as a burg for railroad employees.''

CSX trains still cut through town 50 times a day, halting traffic on the main artery, the writer notes, but it doesn't bother real estate agent Debby Bolt, a resident since 1984.

''The train's got a consistency to it,'' she remarked. ''It just puts your whole day in perspective when you hear it.''

Others obviously share the sentiment.

Next to a glass office tower on 1,000-foot-high Mount Wilkinson, a 156-unit luxury condo building opened early last year was 91 percent sold by year's end, at an average unit price of about $600,000.

Its fitness amenities, views of Atlanta's skyline, and the county's school-tax exemption for 62-year-old and older residents ''were big selling points,'' the writer reports.

Nearby job centers and educational institutions -- the Lovett Academy, Pace Academy and Westminster Schools -- are equally important to others, along with dynamic community organizations, including Vinings Civic Club, Vinings Rotary Club, Vinings Historical Society, Vinings Club, Vinings Friends and Vinings Women's Club.

The area's natural beauty makes the attraction complete, though some residents begin to wonder whether the almost finished mixed-use Vinings Main project, with offices, retail and attached homes, won't bring in too much traffic.

For Sue and Jeffrey East, who moved in with their three children from Forsyth County in April 2007, Vinings is perfect.

''You feel like you're in a small town,'' she said, ''but you're in the hustle and bustle of the city.''

Still, for resident Jackie Benson, chair of the Georgia chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism, the writer notes, ''Vinings residents dangle their toes in the city instead of fully submerging.''

She told him, ''It's kind of a safe urbanism. It's a perceived security for people who were used to suburbia.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   6/6/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Survey Arrives Too Late to Save Referendum on Transportation Tax Plan

A new survey of 4,123 registered voters in 11 metro Atlanta counties found about 58 percent of respondents for a one-cent sales tax increase considered by the regional Transit Planning Board (TPB) to fund transportation projects, including rail and bus service, but its April 24 release came almost a month too late to dissuade the General Assembly from a narrow last-minute vote to kill legislation that would have allowed a referendum on regions' powers to tax themselves for badly needed transit expansion and other transportation improvements.

Republican Governor Sonny Perdue, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Brian Feagans, argued against such a tax as misguided in a sluggish economy and unfair for rural residents shopping in urban areas, unwilling to ''pump more money'' into the Department of Transportation, which needs a major overhaul.

On the other side, with support for self-taxation to ease gridlock holding throughout the region, TPB and Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell called fears about a possible clash of transportation interests between close-in and outer metro counties unwarranted, saying the survey results put ''many of those arguments to rest.''

TPB staff director Cheryl King had a similar message to lawmakers who killed legislation that could eventually have enabled the region to invest in transportation.

''There's no secret that the Atlanta region is different than other parts of the state,'' she observed, asking, ''If our problem is so bad that we want to tax ourselves to take care of it, why shouldn't we be able to?'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   4/25/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Gwinnett County Residents Urged to Support Regional Transit Plan

With Gwinnett County voters last year ranking traffic congestion as their top problem and new rail as the best solution, Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District (CID) Executive Director Chuck Warbington encourages county residents and business owners to support a comprehensive regional transit plan drawn up by Metro Atlanta's Transit Planning Board (TPB), a group of area political leaders and transportation officials brought together by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in 2005 to propose improvement, expansion and integration of bus and rail lines into one cohesive and cost-effective system.

Ready for the first public presentation April 16, writes director Warbington in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution guest opinion, the cross-jurisdictional plan involves heavy and light rail, commuter trains and bus rapid transit, offering Gwinnet County residents easy access to downtown Atlanta, Perimeter Mall, the Cobb Galleria and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

''Not only would a new rail service provide choice for mobility, but the collateral effects of the system would spur economic development,'' he observes, citing Center for Transportation Excellence findings that 77 percent of ''New Economy'' companies consider mass transit access extremely important for selecting corporate locations and noting that almost half of Fortune 500 companies, representing more than $2 trillion in annual revenues, have headquarters in transit-intensive metro areas.

According to one of the local studies initiated last year by his and Gwinnett Place CIDs, he adds, Gwinnett County residents prefer light rail over heavy rail, as more cost-effective and less environmentally-invasive, for an envisioned 10-mile link between Gwinnett Place Mall and the existing MARTA Doraville station in DeKalb County, with the currently projected four stations along that route expected to attract transit-oriented development, which would eventually increase the total number of their daily passenger boardings from the initial 21,000 to almost 35,000. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   4/13/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Chamblee Moves to Require LEED Certification for New Municipal Buildings, Large Private Projects

As the first city both in Georgia and the entire Southeast to do so, Chamblee, some 10 miles northeast of central Atlanta, passed comprehensive ''green'' legislation, effective April 1, 2009, under which all new municipal buildings and all new private projects over 20,000 square feet must obtain either the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification or the Green Building Initiative's (GBI's) Green Globes environmental assessment grades.

''Chamblee is leading the way for effective legislation which will mandate green building guidelines and help the environment,'' said City Councilman Mark Wedge at the public hearing before the unanimous council vote, with many attendees echoing his call for better development even if the costs may be 4 to 6 percent higher.

Developer Chuck Schmandt, who is readying his International Village project, felt a LEED certificate will certainly give him an edge on the market and bring the city image ''to a whole other level than what we've seen in the past.''

Former Councilman Arthur Gibert, a planner and Art Gibert Landscape Architecture principal agreed.

''Other places in the country have adopted LEED requirements and they're already seeing the economic benefits of it. It's pretty obvious it'll make Chamblee a better place to put a business, and of course it will be a better place to raise a family,'' he pointed out. ''As a resident of this city, I feel it will improve our lives in innumerable ways.''

After the council passed the green measure, Councilman Wedge said, ''We've seen first-hand the effect of climate change this year in the South, so we're extremely motivated to achieve results quickly. We believe that giving people choice in terms of how they approach green buildings, through systems such as Green Globes, will help local builders and architect contribute more substantially to the energy efficiency and general sustainability of our built environment.'' -- Dunwoody Crier, Green Building Initiative   3/27/2008

Resource(s): www.thecrier.net/, www.thegbi.org

Plan for Converting Subdivision to Mixed-Use Neighborhood Gets High Marks on LCC Scorecard

In the first practical test of the Livable Communities Coalition's (LCC's) Smart Growth Scorecard, its team of three independent volunteers -- two planners and a developer -- gave an overall grade 3.1 on a 4-point scale to a proposed redevelopment of the 55-acre Hidden Forest subdivision of some 50 single-family homes, north of Town Center Mall in Cobb County, into a dense mixed-use neighborhood of nearly 1,700 housing units and 279,200 square feet of stores and offices, and the LCC recommended approval of the project to the County Commission as the right kind of growth.

''Giving people a choice of housing, a walkable environment, and a good network of streets is a formula for a higher quality of life,'' commented LCC Executive Director Jim Durrett, with spokesman Kevin Doyle saying about the Smart Growth grades, ''We're taking assessment of local projects to the next level -- asking detailed questions and keeping score.''

Following a model introduced by Washington-based Smart Growth America's affiliate Smart Growth Leadership Institute, the LCC scorecard allows experts to assign a high-density project any rate from poor to excellent -- 0 to 4 points -- under a total of 50 criteria in eight categories.

The categories include location and availability of basic services; density and compactness; diverse mix of land uses; housing choice; accessibility; mobility and connectivity; pedestrian safety, streetscapes, and parking; environmental protection; and community needs.

Regardless of its scores under separate criteria, a project must earn an average of 3 points, or very good, to win LCC recommendation for approval.

Proposed by the Pacific Group and Marthasville Development, the Hidden Forest subdivision redevelopment earned a 3.1-point average, says a LCC press release, in large measure thanks to a mix of land uses and high density in an appropriate location, an efficient street arrangement that offers drivers route choices and minimizes the potential for traffic bottlenecks, and a layout and design that should create great walking opportunities.

Details at www.livablecommunitiescoalition.org. -- Atlanta Journal Constitution   3/18/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta to Revise Beltline Plans After Court Denies Use of TAD Funds

In a setback for Atlanta's planned $2.8 billion BeltLine -- a 22-mile loop of rail, trails and parks along an abandoned railroad through mostly depressed neighborhoods around the city's core -- the Georgia Supreme Court decided that the project's funding by the Tax Allocation District (TAD) mechanism can't include the prospective property-tax share normally assigned to schools.

Reversing a January 2007 ruling by the Fulton County Superior Court and citing two earlier cases, report Atlanta Journal-Constitution writers Paul Donsky and Eric Stirgus, Supreme Court Justice Hugh P. Thompson wrote that ''school taxes cannot be used to fund the Beltline Project which provides a benefit to all citizens, and which has little, if any, nexus to the actual operation of public schools in the city of Atlanta.''

Under TAD funding, observes Atlanta Journal-Constitution Writer Kevin Duffy, the city issues bonds to pay for infrastructure during redevelopment of blighted areas, securing repayment through anticipated tax revenue increases as projects are completed.

The Supreme Court decision doesn't affect the city's six active TADs that have already received bond money and returned $4 billion in new property taxes from 2005 to 2007, a 25 percent municipal budget boost.

But since school taxes amount to more than half of property-tax revenue, their exclusion from TAD funding -- approved by the City Council and the Board of Education in 2005 -- practically denies the city about $850 million over 25 year for the planned transit, workforce and other investment in the Beltline corridor, forcing officials to curtail their plans or find the money elsewhere.

Calling the decision ''bad news,'' Mayor Shirley Franklin voiced her commitment to the Beltline and readiness to seek private, state and federal funds for its completion.

''This is just a bump along the way,'' she told reporters. ''All big dreams have challenges, but it is not one we are not prepared to meet.''

Beltline officials Terri Montague and Valerie Wilson assured community representatives on its advisory committee that the project will go forward, writing in an email, ''We will continue working without interruption with our staffs and public and private partners toward its fulfillment using alternative funding sources -- as we have for the last 16 months.''

The Supreme Court decision, the writers report, can also affect other redevelopment projects.

''I imagine a bunch of them will be shrunk, at the least, and some may be killed,'' said a TAD funding expert and developer consultant, attorney Steve Labovitz, expecting developers ''to start reexamining their projects a lot closer to see if they can make it work'' with reduced TAD money.

It is unclear, the writers note, if the decision may apply to final phases of the city's landmark smart-growth project, the 138-acre Atlantic Station neighborhood on a former steel mill site, which has already received millions in TAD funding, but is still incomplete.

Among Atlanta Constitution-Journal readers criticizing the decision in their e-mail comments, one wrote: ''With this Beltline TAD ruling the Georgia Supreme court has just created legislation from the bench and has made a serious error. I personally hope the legislature will fire back with a State Constitutional amendment during this session to put the Beltline TAD back in place.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times   2/12/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/ ; www.latimes.com/

Atlanta's Livable Communities Coalition Assesses Efforts to Promote Smart Growth

From the time Atlanta won the international competition for hosting the 1996 Olympics, ''you've seen the dialogue change from growth for growth's sake to quality growth,'' stressed the industry-based Livable Communities Coalition's new chair, Regent Partners Founder and Chairman David Allman, determined to make sure ''smart growth is here and well-entrenched'' while the coalition assesses its first two years and considers seeking funds for operation after the current grants and donations run out by the end of this year.

Initiated in 2006 by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to help implement its 2004 Quality Growth Task Force's recommendations for quality of life, affordable housing, transportation choices, and better ''greenfield'' development, writes Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Maria Saporta, the Livable Communities Coalition was funded for three years with a $600,000 Robert W. Woodruff Foundation grant, and contributions from sponsors and 42 enrolled businesses.

Under the leadership of Cousins Properties' Office & Multi-Family Division President Larry Gellerstedt III for two years, the columnist reports, the coalition briefed residents on smart growth to facilitate informed decisions, advocated for Tax Allocation Districts (TADs) and similar ways of advancing smart growth, and worked directly with a dozen communities on implementation of related plans, customizing its input according to their needs and priorities or holding local ''charrettes,'' usually day-long public sessions to design a community's future.

Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Director Chick Krautler credits coalition leaders for their educational efforts and assistance in several ARC Livable Center Initiative projects.

''The one big accomplishment that they have made is being able to involve so many volunteers in the local planning process,'' he said. ''It's been an effective tool for communities that want to develop in a different way. It's a way to help galvanize support for communities trying to develop mixed-use projects.''

Having found that low public awareness of TAD requirements and advantages often undermines efforts to finance quality infrastructure around new development, the columnist observes, the coalition is including the issue among its top educational priorities this year, in the context of interlinked water, transportation, environmental and fiscal challenges.

''The more we have to drive, the more it's going to cost us,'' pointed its Executive Director Jim Durrett. ''We need to figure out how to be more efficient with all our resources. We have to be much more efficient with our financial resources and our environmental resources as we grow.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/21/2008

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Traffic Problems Could Jeopardize Atlanta's Economic Growth

Although the Site Selection monthly magazine ranked Georgia second only to North Carolina for the best business climate this year, this desirability may fade at least for Atlanta, cautions Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Ariel Hart, quoting one of the nation's top site selection experts, New Jersey-based WDG Consulting principal Dennis J. Donovan, who told the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce that companies planning expansion or relocation became worried about area traffic, the second worst nationwide, and that the region needs a comprehensive transportation solution now to ensure its economic growth.

''Up to seven or eight years ago when we had Atlanta on a recommended short list, we rarely heard grumbling,'' he said, but now every company executive asks, ''Boy, isn't there a lot of traffic down there?''

No one WDG client has refused to consider Atlanta as yet, but he believes others are quietly doing so, the writer observes, because traffic ''is effectively cutting off part of the metro area's labor pool, Atlanta's greatest attracting asset.''

Noting that among transportation bills in a legislative study committee is one that would allow counties to group together and hold joint referendums on funding regional projects, the writer quotes state Republican Representative Chuck Martin, who doesn't think lawmakers may or should postpone action because of reported lax management at the state Department of Transportation.

The WDG expert was adamant they have no time for wrangles over remedies.

''You're way beyond that point,'' he said. ''This shouldn't be a subject of debate.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/18/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Walkability, Amenities of Atlantic Station Help Draw Development to Area

The economically and socially successful transformation of a postindustrial steel site in Midtown Atlanta into mixed-use Atlantic Station is drawing more development to the area, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, with Pollack Partners proposing 600 mid-rise apartments and perhaps condos on 7 acres at the Station's border, the Sembler company planning a 26-acre retail complex, and a Houston-based investment group purchasing a former Siemens-Westinghouse property nearby for an as yet undisclosed project.

Pollack Partners founder Marc S. Pollack -- former Lane Co. president and the Station's largest residential builder, with eight projects -- and his new team members are enthusiastic about the location, the writer notes, citing managing director Steven Shores.

''We think it will attract people there,'' he said, ''because of the amenities in the area and the walkability of the area.''

Officials at AIG Global Investment Real Estate, the lead Atlantic Station developer, also see the midtown location, with its road, street and utility improvements, as a magnet for more development.

Calling Marc S. Pollack a ''committed urbanist,'' fully cognizant of livable city and housing principles, AIG vice president of development and design Brian Leary said, ''Atlantic Station kind of serves as a gateway to west Midtown.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/14/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Magazine Offers Examples of How Basic Changes Can Have Big Impact on Community Health

Due mostly to coal burning and vehicle travel, Georgia's carbon dioxide emissions rose 315 percent after 1960, but this protracted fueling of climate change doesn't have to continue unabated, especially since steps needed to combat global warming ''could also make our communities healthier, friendlier and more stable places to live,'' notes Creative Loafing Atlanta magazine writer Thomas Wheatley, presenting mutually corroborative data from quite different sources, ranging from the U.S. Energy Department and the Georgia Department of Transportation to the Southface Energy Institute and the Center for Clean Air Policy to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Smart Growth America.

The key lies in simultaneous individual, institutional and governmental efforts to curb energy use in and related greenhouse gas emissions from homes, transportation, power plants and agriculture, he explains, with some progress already made, but with much greater tasks waiting ahead.

Examples follow.

Installation of just one compact long-life fluorescent light bulb in each American household could reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as removal of 800,000 cars from roads.

Some 4,000 well insulated and more energy-efficient, Earthcraft-certified homes built in Georgia and five nearby states since 1999, have spared the atmosphere from 64,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

In Florida, Gainesville's power company offers homeowners up to $7,500 rebates for installing solar panels.

The Atlanta-based United Parcel Service plans to cut its fleet tailpipe emissions by 40 percent thanks to alternative technologies -- a move, the writer observes, that should inspire the state to help ''local school boards gradually convert their 13,140 diesel-gulping buses to hybrids.''

MARTA, the nation's largest transit agency without state funding, he continues, keeps 185,000 vehicles off the road each day and could do even better if the state gave it means to expand.

A proposed commuter rail network, held up by lawmakers for two decades, would also ease road gridlock, with an Athens-Atlanta line alone projected to cut the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on corridor roads by 42.5 million a year, and a high-speed Jacksonville-Savannah-Greenville-Atlanta line expected to reduce regional carbon dioxide emissions by 574 million pounds annually.

Similar emissions cuts could be achieved partly through a shift from coal-fired plants to nuclear and wind power, but mainly through long neglected conservation, and through gradual reorientation of agriculture and the food industry from oil-based fuels and synthetic fertilizers toward renewable energy, organic farming and local product markets.

''There's a bonus in all this for our quality of life,'' the writer points out, focusing on transportation and land use. ''Rail could help transform metro neighborhoods into the kinds of places most people say they want to live in -- places that are as friendly to people as they are to cars. Compact communities that mix homes, shops and offices encourage people to walk and ride their bikes, to drive shorter distances, and to use buses and trains.''

And citing a Smart Growth America report that should 60 percent of future development become pedestrian-friendly, the nation could reduce its carbon emissions by 85 million tons a year, the writer expects Atlanta neighborhoods and suburbs to continue moving in that direction, with help from the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC).

Under its Livable Communities Initiative (LCI), the agency uses a fraction of its transportation funds to assist communities in designing walkable neighborhoods and town centers.

''What underlies the concept is making more efficient use of what we already have rather than expanding our footprint,'' said ARC Comprehensive Planning Director Tom Weyandt. ''You can have these little changes that can make a fairly big impact while still maintaining a suburban lifestyle.''

See the well-researched and eloquent essay, with source links at the resource link below. -- Creative Loafing Atlanta   12/5/2007

Resource(s): http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/index

Duluth Wal-Mart Project in Limbo as City Council Imposes Moratorium on Large-Scale Development

With its huge asphalt footprint and induced heavy traffic, a 176,300-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for 27 acres off Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Duluth, some 20 miles northeast of central Atlanta, doesn't fit this established single-family-home neighborhood, say Smart Growth Gwinnett activists, whose public campaign, report Atlanta Journal-Constitution writers Eileen Drennen and Michael Pearson, has prompted the City Council to impose a six-month moratorium on such construction and put the project in limbo.

''This isn't about Wal-Mart per se. This is about big-box development,'' stresses the group's vice chairman Len Boyer. ''We're a proponent of smart growth that's consistent with the look and feel of Duluth.''

Although some area residents accept the project, with Ed Livingston saying, ''If it's not going to be Wal-Mart it will be something else,'' and Joyce Price adding, ''If I could, I would have it in my backyard,'' the opponents invoke a larger context of community, quality of life, and ''seemingly unstoppable development,'' the writers report, quoting Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District Chairman Mark Williams.

''Fatigue is a big part of it,'' he thinks. ''We had a lot of willy-nilly development, and people are just tired of it.''

Still, the writers observe, Wal-Mart everywhere faces ''a level of scorn rarely directed at big-box retailers such as Target or Best Buy,'' a difference writer Charles Fishman, author of ''The Wal-Mart Effect,'' explains by the company's size and its impact on others, pointing out that Wal-Mart stores count some 127 million customers a week, and get about $10 of every $100 spent at businesses nationwide.

''They (Wal-Marts) sell more toys than Toys 'R' Us. More jeans than Levi Strauss. More groceries than anyone in the world. More guns. More cigarettes, More eyeliner,'' he says. ''''Whatever business you're in, you wake up thinking about Wal-Mart.''

As to the Wal-Mart in question, the writers note, site owner Jack Bandy is suing Duluth's mayor and city council for the moratorium and its Zoning Board of Appeals for three decisions for opponents on building-design issues. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/2/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Mixed-Use Zoning, Infill Help to Drop Atlanta's Rate of Open Space Loss

Although the population in metro Atlanta's 10-county core grew from 3.4 million in 2000 to 3.8 million in 2005 and surpassed 4 million this year, the larger 13-county area has cut its rural and forest land conversion from 112,000 acres in 2003-05 to 31,000 since then -- a roughly 71 percent reduction, which the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) attributes mainly to a recent home construction slump, the new popularity of mixed uses, and a marked influx of residents to dense urban centers, including Atlanta.

''We have slowed down. But we're still growing,'' said ARC Research Division Chief Mike Alexander about his new land-use Regional Snapshot, heartened by surges of redevelopment and infill ''all across the region.''

What's more, the greater metro area's 20 counties have protected almost 170,000 acres of greenspace, with outer and relatively sparsely populated Bartow and Paulding counties protecting 23,590 and 31,416 acres (7.8 and 15.6 percent of their land), respectively.

In addition, voters in Paulding and six other counties, and in the city of Smyrna, have passed all their 2003-06 land acquisition ballot measures, taxing themselves a total of $216,330.

''The Atlanta region's advantage of having large tracts of land close to highways and jobs had become a characteristic of the 1970 to 2000 period in the region's development history,'' observed ARC Land Use Planning Chief Dan Reuter. ''While conversion of land to development has slowed in recent years, the larger issue is how Atlanta will grow with less vacant land and more traffic congestion than was present in prior decades.''

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board counts on higher-density ''live-work-play'' communities.

''While the downturn in the housing market should be temporary, if painful, the change in development patterns should be more long term,'' stresses editorial writer Lyle V. Harris. ''The 'sprawl is good' mindset long embraced by developers and endorsed by public officials is giving way to a recognition that sprawl threatens our region's economic vitality and puts undue burdens on our natural resources. And more important, that realization is being validated in the marketplace.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/28/2007

Resource(s): www.atlantaregional.com/; www.ajc.com/

Atlanta Developers Adding Walkability to Project Priorities

Metro Atlanta developers are adopting ''a whole new ethic aimed at putting Atlantans on their feet'' by adding shops, cafes, plazas and parks both along main thoroughfares and in unexpected pockets, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, quoting Woods Partners regional director Mark Randall, who stressed that in planning a high-density project, ''you have to think about extending (residents') life beyond their living rooms.''

Accordingly, the writer notes, plans and designs increasingly include wide sidewalks with vegetation, clearly marked crosswalks, street-level shopping and eating, public art, common areas with benches or amphitheatrical seats, and access to transit.

Developers put a lot of money and energy in such projects, realizing that people ''will be spending more of their leisure time burning shoe leather instead of rubber,'' the writer observes, citing two examples.

With a recently announced $8 million Woodruff Foundation grant for a new 35-acre park in the Old Fourth Ward, a developer consortium will build more than 3,000 diversified housing units, and 500,000 square feet of shops and restaurants around it, both park and development plans reflecting extensive public input to preserve the neighborhood's character.

''The way we're doing this can be a symbol for Atlanta,'' said Cablik Enterprises President Alan Cablik.

''It's a future vision of what it means to be an Atlantan.''

Some four miles north, in the Buckhead neighborhood, the Miami-based Related Group is planning a similar pedestrian-friendly development, CityPlace Buckhead, after months of consultations with city and local leaders on its features and amenities.

These will include a wide central boulevard with art in the median, thousands of feet of sidewalks, natural elements and shaded benches, in a pattern credited by the group's Atlanta Division Vice President Lee Hodges to the Buckhead Community Improvement District's first-phase Peachtree Street upgrades nearby.

''We're going to take that and run with it,'' he explained, confident that CityPlace Buckhead will ''encourage people to get out and walk because they have something to look at.''

District Executive Director Scotty Greene, who has shepherded the pedestrian improvements for years through the city's maze of planning and funding, said that's exactly what the local business community created the district for: to make its public spaces attractive and more pedestrian-friendly. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/20/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

EcoBrokers Helping Consumers Find ''Green'' Housing in Atlanta

Sensitive to consumer demand, Metro Atlanta's housing industry is going ''green,'' observes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie Hairston, reporting that after area home builders partnered with the Southface Energy Institute to devise the increasingly popular EarthCraft inspection program for environmentally sound construction, the city's Harry Norman Realtors brought in Colorado-based EcoBroker certification creator John Beldock on a three-day training session for 48 agents at its Buckhead Branch.

A lifelong environmentalist and former U.S. Department of Energy expert, John Beldock launched his national EcoBroker training program four years ago, offering classes in the field and online, at www.ecobroker.com.

He called the Atlanta classes for Harry Norman Realtors the most crowded he has ever conducted, pointing out that all EcoBroker agents -- some 2,000 in 42 states, but only 14 in metro Atlanta until now -- work ''as green ambassadors'' in their communities.

One of them, Hampton Realtor Burke Sisco, who earned his certification a year ago, told the writer, ''I don't just want to be a real estate agent. I want to be a change agent.''

Accordingly, he not only sells homes, but also maintains a Web site, www.ecohomeguy.com , with green housing information and resources.

''The consumers are a lot farther ahead in what they would like in a green home than the market is ready for,'' he said. ''The signals are that the green market is strong and getting better.''

Environmentally friendly homes, the writer notes, feature highly efficient heating, cooling and lighting, which saves on electricity bills; low-flow water fixtures and appliances; sustainable and recycled construction materials; clean indoor air; low-maintenance, drought-resistant landscaping; and -- no less important -- easy access to mass transit and pedestrian amenities.

EcoBrokers, she continues, help sellers identify and highlight environmental assets of their homes; help buyers find homes with such assets and certification; and help both sellers and buyers find special funding for renovation, purchase or green upgrades.

They also maintain ''a trove of resources that can provide cash, special interest rates, tax incentives and rebates'' for their eco-minded clients, she adds, quoting John Beldock.

With energy prices climbing, water resources dwindling, and traffic congestion worsening, public demand for environmentally conscious design and construction, and for livability and easy accessibility is growing, he said, emphasizing, ''It's tough to meet a consumer who is not concerned about these things.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/12/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

More Restrictions on Water Use Likely for Atlanta Region

First, wasteful land consumption since the 1950s has led to land shortages and exorbitant housing prices across urban areas, and now similar multi-level profligacy is exacerbating the impact of higher temperatures and recurrent regional droughts, threatening national water sources, with Georgia Environmental Protection Division Carol Couch having until the end of the month to advise Republican Governor Sonny Perdue on water use restriction options, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Matt Kempner, ''that not even arid Southern California or Las Vegas has had to make.''

Director Couch, the writer notes, already banned recreational water uses, along with watering lawns and gardens and noncommercial car washing throughout Atlanta metro and Northern Georgia late last month, and is preparing recommendations for commercial and industrial water restrictions, with eventual limits on farm and even personal use also possible.

''Most large metropolitan areas have systems in place where they try to be better managers of the resource than that,'' commented University of Nebraska-Lincoln's National Drought Mitigation Center founder Don Wilhite, calling the Eastern states ''more vulnerable than the West,'' where the need for conservation, giant reservoirs and other backup supplies was realized long ago.

Their growth notwithstanding, the Eastern states put ''less emphasis on conservation'' and a severe long-term drought, he observed, ''creates problems they've never had to deal with before.''

Amherst, Massachusetts-based author and water conservation consultant Amy Vickers agrees, putting much of the blame for the quick draining of water supplies during droughts to a dramatic outdoor watering increase over the last ten years.

''We need to act sooner in imposing these more restrictive measures,'' she points out, ''because we may not have as much time as we had in the past to rebound.''

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California General Manager Jeff Kightlinger recollects the severe drought of the late 1980s and early 1990, when the region limited outdoor watering to certain days, asked restaurants to serve water only upon request, and encouraged other forms of conservation.

''It became kind of patriotic to let your lawn dry up,'' he remembers. ''People banded together.''

What is in stock for Atlanta metro and counties farther north should their water levels continue to drop?

In central North Carolina, some 300 miles northeast of Atlanta, the writer reports, Siler City's reservoir lost so much water that officials of this town of 8,000 just ordered all users -- from homeowners to industries -- to cut their water use in half. ''We're asking them to do whatever it takes,'' stressed Town Manager Joel Brower, noting that violators face fines or may even see their water cut off. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   10/15/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Editorial: Impact Fees Needed to Relieve Georgia's Overcrowded Schools

Although state law has permitted impact fees for new roads, utilities, libraries and parks since 1990, points out Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial writer Maureen Downey, the General Assembly is still ignoring the urgent need for such developer fees to relieve increasingly overcrowded schools, ''parroting the script fed to it by the real estate industry,'' and leaving schools utterly dependent ''on property taxes, bond issues or local-option sales taxes for education,'' none sufficient in rapidly-growing metro Atlanta counties where more and more students must take lessons in trailers.

Georgia also lacks disincentives to restrain developers from locating ''their mega-subdivisions in overcrowded school districts or on cheap land in remote areas far from any school,'' and the districts are stuck with the costs of additional classrooms to absorb the influx from all those new homes.

The routine arguments against school impact fees -- that they hamper residential construction, that new homes pay fair school-cost shares through property taxes, and that builders would flee to areas without fees -- found champions in the state's legislature, the editorial writer observes, but have been discredited by wide experience and numerous studies.

Three of the nation's fastest-growing states -- California, Florida and Washington, she writes, have for years been charging school impact fees ''with no fallout.''

Nationally, the average school impact fees per single-family home and multi-family unit are $4,463 and $2,430, respectively.

In Florida, school impact fees brought districts $225 million in 2004, the Lake County School Board has just doubled its impact fees to $14,646 per single-family home; and a recent Hillsborough County study showed that each dollar in property-tax revenue costs the public $1.39 in services.

A similar Georgia State University study on the state's school districts found in the annual, county-by-county data ''numerous instances where growth failed to pay for itself.''

And in Oregon, a recent school-impact-fee compromise allows school boards to collect 50 cents per square foot of commercial or industrial development, and $1 per square foot of residential construction, including additions, with the tax on a typical 2,000-square-foot home amounting to $2,000.

''If every district in Oregon levies the construction tax, the state estimates schools would raise $60 million a year for construction and renovation,'' the editorial writer notes. ''That $60 million could go a long way in Georgia to tame overcrowding, get kids out of trailers and restore lunch hour to noon rather than 10 a.m. or 2 p.m.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/6/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Landowner Files Lawsuit Following Duluth Big-Box Moratorium

Heedful of many public pleas, the Duluth City Council imposed a six-month big-box moratorium on July 30 and two weeks later denied Wal-Mart a permit for a 176,305-square-foot Supercenter on 27 acres owned by area resident Jack Bandy, whose legal representative, former conservative Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, has just informed the city about his intention to file a $25 million suit for delaying his land sale, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Eileen Drennen, with state law requiring a response in 30 days.

In his letter, the attorney says his client and Wal-Mart signed a sale contract last November, assured by the city ''that the property was properly zoned for a Wal-Mart and that Bandy had a vested right to construct a Wal-Mart store.''

The moratorium ordinance ''was not passed for the general health and welfare of the citizens of Duluth, but with the specific intent to delay, hinder and frustrate Bandy and Wal-Mart,'' he goes on, arguing that the city has unconstitutionally singled out Wal-Mart by actions that ''lessen competition ... and impede commerce'' while giving ''preference ... to ... competitors of Wal-Mart.''

The six-month big-box moratorium was sponsored by Duluth Councilman Doug Mundrick, who pointed out before the vote that the city needs time to ''catch its breath'' as development pressures mounts, the writer recalls, noting that City Attorney Lee Thompson declined to comment on the suit threat until full evaluation of the letter and its implications. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/4/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta's Pedestrian-Friendly Developments Help Turn the Tide on Shrinking Population

Atlanta lost almost 80,000 residents in the past three decades, but since 2000 has turned into an ever-stronger ''growth magnet'' and regained some 50,000 people, including 9,500 from April 2005 to April 2006 and 12,600 in the next 12 months, the largest annual influx in 30 years, report Atlanta Journal-Constitution writers Mary Lou Pickel and Steve Visser, calling the successful redevelopment of the city's former steel mill site as mixed-use, transit-oriented and pedestrian-friendly Atlantic Station ''the textbook example'' of urban life advantages.

Atlanta Planning and Community Development Commissioner Steve Corver told the writers that suburbanites increasingly appreciate the city because they detest long commutes and need easy access to entertainment and cultural events.

''They're looking for communities where you can literally walk to anything you want -- the park, the museum, the grocery store, Georgia Tech,'' he observed. ''Younger people, young couples, empty nesters, that's the trend that we're seeing.''

Atlantic Station newcomer and condo owner Lucile Lansing, 65, likes transit. ''It takes me everywhere I want to go, from IKEA to the symphony,'' she said. ''This is an up-and-coming city within a city.''

Like her, numerous recent residents are taking new housing, with many of the 10,779 residential permits the city issued last year going to condos, seen by Atlanta Development Authority Marketing and Public Relations Director Sonya Moste as an alternative to suburban homes.

''Look at Atlantic Station. You can just look at the cranes,'' she pointed out. ''In the past, people had to move to the suburbs because there wasn't enough housing, and affordable housing, in Atlanta.''

The city's residential boom, the writers note, has expanded to nearby counties, especially Fulton, Gwinnet and Henry, with the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) estimating the ten-county metro's population at just over 4 million by last spring.

One of the developers banking on the trend is Florida-based Sembler Co. President Jeff Fuqua, whose proposed 100-acre Briarcliff Town Center in DeKalb County's residential area, some six miles from central Atlanta, would include 1.5 million square feet of retail, 300,000 square feet of offices, 300 hotel rooms, and 3,700 housing units, ''a mini-city,'' reported Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Paul Donsky earlier, ''approaching the scale of Atlantic Station.''

Many area residents fear gridlock and oppose the developer's rezoning request, but he believes he could prevent congestion and neighbors would love the complex when finished.

He promises, the writer added, ''an almost small-town atmosphere,'' with restaurants and boutiques along walkable streets, two-story department stores topped by several stories of housing, and decked parking instead of surface lots. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/10/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

''Smart Growth Gone Bad'': Former Planning Commission Member Decries Massive DeKalb County Project

For years metro Atlanta expected smart growth to replace sprawl and its ''endless subdivisions, strip shopping centers and regional malls,'' but the proposed Sembler Co.'s $1 billion Town Center at Briarcliff, with1.5 million square feet of big-boxes, a half-million square feet of offices, and 3,700 housing units on a 103-acre DeKalb County site, some eight miles northeast of central Atlanta, ''is smart growth gone bad,'' warns former DeKalb County Planning Commission member Don Broussard in his Atlanta Journal-Constitution guest column, voicing local residents' frustration and listing the project's cardinal sins.

''Those of us lucky enough to live in beautiful, intown neighborhoods will have to sacrifice our quality of life,'' he writes, ''for what developers and politicians are trying to spoon-feed us as a smart growth project, something that will damage our community the way Perimeter Center did North DeKalb.''

As Lakeside High School Parents and Teachers Association co-president, the planner particularly resents the sale of two schools and a school stadium for the project, with no concern for the area's communities or its future educational needs.

''Smart growth advocates plan their projects with a sense of community in mind,'' he stresses. ''Instead, this project obliterates all sense of community beginning with the teardown of the DeKalb School for the Arts, Kittredge Magnet School and the only high school football stadium in Central DeKalb, Adams Stadium.''

He calls the project ''dumb'' for ignoring other smart growth principles, too. ''Authentic smart growth projects are designed around transit,'' he points out. They also don't hurt adjacent development, ensure housing for all income groups, and their proponents make clear what new infrastructure and services will cost if any are needed.

In contrast, the Town Center at Briarcliff project is car-oriented, its megamall near two other malls and local shops will surely make a number of them vacant, and the loss of the area's only well-kept apartment complex ''that attracts working-class residents'' won't be offset by the promised ''work-force housing units,'' since they will be temporary, too few and too costly for lower-income workers to afford.

''Finally, DeKalb residents want to know who will pay for the expanded infrastructure for a $1 billion project that will draw shoppers from many miles away,'' the planner writes. ''Roads will be in gridlock. Water and sewer must be upgraded. Storm water improvements will be necessary. There will be a need for additional fire and police presence.''

Dismayed by the obvious bias of elected officials toward developers, he concludes, ''If this project were unveiled in Douglasville, Conyers or Lawrenceville you would hear a chorus of public officials, regional planners, media and pundits denounce it as an example of sprawl. But the same project plopped down in our area is the same duck. It's not smart growth and it's not the project DeKalb County needs.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   7/9/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Costs of Sprawl Adding Up for Atlanta's Moderate Income Families

''Density is the single best way of getting affordable housing,'' stressed Progressive Redevelopment CEO Bruce Gunter at the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission's (ARC) housing forum, focused on a recent Center for Housing Policy analysis of 28 major cities, which found the metro area the second-most expensive for families earning between $20,000 and $50,000 a year, with 29 and 32 percent of their income taken by housing and transportation, respectively, for a total of 61 percent, just behind 37 and 27 percent, or a total of 63 percent in San Francisco.

The metro's non-affordability, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Maria Saporta, ''startled'' Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP) President and CEO John O'Callaghan, whose group helps finance affordable housing.

''Atlanta has been built on the car,'' he pointed out. ''People drive until they can find a home they can afford. But they don't add up the car payments, car insurance and transportation costs. And it's getting worse as gas prices are going up.''

Among the least dense nationwide, metro Atlanta shows 60 percent of its households with two cars, 2 percent over the national average, and makes long commutes ''a way of life,'' the writer observes, quoting ANDP's Mixed-Income Communities Initiative Director Susan Adams.

Area commuters, she noted, drive an average of 12 miles one way, in comparison to nine miles for the other 27 major cities studied by the Center for Housing Policy.

What makes the situation worse, the writer continues, is the metro's sluggish per-capita income growth of only 5.1 percent between 2000 and 2007, in contrast to a national average of 13.4 percent.

''It makes us nervous,'' said ARC chief of research Mike Alexander. ''A lot of high-paying jobs are leaving the region. And the jobs we have added don't pay as much as the jobs we have lost.''

The remedies are clear, and now is the time for state and regional officials to put them in practice, the writer concludes.

''In order for metro Atlanta to be affordable to its growing population, it must make sure that its residents can reduce their transportation costs,'' she writes. ''Building affordable dense housing around job centers will enable people to live close to where they work. And by investing in an extensive public transit system, we will be able to free up our residents from having to rely on their cars to get where they want to go.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   6/11/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

After Approving Controversial Rural Development, Thomas County Commission Unanimously Approves Six-Month Moratorium on Residential Rezoning

Having provoked anger among area residents and Concerned Citizens for Smart Growth by a 5-3 vote for the planned 325-home Ochlocknee Rose Plantation subdivision on 588 rural acres along two-lane Ga. 202, with 250 acres as green space, the Thomas County Commission saved itself much grief by ending the meeting -- after most attendees left -- with unanimous approval of a six-month residential rezoning moratorium, likely to be extended until the county completes its new comprehensive plan.

The Plantation subdivision's opponents raised multiple issues, reports Thomasville Times-Enterprise writer Patti Dozier, quoting resident Tim Ansley, who worried about clearing the riverbank from vegetation, risking erosion, and polluting groundwater supplies by seepage from the site's underground wastewater treatment facility.

His wife Linda noted that its promised green space consists of wetlands that couldn't be developed anyway, adding, ''We need to limit our growth. We need to learn to limit it to the urban service area.''

Concerned Residents for Smart Growth spokeswoman Kay Vann saw approval for the project as setting ''a terrible precedent for future growth'' in the county.

The five commissioners who voted yes, she said, ''ignored the existing comprehensive plan and the plan currently under development, which they themselves commissioned with our tax dollars.''

The three other commissioners -- Louis Rehberg, Mary Jo Beverly and Ken Hickey -- shared the sentiment. ''The people I represent,'' observed Commissioner Rehberg, ''are like deer in the headlights with this rushing toward them.''

Thus, the unanimous vote for a subdivision moratorium lessens the tension.

Commissioner Elaine Mays was confident that it gives the commission time to work with citizens on steering growth where they want it and away from prime land.

Their spokeswoman Kay Vann agreed. ''I believe it is the absolute smartest thing to do right now,'' she said. ''We can address the issue as a whole. We want to be part of the solution. I believe the moratorium will give us a chance to work in that direction.'' -- Thomasville Times-Enterprise   5/23/2007

Resource(s): www.news-daily.com/

Atlanta Delegation Hopes to Bring Back Transportation Financing Ideas from Vancouver LINK Trip

Having visited 10 comparable cities across the country since 1997 to learn from their successes and errors, this time a group of some 100 metro Atlanta leaders, planners and developers has chosen Vancouver, British Columbia for the four-day LINK (Leadership, Involvement, Networking, Knowledge) trip, with Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Director of Community Services Tony Landers describing this Canadian city as ''a living laboratory of smart growth.''

Noting that Vancouver ''deliberately hasn't built any major road in the last two decades,'' that its leaders call their growth vision ''eco-density,'' and that the public sense of place is ''huge,'' he wants to bring back ''some ideas on transportation financing,'' curbing sprawl, and promoting business and health care from the visit.

ARC and Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Maria Saporta, have similar expectations.

''When you read the various publications regarding good planning, Vancouver regularly is in the top three,'' said Chairman Olens. ''It's an exceedingly clean city. It's an exceedingly family-friendly city. And it's an extremely environmental city.''

Mayor Franklin, who has been prodding city and metro officials to look decades ahead and envision the region's future, is especially interested in Vancouver's 100-year growth plan. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   5/7/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Georgia Transportation Secretary Ready to Axe Atlanta-Lovejoy Commuter Rail Line

As metro area drivers sit ever-longer in their cars, harming air quality, personal health and family life, Republican Governor Sonny Perdue's Transportation Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl announced he cannot endorse the proposed 20-mile Atlanta-Lovejoy commuter rail line that would eventually run another 60 miles south to Macon and is ready to return $86 million in federal funds for the project -- a decision sharply criticized by Georgia State University Associate Professor Colin Crawford, co-director of the College of Law's Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth.

''In the week that a conservative U.S. Supreme Court finally agreed with the states that carbon dioxide could be regulated as an air pollutant, Linnenkohl's judgement seems positively Neanderthal,'' writes Professor Crawford in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution guest opinion.

''The road-building philosophy to which Linnenkohl's decision commits us has other, equally well-known consequences -- promoting sprawl as we seek our own little patch of green,'' the professor notes. ''This feeds a vicious circle: Sprawl begets sprawl, creating more pollution.''

Ignoring transit planning, he observes, Atlanta will fall farther behind ''urban areas that have the foresight to put the brakes on road-driven growth.''

He mentions Charlotte, North Carolina ''with its ambitious inter-modal transit planning'' and the Denver region, where ''voters approved a bond issue for an innovative light rail system'' last year.

''While the people who wield the power at the Georgia DOT continue to ignore the economic and social costs of rejecting a mass transit opportunity such as Lovejoy, local governments are beginning to get it,'' the professor stresses. ''Cobb and Gwinnett counties expand bus service to downtown, a Peachtree trolley line seems evermore a real possibility, and a wide variety of interests appear strongly committed to the Beltline as a way of rejuvenating the life of the region and increasing its livability.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   4/6/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Emory University Ready to Play Major Role in Bringing Smart Growth to Northeast Atlanta

Once ''a sleepy little college nestled in the matronly bosom of the stately neighborhood of Druid Hills'' at the edge of northeast Atlanta, reports area Sunday Paper writer Josh Clark, Emory University became a powerhouse -- with some 12,000 students and 14,000 employees of the school, hospital and research facilities -- ready to play a major role in fighting area gridlock, promoting mixed uses and expanding affordable housing.

Its Clifton Road corridor, also hosting the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and the Veterans Administration, ''is jammed by about 46,000 vehicles per day,'' the writer notes, with the Atlanta Regional Commission rating local congestion as the highest per square mile in the metro area.

To cut that congestion and help students and employees walk or bike to classes and jobs, Emory officials count on three relatively dense projects, all making some neighbors rather uneasy. They voice concerns about project scope, the impact on local character, and the health of the little Peavine Creek.

One project, which involves 15 to 20 acres Emory owns, the writer finds, would transform several parking lots, old graduate housing and an inn into a mixed-use retail and housing complex.

''Right now there are thousands of people who work along Clifton Road and drive in from Gwinnett (County) and Stone Mountain,'' says Emory Communication Director David Payne. ''If we can market the housing to these people, we can get some of the cars off the road.''

The second Emory project would convert several recently purchased properties to condos and apartments, including 271 units for graduate students, especially foreigners, many of whom ''don't have drivers' licenses or cars,'' Director Payne observes, which should allay local worries about increased traffic.

The third project, backed by the university but without its direct involvement, would revitalize adjacent Emory Village, where some businesses failed or floundered in the past years.

Outlined by the specially formed Alliance to Improve Emory Village (AIEV), revitalization depends on a new zoning overlay, which would reduce the required 40-foot-wide buffer between its commercial and residential parts and allow core buildings over the current two-story limit.

Druid Hills Civic Association President Bruce MacGregor seeks a middle ground for village revitalization. His group objects to a mere seven-foot buffer and a four-story height, but is willing to accept a 20-foot buffer and three-story buildings.

''We have not really taken a hard line,'' he tells the writer. ''We've been compromising all the way.'' -- Sunday Paper   3/18/2007

Resource(s): www.sundaypaper.com/

New CSD Manual to Help Savannah Residents and Planners Work Together

Four years ago in Savannah, a neighborhood backlash against removal of old oaks along Whitfield Avenue ''in the name of progress and wider streets,'' reports Savannah Morning News writer Pamela E. Walck, prompted the Savannah Area Metropolitan Planning Commission's (MPO) successful search for ways to ensure that other streets will remain green and pedestrian-friendly even if slated for widening, with the Chatham County Urban Transportation Study policy committee recently approving a Context Sensitive Design (CSD) manual.

Written by Florida-based Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin experts Walter Kulash and Paul J. Moore, the manual explains three basic urban mobility tenets. They are, the writer lists, move more people than vehicles, improve pedestrian access along roads instead of adding asphalt lanes, and involve the public in the engineering process at its earliest stage.

The third tenet is relatively new to transportation planners, with MPO transportation planning director Mark Wilkes seeing a frequent ''disconnect'' between designers and local residents.

At the committee's December meeting, also attended by several state transportation officials, Walter Kulash stressed the importance of individual leadership in a push for CSD in each neighborhood. ''When you are looking around on highly successful context sensitive design projects, you can surely trace it back to one or two people,'' he observed. ''It always boils down to just a few, who were driving forces behind it.''

The advice may immediately benefit DeRenne Avenue residents, who also have been opposing plans for making it wider and more risky for pedestrians.

Looking to implement CSD throughout the city, director Wilkes admits it may take time.

''We really need to establish working relationships that champion these concepts and get incorporated into projects,'' he noted. ''It's not going to be 'boom' done. What follows is an education process and an ongoing stewardship.''

Still, Preserving Savannah Neighborhood members are hopeful.

Especially pleased that City Manager Michael Brown moved to incorporate CSD in all future plans, activist Ardis Wood said, ''We need to raise the bar higher so we don't become 'Anyplace, USA'.'' -- Savannah Morning News   1/23/2007

Resource(s): http://savannahnow.com/

Infill and Pedestrian-Friendly Projects Will Help DeKalb County Absorb Future Growth

Already the state's densest and third most populous, DeKalb County, just east of Atlanta, could best accommodate its population growth from 666,000 residents in 2000 to 726,000 within eight years ''by creating urban alternatives to sprawl and traffic,'' writes Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Maria Saporta after Leadership DeKalb's annual Economic Development Day, a local tour and conversation with County CEO Vernon Jones, who wishes all commissioners were equally committed to smart growth.

As an example of his concern, the CEO cited the commission's vote to scale down a project near Oglethorpe University and the Brookhaven MARTA station from nine to six stories, which he sees as a missed opportunity to take full advantage of the rail line.

County Executive Assistant Richard Stogner reiterated the need for transit-oriented development to avert future road gridlock, saying, ''We add a lot of cars with 10,000 people moving (in) every year, and cars create congestion.''

Still, like these and other officials, business leaders and community activists at the economic development forum, the columnist is optimistic, finding several county pockets of smart transformation.

Around Emory University, she writes, planners are targeting five areas for infill and redevelopment, hoping to make them more pedestrian-friendly and increase housing density ''so people won't have to commute from other areas to get to campus.''

A Buford Highway study by the Atlanta Regional Commission will determine how to turn the corridor ''from a series of automobile-oriented strip centers'' into a boulevard with sidewalks, bicycle paths and landscaped medians.

The city of Chamblee is banking on its MARTA station and promoting mixed uses nearby, while a new overlay zoning plan will encourage ''creative developments with additional density.''

And in the Perimeter Center area, the Community Improvement District and several developers are building residential high-rises ''next to office buildings, the mall and adjacent shopping areas,'' which will soon have wider sidewalks and pedestrian crossing. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/22/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

What People Want: Atlanta Study Finds ''Significant'' Demand for Walkable Living

Many Atlanta metro developers may try to satisfy the region's market demand for pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, yet the most comprehensive study of its kind, focused on 13-county land-use data, hundreds of lifestyle interviews and the travel habits of 18,000 residents, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Ariel Hart, found ''a significant, unmet demand for developments that make it easier to walk from place to place.''

Started in 1998 by then Georgia Tech Associate Professor Larry Frank, now at the University of British Columbia, and backed by a host of agencies and organizations while the state Department of Transportation stepped aside, the SMARTRAQ study defines ''a walkable environment'' as one where people can reach destinations comfortably on foot, and a well-connected street network prevails over cul-de-sacs.

''In all,'' the study found, ''about a third of metro Atlantans living in conventional suburban developments would have preferred a more walkable environment, but apparently traded it off for other reasons such as affordability, school quality, or perception of crime.''

Among the first to comment, developer Scott Selig said he focuses on mixed uses in response to the market demand, but to expand the concept beyond isolated pockets, developers need large tracts of land for dense development, adding, ''It's going to be a slow uphill climb in density.''

The study's thematic segments and related papers, published in past years, included a well-known Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report finding that ''every additional hour spent in a car each day translated to a 6 percent greater chance of being obese,'' the writer observes, noting that the newly released study also shows that walkable neighborhood residents tend to drive less even without nearby transit stops.

Former Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor, Washington-based Smart Growth America (SGA) Communication Director David Goldberg, who helped write the comprehensive final report, made its pdf version available on the SGA web site www.smartgrowthamerica.org. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/19/2007

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

High-Rise, Mixed-Use Projects Transforming the Look -- and Lifestyle -- of Atlanta's Urban Core

Prompted by the successful transformation of a defunct Midtown Atlanta steel mill site into mixed-use Atlantic Station -- a $3-billion pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, the first at that scale to bank on the current demographic shift toward city living -- developers are heavily investing both in a 14-block ''Midtown Mile'' of Peachtree Street and in nearby areas, with at least six massive high-rise projects under way downtown, and in Midtown and Buckhead.

The projects, reports Wall Street Journal writer Jennifer S. Forsyth, ''aim to create neighborhoods in Atlanta as swank and walkable as some sections of New York and Chicago with easy access to nearby office jobs, chic restaurants or fashionable boutiques.''

Atlanta business and political leaders are promoting redevelopment, expecting it to help contain sprawl and ease traffic congestion as the area's population grows by another two million within 25 years.

The city's latest, she writes, will be the three-block 12th & Midtown project, announced by Selig Enterprises Inc. and Daniel Corp. Its $1.1 billion initial phase will include office space, two luxury hotels, high-rise condos and high-end retail.

On the northern edge of downtown, the $1.9 billion Allen Plaza, by Barry Real Estate Cos., will feature four towers, three with hotels and big corporate headquarters, one with apartments planned by Post Properties.

Two of the Buckhead projects, 3630 Peachtree and 3344 Peachtree, will have more than a dozen office floors topped by luxury condos, while the $660 million Terminus complex will offer a different mixed-use configuration.

For several past decades, ''a walkable Atlanta seemed a contradiction in terms,'' the writer observes, quoting Barry Real Estate Cos. Chairman Hal Barry, who says ''this city was like a doughnut,'' with nothing happening downtown and everything happening in the suburbs.

But over the past several years, the public mindset changed, notes Urban Land Institute's Atlanta District Council Executive Director Jeff DuFresne, attributing it partly to exasperation with long commutes, with others also pointing to the influx of young professionals and empty nesters. -- Wall Street Journal   1/10/2007

Resource(s): www.wsj.com

Editorial: Land-Use Regulations That Shaped Atlanta Region's Sprawl Now Hamper Efforts to Build Popular Transit-Oriented Housing

As if the enormous success of Atlantic Station in uptown Atlanta had not shown public demand for dense transit-oriented housing, developers who bank on the trend and plan residential towers elsewhere in the city and its metro area still face a wall of restrictive zoning, writes Atlanta Journal-Constitution deputy editorial page editor Jay Bookman, making it clear that after decades of ''draconian land-use regulations'' for sprawl and taxpayer subsidies for highways, both density and transit more than deserve government help.

''We don't have density in metro Atlanta in part because we have rules that discourage or even outlaw it,'' he points out. ''Left to their own devices, free market forces would have created a metro region far more compact than we see today.'' Why? Because of money. Any developer with a 100-acre parcel zoned for 20 homes on sprawling five-acre lots would certainly prefer to use it for 400 homes on dense quarter-acre lots because of higher profit.

''I've covered my share of zoning meetings, and never once have I seen a developer begging for the right to build fewer units on his property,'' the editor writes. ''Market forces want density.''

Calling the area landscape ''a political creation, not the natural order of things,'' he emphasizes that if greater density ''can reduce the number of miles we drive each day and make transit a more realistic option, it's perfectly legitimate to use government to allow that to happen,'' without precluding suburban development and imposing on the related lifestyle.

Still, he notes, all current trends will be eroding suburban dominance. The number of traditional families is declining and they have fewer children, the population is growing and aging, fuel prices are rising, and ''urban lifestyles are becoming increasingly popular.'' With ever worse traffic congestion comes ''a hunger for alternatives,'' and transit, including commuter rail, bus rapid transit and light rail, the editor predicts, ''will play a far more significant role than in the past.''

Bookman thinks it's ironic that Republican Governor Sonny Perdue would support transit only if it needed no subsidies, when he subsidized South Korean automaker Kia with $400 million to locate a plant in Columbus, Muscogee County, and when the transit-shy Georgians for Better Transportation lobby group seeks a one-penny state sales tax for roads, which would be an ''enormous'' subsidy. Somehow, ''subsidizing transit is considered, well ... un-Georgian'' in Georgia, the editor observes, stressing, ''It's a mind-set that has to change.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/4/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta Officials See Bright Future for Lindbergh Transit Development; Project Goals Include Retaining Neighborhood's Socio-Economic, Racial Diversity

Once ''the heart of Atlanta's Latino neighborhood,'' the Lindbergh MARTA station area, some five miles north of the city center, ''has become the poster child of transit-oriented development,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Maria Saporta, crediting much of the success to three 1970-era transit champions, former Mayors Sam Massell and Andrew Young, and civil rights leader Reverend Joseph Lowery, with their early ''public-private initiative'' now led by private developers, including the Dawson Company and the Lane Company.

The three spoke about MARTA beginnings, transit-oriented development and urban growth potential at groundbreaking for the joint Dawson/Lane ''eon at Lindbergh'' project, with 362 apartments, a hotel and street-level retail -- the latest among several under construction or planned in the area. ''It took awhile to get this going,'' said former Mayor Massell, instrumental in the creation of MARTA in 1971. ''Now this becomes the most wonderful place to live, work and play.''

Former Mayor Young -- earlier a Congressman, who succeeded in augmenting a federal mass transit act with a one-liner to encourage construction around rail stations -- stressed, ''We've been using that as a development tool ever since.''

Reverend Lowery, an early MARTA board chairman, recalled its ''stiff debates and heart-wrenching discussion'' about transit-oriented development, telling the crowd, ''This morning, I feel so good, I can't even remember the bad parts.''

With the Dawson/Lane joint venture planning another 25-acre development nearby, likely to include 1,100 to 1,400 townhomes, condos and apartments, Dawson CEO Harold Dawson pointed out that the area ''is just taking off,'' predicting it may eventually draw more than $1 billion in private investment and 7,000 new residents.

Having taken his company to ''a new level by developing higher-density, multifamily, environmentally friendly projects,'' the columnist observes, the developer committed the joint venture to keeping the neighborhood's racial, ethnic and socio-economic diversity, through a ''cohesive and comprehensive relocation plan,'' which will bring back many of its former residents.

What's more, the eon project will incorporate EarthCraft Multifamily standards, said Southface Energy Institute Executive Director Dennis Creech, which will make each residential unit ''save as much in greenhouse gases as one car for a year.''

Lane CEO Bill Donges added that the Lindbergh station area attracts three demographic groups -- commuters worn out by traffic congestion, younger people ''who want to be where the action is,'' and empty-nesters.

''It's an unbelievable time for the multifamily industry in urban areas with transit,'' he said. ''The Lindbergh site is a triple winner. I just wish there were more sites like this one.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/13/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

With Growth Wave Expected During Next 20 Years, Cherokee County Has Great Opportunity to Set New Standard for Suburban Living

Its population and employment expected to grow by 151 and 240 percent, reaching nearly 356,000 residents and 122,000 jobs in 2030, and with four big projects already planned on 13,000 acres of mostly forest and farms some 40 miles northwest of Atlanta, Cherokee County has a great opportunity to do it right and ''set a new standard for suburban living,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christopher Quinn, quoting Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) top land-use planner Dan Reuter who cautions that otherwise it could be ''just more sprawl, on a massive scale.''

The four projects, the writer observes, could bring in a total of 20,000 homes, 15,000 students, 40,000 cars, and related demand for roads, schools, parks and other county services, with two of the tracts recently zoned and construction likely to start in 2007 and 2008.

Developer Paul Corley, one of the first to introduce ''green space'' subdivisions, will build 2,341-acre Canton West north of Sutallee, envisioning 5,000 housing units, a 500,000-square-foot retail and business center, schools, parks and walking trials, everything within walking, biking or short driving distance. ''The larger the scale, the more we can contribute to schools, roads and sewers,'' he says, ready to donate a 30-acre school site, a give-away that a developer of a 200-acre tract couldn't afford.

South of Sutallee, developer Stephen Macauley will leave 1,300 of his 5,000 acres as green space, proposing to use the rest for 12,000 housing units and two town centers, and to donate sites for county schools and a fire station. He hopes the county will seize the opportunity to move away from the usual one-acre or two-acre lot development pattern ''that is not working very well'' and create better surroundings ''for the next generation and the one after that.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   10/12/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta Region Predicted to Add 2 Million Residents by 2030; Demographic and Economic Shifts Could Transform Outer Metro Counties

The 20-county Atlanta region faces unprecedented demographic and economic shifts by 2030, its population surging from 4.7 to 6.9 million and jobs from 2.9 to nearly 4.9 million, projects the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), with almost half of this growth transforming outer Metro counties like Walton and quiet municipalities like its Social Circle, some 40 miles southeast, where historic preservation official Carole Taylor says growth doesn't have to be ''intrusive'' and her town has a lot of interest in smart growth.

In general, the ARC expects the region's population to become older and its employment base more service-oriented, Atlanta to gain 181,000 residents and top the 600,000 mark, Gwinnett and Fulton counties' strong growth to continue, and each of the ''external'' 10 counties at least to double its jobs, with Paulding and Walton increasing them by 411 and 390 percent.

Walton, with some 60,000 residents, will get about 52,000 more, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Ariel Hart, quoting its Board of Commissioners Chairman Kevin Little, who says of the projected population and employment surge, ''I would never have guessed that it was going to be that dramatic.''

As development continues in downtown Atlanta and core counties of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnet, and as it reaches farther onto metro fringes, ARC officials note, the old north-south imbalance begins to fade. The northern counties are still going to grow more, because of early highway expansion, the proposed Atlanta Beltline transit loop and various land-use factors, including mixed-use zoning. Nevertheless, ARC planning chief Tom Weyandt says, ''What is interesting is not just the growth in the north but the fact that it's much more equalized in the south than it ever has been before.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   10/12/2006

Resource(s): www.arc.georgia.gov ; www.ajc.om

Gridlock Solutions Needed Before Atlanta Approves More High-Density Projects, Says Columnist

“The development community, astute folks who know how to survive and prosper in a world of crazed no-growth activists and cost-shifting regulators,” writes Atlanta Journal-Constitution associate editorial page editor Jim Wooten, “often do it by cloaking their projects in the language of their critics: smart growth, live-work-play communities and sustainable development, among others.”

The result is too much high density, as in the work along I-285 on the Atlanta Northside, where the highway can’t carry current traffic, and where new condo towers, with a total of 1,200 units, will lead to “transportation disaster,” he predicts in his regular Thinking Right column, which elicited 50 pages of blog comments within a day, some barely related or explicitly ideological.

Since Atlanta lacks a single downtown or a job center with a morning worker influx and an evening outflow, he continues, its “best hope for relief is to fix traffic bottlenecks, to continue building a limited-purpose rush-hour public bus system and to reconsider high-density development that exceeds highway carrying capacity.”

He notes the American Public Transportation Association’s report that gas price increases are spurring transit use -- up 4.25 percent in the first quarter -- but argues that metro Atlanta needs toll roads, gas-tax money for local improvements and private sector action to expand road capacity, including possible double-decking of the Downtown Connector. It also needs buses, trains and other alternatives, “but to the extent they can be justified by honest cost-benefit comparisons.”

Citing reporter Ariel Hart’s review of public-private transportation improvement projects in other states, the editor cautions against two of them as potential models. One is the 99-year Chicago Skyway lease for $1.8 billion in cash to Spanish and Australian companies, “a perfect example of the kind of public-private relationship that should prompt voters to throw politicians out of office by the bus loads” for their “sleazy way of hiding public debt while enriching the bond lawyers.”

The other is California Route 91, where the private sector added the country’s first congestion-priced lanes in 1995, but the contract bars the state from building more lanes or streets nearby to ease congestion, a type of deal Georgia must avoid to let future lawmakers and governors do what’s necessary to keep gridlock from hurting the economy.

“The private sector is a friend, a key element in eliminating gridlock,” the editor writes. “The proper time to police both the politicians attempting to build legacies on the cheap and businessmen determined to cut the best deal possible for themselves is up front.” And high-density development “should be held in check” until the roads and highways can really handle the added traffic,” he concludes. “Buzzwords and feel-good marketing phrases don’t cure what ails us in metro Atlanta -- and that’s traffic gridlock.” -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/21/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/index.html

Atlanta's Population Grows as More People Choose City Living Over Suburbs

The Atlanta population boom is turning inward, with the ten-county metro region gaining 111,700 residents in the 12 months before this past April, including 9,500 who have chosen the city, a record number since 1970, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christopher Queen, the influx driven by ''young couples who don't want a suburban lifestyle and empty nesters looking to dump yardwork and gain access to arts and entertainment.''

Having lost nearly 1,000 people annually during the 1980s and gained about 100 a year during the 1990s, the city has truly rebounded over the past four years and, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), its latest growth outstripped that of four suburban counties -- Douglas, Clayton, Rockdale and Fayette, with 7,400, 6,700, 2,800 and 2,200 new residents, respectively.

Prudential Georgia Realty managing broker Mike Wright says many prospective buyers are telling him ''Don't show me anything in the suburbs. I don't want to fight traffic.'' Among those, the writer notes, are Morgan and Deirdre McClure, who are looking for their first home. ''We checked home prices to see what the tradeoffs are, and we are pretty much set to live in the city,'' said Morgan. ''The tradeoff is a shorter commute. You just have a smaller house than you would have in the suburbs.''

Others prefer high-rises. Peachtree Street's Reynolds condo tower resident Daryl Buffenstein said he can ''walk out the front door and be at any restaurant in 10 minutes'' or at a MARTA station, in the Lenox shopping district or in the Fox Theatre. The city, he added, ''did not offer urban living as such to the degree as it does now, until recently.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/11/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Plans for Mixed-Use Development North of Atlanta Could Test Cherokee County's Long-Range Plan

Although Cherokee County, more than 20 miles north of Atlanta, already faces typical growth problems of traffic, crowded schools, strained water and sewer systems, and public concerns over density, its greatest new challenge may stem from developer Stephen Macauley's plan for a mixed-use community of 12,000 homes on 4,000 acres in a forest north of Lake Allatoona, which could bring at least 25,000 people in 20 years to the countryside five miles southwest of the county seat of Canton, population some 15,000.

In an area where some families still have ''kitchen gardens and tin-roofed barns,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christopher Queen, the developer ''envisions a self-contained community of town centers with dense neighborhoods spreading out to homes on estate lots, commercial crossroads, parks, a college sub-campus, an amphitheater and 1,300 acres of green space.''

Looking ''like a village in a forest,'' he promises, his project will show how to do it right, with everything within a short drive or walk, roads spanning streams with environmentally friendly bridges, and homes from the high $100,000 range to more than $1 million.

Ready for extensive public input, he also expects to meet county school officials, with school spokesman Mike McGowan saying, ''Obviously, any development of that large a magnitude will require us to acquire school sites, and hopefully Macaulay's group will want to talk to us about the donation of school sites.''

The developer, the writer observes, would like to break ground early next year, a difficult goal considering the need for approvals from the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Cherokee County Planning and Zoning Commission and finally the County Commission. Its incoming Chairman Buzz Ahrens campaigned on a slow-growth platform and Commissioners Harry Johnston and Jim Hubbard share his concerns about the project's density.

Noting that the long-range county plan keeps the two-acre lot minimum for the area, which would reduce the number of homes from 12,000 to 2,000, Commissioner Johnston says, ''And that is what I would want to hold it to.''

Still, some local residents seem fatalistic. After 10 years on five acres nearby, Wayne Harrison put the house up for sale, ready to move farther north. ''You can whine and cry about it all you want, but if it's going to happen, it's going to happen,'' he reflects. ''Development just keeps going.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/10/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta Developers Hope to Duplicate Success of Atlantic Station on City's Northeastern Edge

Impressed by the successful redevelopment of a former steel mill site in Midtown Atlanta into the mixed-use high-density Atlantic Station, widely seen as a model of smart growth, developers have launched similar multi-million dollar projects on the city's northeastern perimeter, with county governments facilitating the urbanization of the aged suburbs through zoning changes, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christopher Quinn, and traffic-weary buyers snatching the opportunity to live in high-rises near jobs, shops and entertainment.

''People are beginning to understand that you are going to grow out or you are going to grow up,'' observes Livable Communities Coalition executive director Jim Durrett. ''And now we are beginning to understand the consequences of ever growing out in terms of traffic congestion, time spent away from our families and productivity on our jobs.''

Partners in a 60-acre West Village development of 1,200 homes, townhouses and high-rise condos and 63,000 square feet of retail in southeast Cobb County, Highlands Companies principal Chris Cassidy says about the project, ''We believe this is the future,'' and Branch Properties president Nicholas Telasca points out that people are again appreciative of a ''Main Street'' feel and the ability to walk everywhere.

However, some nearby residents, the writer notes, raise familiar issues. ''We are concerned about traffic and how fast (the developments) seem to be appearing,'' explains West Vinings Civic Association representative Suzanne Ballew. ''The only thing we can hope for is a slowdown in the housing market, and that will give our infrastructure a chance to catch up.''

On the other hand, developers count on a long-term high-rise boom in the suburbs, fueled by population growth, higher land prices in the city and along the I-285 belt, and changed consumer preferences. For example, Gerry and Carolyn Chatham will leave their five-bedroom home in January for a condo in the 19-story Horizon tower under construction nearby, one of at least eight being built or proposed north and east of I-285, because they want to stay in the area and be free from the usual maintenance chores and concerns. ''We are at a time of life now that we are looking to travel,'' says Gerry Chatham, 67. ''And we thought we could turn a lock and leave and not have to worry about anything.''

That's one key component of the smart-growth advance. ''We are beginning to get over our fear of higher density and mixed uses,'' stresses Livable Communities Coalition director Durrett, ''and beginning to see good examples of how it can be done right, where before, we didn't see how that could work here.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   7/25/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlantic Station Continues to Take Shape and Exceed Expectations as Construction Passes Halfway Point

A city rising within a city, the 138-acre mixed-use Atlantic Station on a once-polluted steel mill site in Midtown Atlanta is exceeding many expectations, reports New York Times real estate writer Lisa Chamberlain, quoting Georgia Institute of Technology Associate Dean of Architecture Douglas C. Allen, who says, ''There's a serious attempt to create some form of urbanity out of a relic of another world.''

Conceived by Atlanta-based Jacoby Development Inc. President James F. Jacoby in 1996 and just half completed, Atlantic Station now appears somewhat ''overprogrammed'' to Professor Allen, but he is confident ''it will get better over time, especially as it's fully built out.'' It will then offer 5,000 residential units, from luxury condos to less-costly town houses and apartments; 6 million square feet of Class A offices; 2 million square feet of retail and entertainment space; 1,000 hotel rooms; and 11 acres of public parks.

Its three distinctive areas taking shape are the District, or the town center with a mix of offices, retail and lofts; the Commons, mostly with residential towers; and the Village, with low-rise housing and an Ikea store.

Much of the District's commercial development sits atop a 15,000-slot parking structure that is part of the environmental remediation cap, the writer finds, noting that U.S. EPA certified the former brownfield as safe for construction in December 2001.

The project's biggest investor is the American International Group (AIG), whose Global Real Estate Corporation President Kevin P. Fitzpatrick credits James F. Jacoby for envisioning and working out the site's redevelopment potential, saying, ''Many developers passed it up until Jim got it to the point where we could see some economic value.'' And now both companies partner for similar development elsewhere, including a large waterfront project in Cincinnati, Ohio.

''There are other opportunities to export what we've learned to places with the same characteristics that Atlanta has: a growing economy, a high percentage of educated population, opportunity for public-private partnerships,'' stresses Atlantic Station design and development vice president Brian Leary. ''It's not about replicating one building; it's about building a whole community.'' -- New York Times   5/24/2006

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/

Atlanta Developer Finds That Preserving Trees Saves Money While Helping Create Seasoned, Small-Town Feel

Although many metro Atlanta developers still think preserving trees isn't worth the effort and strip the ground bare before construction, those like Hedgewood Properties principal Pam Sessions know that ''saving trees means money,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Maria Saporta from the company's mixed-use Vickery community under way in south Forsyth County, some 25 miles northeast of central Atlanta, crediting smart growth for its seasoned small town feel, enhanced by ''huge swaths of mature forests'' kept for several parks throughout the 214-acre development.

''All the trees make such a big difference,'' said Pam Sessions, savoring the view with her guest. She noted that transplanting 44 oak, birch, cherry, magnolia, hemlock and maple trees that couldn't fit into the site layout cost the company just $20,000, while replacing them would cost it at least $139,000.

''Building great neighborhoods is profitable,'' she added. ''When more developers realize that, we all will be better off.''

But sometimes trees must go, the writer observes, mentioning two such cases. The Buckhead Community Improvement District found transplanting a few dozen mature trees impractical while widening sidewalks, landscaping a median, and adding bike paths along a 1.5-mile Peachtree Road stretch and decided to replace them with 186 young willow oaks. Also, Novare Group president Jim Borders and Pope & Land officials readying redevelopment of a shaded Midtown parking lot into a 59-story office, hotel and residential tower with street-level retail have no room for the lot's beautiful trees, but are willing to help transplant them at any other property.

''A great spot for those trees,'' the writer observes, ''would be the Atlantic Station development, which is an amazing urban success except for its lack of mature trees and its limited green space.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   5/1/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Will Georgia Property Protection Act Hamper Legitimate Redevelopment Opportunities?

Like many other states that overreacted to the widely publicized 2005 Kelo case -- in which the U.S. Supreme Court let New London, Conn., take private property for private development to boost the city's waterfront and tax revenue -- Georgia also may surrender crucial revitalization opportunities to excessive restrictions on eminent domain, wrote Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board member Mike King a week before both state chambers unanimously passed the Republican-crafted Landowner's Bill of Rights and Private Property Protection Act (HB 1313), cautioning lawmakers against hampering legitimate redevelopment ''just at the time private developers are realizing the wisdom of building homes, townhouses and apartments near commercial, retail and government centers.''

The act reduces the power of eminent domain for ''blighted property'' takeover and for economic development purposes, covering definitions, private owner rights and the condemnation legal process. An accompanying constitutional amendment proposal (HR 1306) will go to the public this November.

The Journal-Constitution writer agreed that a local condemnation vote should belong to elected officials instead of agency appointees, but not that a site cannot be condemned until it poses an imminent threat to public health or the environment and has at least one more problem. Atlanta Regional Commission and Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens warned that such requirements could cause years of legal delays and amount to ''a lawyer's relief act.''

The law, the writer observed, ''should prevent public development agencies from razing viable neighborhoods or commercial strips simply to make it cheaper for a private developer to move in; but it need not raise the bar for invoking eminent domain as high as the proposed legislation would do.''

Such rules, he stressed, would have precluded the remarkable transformation of Smyrna, some 10 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta, whose now-booming stretch of Atlanta Road ''would still be pockmarked with crumbling apartment complexes, half-vacant strip malls and blighted houses.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Blade Plus   3/30/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/ ; www.thebladeplus.com/

State DOT Outlines Plan to Widen Parts of Atlanta's I-75 to 23 Lanes

Even though I-75 northwest of Atlanta's circular I-285 perimeter already is the nation's widest highway, with 15 lanes in some areas, its traffic volume of 347,000 vehicles a day are seldom seen anywhere else and may rise to 401,000 by 2030, creating a gridlock calamity the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Georgia Transportation Partners road builder consortium would like to mitigate by adding four restricted toll lanes on each side of a 15-mile stretch of I-75, while also widening its northern I-575 spur along the first 10 miles, with startled Marietta resident Melissa Hart calling it simply ''overkill.''

Gobbling 182 rural acres and transforming I-75 into a 23-lane behemoth, wider than an aircraft carrier or a football field length, observes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Ariel Hart, four of the new eight lanes would be reserved for trucks, and the other four would be free for HOVs and rapid transit buses, with single drivers paying variable tolls, highest during rush hours.

The negotiation about investment of industry money in the I-75/I-575 expansion projects was made possible under Georgia's new ''public-private initiative'' law and drew media attention statewide, the writer notes, but ''the project's sheer size,'' its potential impact and related questions are only beginning to stir public opinion.

One overlooked question arises from a statement by Georgia Motor Trucking Association president Ed Crowell, who supports truck-only lanes, but stresses that unless truckers are able to use the main lanes too, they go to court.

''We would not sit idly by,'' he warns. ''We'd find a way to tie it up forever.''

Another question is ''what happens to all that bigger, beautifully sorted traffic once it hits I-285 and bottlenecks in the same old skinnier roads,'' the writer points out, finding that both project director Darryl VanMeter and Atlanta Regional Commission planning director Tom Weyandt see the problem, but don't have answers yet. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   3/10/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Threat of More McMansions Leads Atlanta Mayor to Call for ''Best in Class'' Zoning Code Update

With the Atlanta City Council unwilling to extend her January moratorium on McMansions in some hot-market neighborhoods increasingly plagued by small-home teardowns, Mayor Shirley Franklin called for a thorough update of the city's 1982 zoning codes, which would also ensure sound development in depressed communities near the planned greenbelt along Atlanta's old railroad tracks.

''My administration looks forward to working with you through the Department of Planning and Community Development to create a 'best in class' policy and regulatory framework for land use and development for our city,'' the mayor wrote to the City Council, expecting the work to begin within 90 days.

The first reaction is positive, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer David Pendered, quoting Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who said, ''We have a unique opportunity right now to get some good things on the table.''

A longtime infill advocate, the writer notes, the councilwoman thinks the mayoral call will help her form a committee of real estate experts to write an infill ordinance as part of the comprehensive zoning overhaul.

Adopted after Atlanta lost 70,000 people between 1970 and 1980, the 15 percent drop leaving the city with only 425,000 residents, its Reagan-era zoning code ''encouraged most kinds of development,'' the writer observes, but the steady return of residents in recent years required the City Council to ''tweak'' zoning almost each time it met.

Confident that the influx will continue, industry leaders welcome the mayor's call for reform.

''We need to increase density, and we need to talk about where we can increase density,'' said Great Atlanta Home Builders Association vice president Chris Burke. ''This discussion will involve residents, the home-building industries and the people who build vertical, the high-rise condos.''

Ditto, Atlanta Board of Realtors director Patrick Dennis. ''I think it's all good, and it's tempting to say more because there's a lot of potential side effects of opening the zoning code from top to bottom,'' he pointed out. ''The mayor says she wants 'best in class' policy, and who could argue against that?'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   2/15/2006

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Chamblee Focuses on Transit to Create Pedestrian Centers for Downtown District

Fed up with ever-worse gridlock, Chamblee -- about 10,000 people, 10 miles northeast of central Atlanta -- used a Livable Centers Initiative grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission a few years ago to begin shedding its decades-long industrial image, redesign downtown as a fully mixed-use pedestrian-friendly district around the MARTA station, and free residents from the constant need to drive, all of which will be shortly followed by adoption of new zoning codes, says City Councilman and Mayor-elect Eric Clarkson, ''to encourage more of this smart growth.''

Both he and City Manager Kathy Brannon cite the new Lofts at 5300 project downtown and a similar one under construction across the street as examples of true smart growth, with ground-floor retail, condos above, and an adjacent rail station, telling Atlanta Journal-Constitution correspondent H.M. Cauley that the public response has been tremendous.

''People are tired of commuting and, once their children leave home, they realize there's no need to live way outside the Perimeter,'' observes Manager Brannon. ''And young people are probably a lot smarter than we all were: They know life is too short to spend it sitting in your car.''

Under the new zoning ordinance, expected to go for public hearings over the next weeks and be adopted in February, says Mayor-elect Clarkson, ''(w)e will be bringing buildings closer to the street and hiding parking, instead of having stereotypical strip centers with asphalt out front,'' while ''adding architectural guidelines and controls, and encouraging and requiring more open space and larger sidewalks to create a walkable community,'' with higher-density projects kept closer to the MARTA station.

The city is also completing its comprehensive land use plan, and officials hope to implement similar guidelines for the Peachtree Industrial corridor, which will include pedestrian and bicycle paths along former rail spurs. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/29/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Trails, Transit and Greenspace: Atlanta's Mixed-Use Beltline Plan Wins Local Approvals

Firmly on the smart-growth forefront with redevelopment of a former steel mill into the trend-setting Atlantic Station, Atlanta is now taking another step toward 21st century city livability, winning its school district and Fulton County approvals for joint investment of almost $2 billion to turn an old railroad corridor into a recreational Beltline -- an ''emerald necklace'' of nearly 1,300 acres of green space, 700 acres of improved parks, 26 miles of trails and a 22-mile transit loop -- expected to spur $20 billion in mixed-use corridor development by 2030, including affordable housing.

Funded by city bonds, to be paid off with future property taxes from the corridor's newly created 6,545-acre tax allocation district, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer David Pendered, the Beltline project may start next fall, with the first $112 million bond issue for parkland purchases, and may eventually bring 30,000 new jobs and 50,000 residents to the corridor.

The city will help developers with $240 million in subsidies for affordable housing -- up to 840 units reserved for school district teachers and other employees -- while earmarking $27 million for Fulton County to build and renovate libraries.

''This will truly transform the capital city and Fulton County,'' said County Commission Chairwoman Karen Handel, who spearheaded the project approval together with Commissioners Nancy Boxill and Lynne Riley.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin applauded the decision in a statement, saying ''The Beltline is an ambitious, long-term project that will unite communities and reconnect neighborhoods currently separated by rail lines.''

City promotional literature shows ''pedestrians on broad sidewalks beneath trees planted next to buildings with shops on the street level and residences on upper floors,'' the writer notes, quoting upbeat Atlanta Development Authority President Giornelli, who said now ''the real work starts.''

With Gwinnett County developer Wayne Mason offering a somewhat controversial proposal for a five-mile corridor segment in northeast Atlanta so far, the city has six months to work out its detailed land acquisition and project priority plan, to start selling Beltline bonds next fall. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/22/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Editorial: Free Market Would Never Pick Sprawl

Among countless demographic characteristics, personal inclinations and self-image particulars employed in the notorious ''us'' against ''them'' public tension game, one recent major identifier involves sprawl and smart growth, observes Atlanta Journal-Constitution deputy editorial page editor Jay Bookman, discounting his colleague Jim Wooten's claim that sprawl ''is actually just the free market at work'' as no more than ''romantic mythology,'' and noting the market, ''left to its own devices, produces dense development,'' since developers ''want to put as many units as possible on their property, because that's how they make the most profit.''

Finding it unfortunate that ''some suburban dwellers hear criticism of sprawl as some sort of a value-laden condemnation of suburban life,'' while the critics simply seek more options, the editor writes: ''Sprawl is possible only through intense government regulation. It is an artificial growth pattern achieved by laws that frustrate the free market's tendency toward density. The free market, left to its own devices, would never produce five-acre minimum lot sizes, or 2,500-square-foot minimum house sizes, or bans and moratoriums on apartments. The free market, left to its own devices, would produce growth patterns more like 'smart growth' policies.''

Noting that ''smart-growth alternatives impose fewer restrictions on developers than does sprawl-inducing zoning, and infringe less dramatically on developers' property rights,'' the editor thinks they ''ought to be a conservative's dream.'' He also advises sprawl apologists against imputing elitism to the other side, since ''one of the hallmarks of sprawl is economic segregation,'' where $500,000-home owners oppose construction of $250,000 homes nearby, and owners of such homes fight townhouses and apartments.

''Sprawl is not a rejection of elitism; it is the expression of elitism,'' the editor writes. ''It is people using the power of government to protect ''us'' against the incursion of 'them'.''

Still, most smart-growth advocates ''ask only that zoning laws be relaxed enough to allow smart-growth developments to compete for customers, so that people can be given a real choice,'' the editor stresses, concluding, ''Given the success of smart-growth projects around metro Atlanta, when people are given that choice, they jump at it.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/5/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Coweta County Municipalities Ready to Work With County on Smart Growth

Mindful of sprawl's impact on metro Atlanta, officials in Coweta County -- 20 miles farther southwest, with a population of 102,000 projected to double within 20 years, and a comprehensive plan due at the state next October -- have been gathering public input on its four possible land-use scenarios since January, finding most residents in the mood to control growth, protect farmland and cluster development around village centers, and seeing its seven municipalities ready ''to work with the county on a smart growth concept'' because, said Newnan City Councilman George Alexander, we ''are in this together.''

Member of the county-city intergovernmental plan review committee, Councilman Alexander pointed out that a lot of people ''did not like how things grew in Gwinnett County,'' just northeast of Atlanta, adding, ''We're trying to learn from example and get a handle on growth before it explodes.''

County planner Sandra Parker observed that residents like the village center and rural preservation scenarios since they ''want to see green space and pasture land'' and feel able to escape the metro's congestion woes.

Prepared by consulting firm Jordan Jones & Golding, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Donna Soper, the four scenarios are based on the following assumptions: Current Trend -- 25 percent of growth in incorporated areas, 1.6-acre minimum lots, limited sewer links; Village Centers -- 35 percent of growth in incorporated areas, incentives for small community development, greater density in service areas, purchase of development rights and transfer of development rights programs; Rural Preservation -- 50 percent of growth in incorporated areas, 10-acre rural lots, most growth within an urban service boundary, limited service expansion; and Economic Development -- 25 percent of growth in incorporated areas, a workforce recruitment campaign, incentives for mixed uses, greater sewer and transportation investment along I-85, and the number of workers increased from 70,000 under each of the three previous scenarios to 99,000.

In line with public preferences, consultants are combining elements of the village center and rural preservation scenarios for presentation to the Board of Commissioners on November 15. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/3/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

EPA Administrator Johnson Calls Atlantic Station ''Model for Rest of the Nation''

Made possible by strong public-private partnership involving the U.S. EPA and several Georgia, Atlanta and local agencies, the $2 billion transformation of the 138-acre former steel-mill site in Midtown Atlanta into one of the region's hottest, pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented ''live-work-play'' addresses has became a prime example of Smart Growth and brownfield redevelopment strategies, with EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson saying at its grand opening preview on October 18, ''The Atlantic Station collaboration is a model for the rest of the nation in providing cleaner air, purer water, better protected land, and a sustainable, competitive economy.''

At the project's outset in 1998, ''the stars were really aligned,'' said its chief developer Jim Jacoby, who brought in American International Group (AIG) Global Real Estate Investment Corp. as the top investor, stressing that without the subsequent ''teamwork among the public, private and investments sides ... Atlantic Station wouldn't have happened.''

One key to breaking ground in 2000, notes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Stacy Shelton, was federal help in site cleanup and in testing adjacent properties for lead in the soil. The site ''was a lot cleaner'' than expected and underground water monitoring shows no residual problems, observed company senior vice president Scott Condra, with EPA spokesman Carl Terry adding that only about 20 adjacent lots still need clean soil cover.

Another key to the project's success, reports writer David Penderd, was approval of its special tax district by the Atlanta City Council, Fulton County Commission and Atlanta school board. Pointing out that besides cleaning up the site, the developers ''met our affordable housing goals'' and continue to build less costly units, Fulton County Commissioner Emma Darnell said, ''What we gave up in property taxes is more than compensated by what this project has done for all of Fulton County.''

The market has affirmed both private and public investment in Atlantic Station. The writer notes that housing units are sold before construction starts, that Jim Jacoby thinks rising values may drive up Atlantic Station's worth to $4 billion upon completion, and that the site, which paid about $300,000 annually as a steel mill, will pay some $8 million this year and $25 million in 2010, all this before adding new sales taxes from the retail and entertainment district, opening on October 20. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, U.S. EPA   10/18/2005

Resource(s): www.epa.gov/region4/oeapages/05press/101805b.htm ; www.ajc.com/

Atlantic Station's Shopping District Readies for October 20 Opening

Its opening scheduled for October 20, the developers of the open-air shopping district at Atlantic Station -- the 138-acre mixed-use neighborhood at a former steel mill site in Midtown Atlanta hailed as a model for smart growth -- are adding final touches along pedestrian-friendly streets and around two-story brick buildings with big display windows and signs heralding the imminent ''arrival of Victoria's Secret, Dillard, Ann Taylor and Old Navy,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christine Van Dusen, finding station executives ''supremely confident their retail district will do well.''

Station retail marketing director Scott Highley pointed out that the bulk of the district's million-plus square feet of retail space is leased and that most of the remaining sections are smaller and on second floors.

Noting that Atlantic Station's homes, condos and apartments have already attracted more than 1,000 residents and that its landmark 17th Street office tower is full, the writer quotes retail industry expert Phil Rist, vice-president of the Ohio-based BigResearch business development and market research firm, who said, ''You need to get the people living and working there first, then offer them the shopping.''

Atlanta consultant Bill Clarke, former Ernst & Young's national retail executive, is equally upbeat about the district's potential. ''It will become Atlanta's downtown mall,'' he said. ''Retailing all but disappeared in center city Atlanta. Atlantic Station is going to be the rebirth of 'main street' downtown -- just relocated.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   10/2/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Clayton County Leaders Advised to Preserve Area's Natural Assets and Quality of Life, Keep Communities Affordable

Invited to share his expertise with Clayton County officials and business leaders at their first of three land-use and economic summits, Washington-based Smart Growth Leadership Institute President, former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening advised them to save farms, lakes, streams and other natural assets, focus on redevelopment and promote higher urban densities, but also beware of situations in which ''many people are priced right out of their community.''

Stressing that high density development must offer amenities, report Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Peter Scott and Clayton County News-Daily writer Justin Boron, the guest cited research showing that businesses seek locations with sufficient work force and the best quality of life. He also urged local officials to adopt ''form based'' zoning, which focuses more on a structure's design and look than on ''the type of business inside.''

Appearing later at a news conference with County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta, Clayton Chambers of Commerce President Shane Short and Development Authority Chairman Lou Hisel, the former Maryland governor said, ''Growth is coming anyway, just do it right. Preserve the best of what you have and build on that.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Clayton County News-Daily   8/29/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/ ; www.news-daily.com/

Developers Flock to Atlanta in Search of Atlantic Station's Recipe for Success

Ever-stronger demand for lofts, condos, townhouses and retail space at Atlantic Station, under construction in Midtown Atlanta, has earned this EPA-spurred smart-growth complex on a former steel mill site its own ZIP code (30363), a turn of events quite natural for Lane development company CEO Bill Donges, who says, ''Most big cities do not have 138 acres sitting dead smack in the middle, where they can add development,'' noting, ''A lot of developers are coming here to study just what's happening.''

And they learn, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer H.M.Cauley, that Atlantic Station's success is driven by its central location and mixed-use concept. ''So many people want to be in the city again, where they can walk down the sidewalk, shop, go to a restaurant and walk home,'' the developer points out. ''We've seen that trend around the country -- people wanting to live where they don't have to drive and can be in a community that connects them with others.''

The earliest buyers, who paid in the high $100,000s for condos in Atlantic Station's first residential section of 325 units last year, would have to pay around $250,000 for its average 1,000-square-foot unit today, the writer observes. He adds that 320 units in another section sold out within three weeks last October, and that the next phase's waiting list for 300 ATLofts includes about 5,000 names. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   6/23/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Catoosa County Weighs Development Options as Chattanooga's Expansion Heads Southeast

Its roads already heavily tested by residential expansion from Chattanooga, Tennessee, just to the northwest, Catoosa County needs some changes, new ordinances and an urban planner, said County Chairman Bill Clark at a session of the Board of Commissioners and the Planning and Zoning Commission, which jointly discussed best ways to ensure smart growth.

The chairman, reports Ringgold Catoosa County News writer Randall Franks, would like to start with a moratorium and later foster higher-quality housing that could support itself by taxes, since he doesn't see how the current ''tax structure can support the growth.'' But Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Raymond Clark, cautioned against halting development on the way toward smart growth, with commission member, developer Jerry Hawthorne, convinced that the best solution would be to encourage growth where infrastructure already exists.

Another advocate of denser development, County Commissioner Ron Gracy, urged his colleagues to begin with an urban planning study to help devise a strategy for smart growth. He was backed by Assistant County Manager Ron Brown, who noted that the county lacks sufficient information needed by an urban planner and that a study would provide such necessary data.

Calling for a balanced approach to planning, County Commissioner Jim Emberson said the best way would be to combine local leaders' knowledge of the area's special needs with advice from an outside expert. -- Catoosa County News   5/24/2005

Resource(s): http://news.mywebpal.com/index.cfm?pnpid=724

Urban Lifestyles Popularized in TV Shows Help Drive Condo Sales in Metro Atlanta

Low interest rates, demographic shifts and popular TV shows ''set in hip high-rises'' have pushed metro Atlanta condo sales ''through the roof'' since 2003, with a 30 percent surge to more than 16,000 units last year, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Walter Woods, noting that developers continue to snatch vacant urban lots and sell new condos before they are built.

''The TV shows in the '60s, '70s and '80s, from 'Family Ties' to 'Leave it to Beaver,' all promoted single-family homes in the suburbs,'' says Wachovia Corp. senior economist Mark Vitner, while '90s TV hits like ''Friends'' and ''Seinfeld'' began to popularize a ''lifestyle that's considered the norm by more and more Americans.''

Vice president of the 138-acre mixed-use Atlantic Station on a former steel mill site in Midtown Atlanta, Brian Leary, agrees the shows might have increased the young first-home buyers' penchant for living in high-rise condos and walking to corner coffee shops.

At the same time, they and other experts point out, low interest rates made condo investment affordable to young buyers; mortgage lenders looked for more profit by qualifying more people despite an added risk; the average first-marriage age went up two years over two decades, to 25 among brides and 27 among grooms, with natural delays for having children and seeking single-family homes; and aging baby boomers, whose home values skyrocketed over the years, prod offspring toward ownership, too, often writing their condo down-payment checks.

''You do see some parents continuing to provide some help past college,'' observes Novare Group president Jim Borders, ''and one of the things they'd like to see that money go toward is buying a home.''

Indeed, the writer finds, many young people see a condo purchase as basically an investment. ''I was tired of throwing money away at rent,'' says management consultant Alan Milburn, 26, who bought a high-rise condo last December, adding that with the stock market less secure ''it seems like real estate is the right choice.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   4/26/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta's Midtown Transformation Continues as Atlantic Station Grows Upward

The transformation of the once-polluted steel mill site in Midtown Atlanta into the mixed-use high-density Atlantic Station neighborhood is advancing quickly throughout its central District area with another batch of housing -- a key element of ''the live-work-play concept'' that won state and federal support for the project.

State and EPA officials expect the pedestrian-friendly neighborhood to help improve area air quality by freeing residents and visitors from car dependency, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer David Pendered, noting that the first residents moved into Atlantic Station in October 2003.

Currently, he adds, developers are raising condos atop six District buildings. The Novare Group is reserving upper floors of a hotel for condos, and the Lane Co. is expecting to have its 303 lofts ready for occupants in about a year. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   2/28/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

ARC Awards $800K to Help Nine Atlanta Town Centers and Corridors Develop Transit-Oriented Projects

In the 6th annual round of federal transportation planning grants under its Livable Centers Initiative (LCI), the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) awarded a total of $800,000 to six town centers and three corridors between such centers, all for local studies on how to spur development around transit stations, make the areas more pedestrian-friendly, and otherwise reduce car dependency.

Extending its 1999 five-year LCI program for the sixth year, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, the ARC effectively increased the planning grants amount to $136 million, making its total budget $360 million, with $224 million in implementation funds.

Communities that have completed their studies can apply for ARC implementation money to help them build sidewalks and crosswalks, and in some cases construct parking decks or realign roads. By last year, according to ARC planning director Tom Weyandt, 18 metro Atlanta communities had created special zoning districts to qualify for help with their transit-oriented development and similar improvement projects.

The ARC also expanded the LCI program from the metro's 10 central counties to another eight in its outer ring. One of those newly included, Newton County and its seat of Covington, the writer notes, jointly won a $100,000 grant -- which must be matched by $20,000 locally -- to plan improvements for Covington's historic downtown, a development-ready area four miles away and their Ga. 278 link.

Crediting Newton County's Center for Community Preservation and Planning director Kay Lee for bringing together local officials, developers and business leaders to select the improvement area, the writer quotes Covington director of building and zoning Lloyd Kerr, who pointed out that the four-lane highway is packed on both sides with big retailers and car dealerships. ''It's the quintessential sprawl development,'' he said. ''We want to try to make it a more pedestrian-friendly space, and we want to try to move traffic through the corridor a little more easily.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   2/14/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta's Sugar Hill Community Struggles With Growth Pressures

As metro Atlanta development pressures spread, one of the bedroom communities suddenly awakened and baffled by new challenges is Sugar Hill -- in the northwestern corner of Gwinnett County -- where Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Mark Davis finds a 14,000-strong mix of long-timers and newcomers, three of the five City Council members relatively inexperienced, land use becoming a touchy issue, and Mayor Gary Pirkle opposing Councilman Ron Johnson's calls for greater density and smart growth.

Having come from Auburn, Alabama in 1994, the writer reports, Mayor Pirkle adheres to standard Sugar Hill zoning rules, preferring to keep single-family homes on 10,000-square-foot minimum lots separate from multi-family units allowed on smaller lots. Three times since October 2003, he has vetoed plans to allow townhouses in areas adjacent to single-family homes, but each time he was unanimously overruled by the other four council members.

The change's leading proponent, Councilman Johnson, who moved in from Albany, New York in 2000, was elected in 2001 and will run for mayor this November, said, ''Up North, you have neighborhoods -- restaurants, pocket parks, corner stores. I come from a city of neighborhoods.''

Questioned about the abrupt resignation of Planning and Development Director Harmit Bedi last month and the suspension of City Manager Bob Hail for two days last week, officials are ''tight-lipped.'' Manager Hail said Director Bedi ''is looking for other opportunities,'' and rather than discuss his own two-day suspension, he focused on recent city accomplishments. He mentioned the five miles of streets paved last year, a mile-plus of new sidewalks, with more to come, and the almost complete land use plan, stressing, ''We are evolving.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   2/13/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Fulton County ''Lifestyle Center'' Would Bring Mixed-Use Design to the Suburbs

In another sign of urban mixed-use concept viability in the suburbs, shopping mall developer Thomas Enterprises plans its $250-million ''lifestyle center'' -- the 65-acre ''Forum at Alpharetta'' in affluent north Fulton County at the rim of metro Atlanta -- to include 759,000 square feet of retail space, some 527,000 square feet of mid-rise office and hotel space, about 560 condos and townhouses, decked parking and ample parkland.

Thomas Enterprises vice president Kevin Case points out that the Forum, at a major Georgia 400 interchange, will be a place where suburban families can enjoy not only higher-end shopping, but also meals, movies, concerts or simply a stroll.

Alpharetta community development director Diana Wheeler complements company officials. ''They've programmed spaces that are intended to be people-gathering spaces, social activity spaces, entertainment spaces, and they're using that to market the other components of the project,'' she says. ''As land gets more scarce, people have to develop a little bit more efficiently, and they really don't have the luxury of just spreading out.''

The area, just north of the conventional North Point Mall, observes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, is attracting other developers, too. Cousins Properties expects its 145-square-foot retail project to be considered by the city in March, and Barry Real Estate Companies envisage a million-square-foot office project next to the planned Forum. Because of its size, the writer adds, the Forum must pass a Development of Regional Impact review both by the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, before going to the Alpharetta Planning Commission and the City Council. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/31/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Village Proposal Could Help Protect Georgia's Unincorporated Areas from Runaway Growth

Georgia Senate Republican Majority Whip Mitch Seabaugh hopes his new post will help him advance his 2004 bill (SB 605), which could stop ''runaway growth'' by letting unincorporated area residents create mixed-use villages of at least 1,000 acres, with partial municipal powers, while preserving at least 30 percent of the acreage as open space.

Senator Seabaugh, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, sees the village proposal as a way to expand parkland, discourage annexations and promote higher densities. Funded as special service districts, the senator says, such villages could become eligible for full municipal status after three years, with counties entitled to approve their comprehensive plans and density increases in exchange for saving more green space.

The bill, the writer notes, was cosponsored by Republican Senator Renee Unterman and Democratic Senator Sam Zamarripa. The latter, a member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce's Quality Growth Task Force, thinks the village concept should attract developers, offering them greater zoning flexibility and higher density in some areas. ''To me,'' he adds, ''the biggest question in front of most people in the future is not where you live, it's how you live.''

With the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission reserving an official position, its planning director Tom Weyandt calls the bill interesting, saying, ''Development in appropriate places and preserving green space is a good thing.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/3/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Tough Battle Expected In Georgia Legislature Over ''Stay'' Rule

Georgia's great legislative environmental debate this year will center on this question: ''How do we balance private property rights with the protection of the public interest?'', said Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson, telling Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Stacy Shelton that he doesn't want ''to come in here with the Republicans labeled with a 'we want to pave the state' attitude.''

He stressed that many Republicans are ''very strong on the environment,'' but also that they believe in property rights ''by nature'' and are putting ''more property rights advocates on boards and commissions.''

In response, Georgia League of Conservation Voters executive director Jason Rooks said, ''things that increase water pollution and runoff into streams and rivers degrade downstream property,'' promising to make sure that the voices of downstream property owners are heard, too.

Consequently, the writer predicts tough battles over the state's ''stay'' rule, which stops construction of landfills, power plants and coastal docks and bridges if citizen groups challenge state permits, and over stream protection rules, which bar most construction within 25 feet of stream sides.

Developers and industry officials complain the ''stay'' appeals cost them time and money, and the stream protection rigidity limits their land use and technological efforts to improve water quality.

Environmentalists reject these arguments, pointing out that the rules help protect both the environment and the quality of life and rights of downstream property owners.

''Georgia has good laws on the books to protect property owners,'' said director Rooks. ''We want to make sure those aren't changed.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/3/2005

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Northeast Atlanta Communities Use Smart Growth Principles to Create Walkable Town Centers

Tired of Gwinnett County's image as ''the heartland of sprawl,'' Duluth, Lilburn, Norcross, Snellville, Sugar Hill and other municipalities northeast of Atlanta are applying New Urbanism and Smart Growth principles to revive or create pedestrian-friendly town centers because, says Duluth City Administrator Phil McLemore, ''People feel that there is something missing,'' they need ''social contact,'' and they like ''the small-town'' atmosphere.

The building blocks of all new municipal master plans are sidewalks and streetscapes, with their Main Street visions complemented by details on land uses, building heights, construction standards and materials, architectural styles and even plant types, writes Atlanta Journal-Constitution architecture critic Catherine Fox, quoting Clark Patterson Associates urban planner and designer Kevin McOmber, who knows from his firm's preference surveys that for aesthetic and psychological reasons, ''people prefer 20' and 30' architecture.''

Even though almost all these town centers, in various stages of construction, look somewhat artificial in comparison with those that grew through decades and generations, the critic observes, experts consider the centers crucial for curbing sprawl and believe the towns will diversify their designs and services.

Urban Collage designer-planner Dennis Madsen thinks density will bring in essential services. ''We're still seeing the early stages,'' he points out. ''As housing fills in, retailers will recognize that it's a real market, and they are going to have to develop new strategies to serve it.''

Georgia Tech's architecture program director Ellen Dunham-Jones, co-author of a book on retrofitting suburbs, adds that home builders and their lenders must move beyond the dominant single-family home model. Noting that more than 30 percent of potential home buyers are single, and that the young and the empty-nesters represent the fastest-growing market, she says, ''These groups are attracted to urban living, but who knows how many of them who want or need to live in suburbs would love to live over the ice cream shop on the town commons?'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/19/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Park and Trail Beltway Sought to Parallel Atlanta's Proposed Transit Loop

As the Metro Atlanta Regional Transportation Authority (MARTA) and the city complete their separate studies on possible routes of a 22-mile transit loop and prospects of a special tax district for its construction, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) raised the goal higher, proposing a mostly parallel ''emerald necklace'' -- a 23-mile bike-pedestrian trail, about 1,400 acres of new parkland and multi-billion-dollar transit-oriented development -- which will help the future Beltline ''reorient Atlanta from a city framed by highways to a city framed by a magnificent public realm.''

With Mayor Shirley Franklin making the loop one of the top economic development initiatives, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, TPL steering committee member and PATH Foundation executive director Ed McBrayer is upbeat. ''Everything is going to follow these parks,'' he predicts. ''Everything is going to follow this transit. We've been 'cul-de-sacked' to death, and this is going to knit it all back together.''

TPL state director James Langford says the study team felt it was important ''to create an idea, create a vision,'' and report author, New York City urban planner Alexander Garvin, thinks the Beltline, with new MARTA stations, ''will change the way people think of public transportation.''

As the most difficult parts of the Beltline, the TPL report lists the relocation of an 87-acre CSX freight yard in southeast Atlanta to make room for a MARTA station, a park and mixed-use development; creation of a continuous 700-acre swath of green in the northwest, with Bellwood Quarry turned into a lake; and construction of three long bridges over streets and roads northwest and southeast of the city.

But the obstacles shouldn't overshadow ''the single, grand opportunity,'' the report states, foreseeing ''a sustained and widespread'' mixed-use development along the Beltline. ''Early word of the project has already accelerated real estate activity and increased property values in northeast Atlanta,'' it stresses. ''The existence of an entire Emerald Necklace will attract far more activity that will spill over into other areas.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/19/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Urban Renovation Projects Win Top Honors in Atlanta's Development of Excellence Awards

Strongly committed to sound land use and smart growth, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and the Regional Business Coalition (RBC) presented the ARC's Sixth Annual Development of Excellence Award to the 20-story mixed-use Metropolis tower in Midtown, and three Exceptional Merit Awards to other high-density urban renovation projects -- West Highlands, Atlantic Station and Jeff Davis Intown Condominiums.

Built by Novare Group and Wood Partners, Metropolis sold out its 498 condos atop a 40,000-square-foot ground floor retail space within a year, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, noting that the developers are planning more such projects in Midtown and Buckhead.

Designed jointly by Perry Homes Redevelopment and the Atlanta Housing Authority, the varied-income West Highlands community at the former landfill and public housing site will offer 700 rentals, including a 130-unit senior living facility, more than 1,300 single-family homes, and 55,000 square feet of commercial space.

Envisioned first by developer Jim Jacoby, the redevelopment of the 138-acre vacant steel-mill brownfield into pedestrian-friendly Atlantic Station is gradually increasing and diversifying the area's housing, retail, office space and other new assets.

Agreed on by developer Alex Thompson and Fayetville officials, the 68-unit Jeff Davis Intown Condominium project at a blighted apartment complex downtown involved the creation of a zoning category that allows denser projects in old areas and brings in private investment.

This year, the writer adds, the ARC also presented five local governments with its first Create Community Awards for tracking their progress ''toward regional goals of community involvement, regional prosperity, educational excellence, air quality and transportation and environmental sustainability.'' The winners are: Decatur, for its Involved Citizens Initiative; Gwinnett County's Revitalization Task Force; Hapeville, for its new charter middle school; Douglas County, for its ''rideshare'' program; and Suwanee's $17.7-million Open Space Initiative. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/14/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/ ; www.atlantaregional.com/index.html

Conversion of Rail Yards to Mass Transit Lines Becomes Hot Topic for Atlanta

Born of Georgia Tech graduate student Ryan Gravel's master's thesis, the proposed conversion of Atlanta freight tracks into the 4.6-mile mass-transit Belt Line at a cost of just $25 million is heightening developer interest in rail yards and corridors as highly profitable areas of mixed-use pedestrian-friendly redevelopment.

Astute Gwinnett County investor Wayne Mason is buying a dormant rail line on the eastern fringe of Midtown, learns Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer David Pendered, and others are focusing on a rail yard southwest of Little Five Points, where land prices have escalated even before the announcement of big public and private investments nearby, and a big yard west of Georgia Tech, where the Atlanta Regional Commission is funding a thorough planning study.

The only problem is that neither CSX nor Norfolk Southern plan to sell the yards, citing steady increases in their rail business. In addition, Atlanta History Center capital project vice president Jackson McQuigg, author of three books on the railroad industry, points out that railroads have and do play a key role in spurring the region's economic growth, reducing traffic and helping air quality.

Still, former Atlanta planning commissioner Mike Dobbins, now on the Georgia Tech faculty, notes that one professor is leading a classroom project for redeveloping one of the yards in question. ''In academia, the sky's the limit,'' he says. ''But every now and then, an idea, while not really viable at that moment, takes root.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/8/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Study Confirms That Smart Growth Will Improve Atlanta's Air Quality, Reduce Auto Use

''There's a pent-up demand for living in a place where you don't have to drive everywhere,'' said University of British Columbia professor Lawrence Frank, whose previous Georgia Tech land-use and travel behavior SMARTRAQ research team confirmed that smart growth would reduce metro Atlanta's car trips and improve its air quality.

Having studied two different 30-year development scenarios for three communities with planning grants from the Atlanta Regional Commission's Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) -- the Perimeter Center area, Atlanta's West End, and Cobb County's city of Marietta -- reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, the researchers established that LCI projects would ensure greater transit use and less tailpipe emission.

With more sidewalks, crosswalks, benches, lighting, landscaping and a more inviting overall urban design, residents drive less and walk more, observed professor Frank, adding, ''If you don't have to get into a car at lunch, that's going to help a lot.''

Such projects are already under way in the three studied communities, the writer finds, noting that the Atlanta Regional Commission is funneling $5.44 million in federal money to the Perimeter Center business district for upgrades around three MARTA stations, along with $1.84 million to Atlanta's West End and $3.2 million to Marietta for their pedestrian-focused improvements. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   10/25/2004

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc

Extensions of Proposed Atlanta Streetcar Route Would Maximize Ridership

First conceived as a convenient link between downtown Atlanta and the Buckhead neighborhood some six miles up Peachtree Street, the city's streetcar line would best realize its full anti-congestion and pro-development potential if it was extended about three miles further north and included a 3.5-mile downtown loop through the historic Auburn Avenue corridor, asserts an in-depth study by Making Projects Work (MPW) consultants for Atlanta Streetcar Inc.

''The bang for the buck is almost off the charts,'' said MPW team manager Mike Williams about the $320-million-plus streetcar project, estimating that the downtown loop would account for more than a quarter of projected trips and also boost MARTA ridership by about 2,000 more passengers a day.

A streetcar advisory board member, Home Depot founder and Aquarium benefactor Bernie Marcus, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, pointed out that tourism, sport events, concerts, conferences and increased business activity are steadily worsening traffic congestion and that the city needs an alternative to thousands of cars with one or two people, clogging downtown intersections.

Auburn corridor civic leaders await details on construction and funding, the writer notes, but ''are warming up to the streetcar,'' hoping it would spur the area's long-overdue revitalization. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   10/11/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

City Hall East Redevelopment Project Gives Atlanta Chance to Fill ''Holes'' in Cityscape

The sale of Atlanta's City Hall East site for mixed-use redevelopment and the selection of Emory Morsberger's company for the job, both announced by Mayor Shirley Franklin last month, gives the city an opportunity to create a model for revitalizing other such ''holes'' in the ''urban fabric,'' characterless areas between major growth districts in Atlanta and elsewhere, writes Nancey Green Leigh in her Atlanta Journal-Constitution guest column, stressing that to achieve goals of smart growth, ''cities must optimize the use of all of their neighborhoods and zones.''

While ''high-profile redevelopment projects such as Atlantic Station and Centennial Olympic Park are filling in some of the most gaping holes in Atlanta's urban fabric,'' she notes, all less obvious and marginal holes also should be mended, so ''one day all Atlantans will be able to enjoy the benefits of living in quality 'everyday neighborhoods'.''

This, she points out, requires simultaneous planning to secure six essential characteristics of such neighborhoods. They should offer mixed uses; easy walkability and access to transit; enough housing choices for all age groups and life-long residents; clean environment, adequate infrastructure and sound buildings; equity, social mobility and jobs for all income levels, without displacement; and urban design enhancing their identity and maximizing ''the value and long-term appeal of physical improvements.'' The author stresses that cities have the economic leverage to insure simultaneous planning for these interrelated features. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/13/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta's Infill Development Market Gets Hot

In a reversal of a 30-year trend, Atlanta gained more than 16,000 residents between 1999 and 2003, and demand for homes within its I-285 perimeter has increased so much that top companies with long-time suburban credentials ''are squeezing into the smaller infill development market in established neighborhoods,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christopher Quin, quoting builder Emory Morsberger, who says many developers ''are moving farther in rather than moving farther out.''

As one of them, the writer notes, Morsberger is working on mixed-use projects in downtown Lawrenceville and on a 200-home subdivision in Snelville, while preparing for mixed-use conversion of Atlanta's City Hall East, the massive former Sears building in Midtown.

Another big suburban developer, Beazer Homes, lists among its varied infills six lofts in Castelberry Hill, 210 homes, townhouses and duplexes at Atlantic Station now and 61 later, and a similar 200-unit mix proposed at Grant Park. Beazer official Lou Steffens notes that although urban land costs more, infills ''can be significantly more profitable (per home) than going farther and farther out.'' His company looks for more infill opportunities, but finding the right location and putting parcels together is hard work, and once such land is found, a developer must move quickly, he says, adding, ''It's almost like a treasure hunt.''

John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods CEO Terry Russell observes that some localities make the task easier through their redevelopment programs. He mentions Reynoldstown Revitalization Corp. that helped rehabilitate about 300 houses in its crumbling community, sparked other redevelopment efforts, and partnered with Wieland to convert a historic icehouse into 46 condo flats and townhouses.

Wieland, the CEO adds, is envisioning further mixed-use and residential infill projects, since ''(a) lot of people want to live close to the city so they don't have to deal with congestion.'' But experts also point out that properties inside the I-285 perimeter, even if smaller than outside ones, are appreciating faster. Consequently, many residents see moving closer in as a business decision, says Greg Cagle of Cagle & Dover Real Estate, also ''amazed by the number of single female buyers,'' who are pushing the infill market along, motivated by tight neighborhood security and proximity to shopping and entertainment. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/13/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Fate of Wal-Mart Supercenter Uncertain After Henry County Planning Commission Rejects Proposal

The first skirmish over a 24-hour Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for 34 acres amid several quiet subdivisions in unincorporated Henry County's northwestern corner exhilarated its opponents at a Planning Commission standing-room-only hearing, with the Planning Commission unanimously turning it down.

But their campaign is not over, notes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Eric Stirgus, because the County Commission doesn't always follow the planners' lead and its vote, likely next month, can go either way, especially since this nation's sixth-fastest-growing county desperately needs road improvement money to ease traffic and Wal-Mart is baiting it with a promise of 480 jobs and some $1.8 million in annual sales tax revenue.

Most area residents, the writer reports, slammed the proposed Supercenter, fearing it would overwhelm a local two-lane road with traffic, bring in noise and crime, and otherwise impair their quality of life.

Wal-Mart officials tried to dispel these fears with assurances that road upgrades would help traffic flow, that property values wouldn't be affected, and that the store would mean convenience.

The area's representative in the Planning Commission, Dawn Davis, said if the County Commission decides for the project, it should make it dependent on 21 design and service conditions, including brick building walls on all sides, moderate exterior lighting and deliveries only between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/2/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Smart Growth Skeptic Encouraged by Atlanta Task Force Plan to Increase Density in Select Areas

Identifying himself as one of those ''long suspicious of buzzwords such as 'smart growth' and the 'new urbanism','' Crier Newspapers publisher and WAGA-TV's ''The Georgia Gang'' host Dick Williams is nevertheless pleasantly intrigued by a report from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce's Quality Growth Task Force as offering ''a theory, a reasonable plan and optimism.''

He acknowledges that with the metro Atlanta population expected to grow from about four million to more than six million over 25 years, some development pattern change ''has got to come,'' since ''we can't keep building subdivisions all the way to Chattanooga, Tenn.''

Consequently, he takes comfort from task force chairman and Cousins Properties CEO Tom Bell's assurance, ''If we can allow 10 percent of the metro area to densify, we can grow and improve congestion.''

Noting in an Atlanta Business Chronicle opinion that metro Atlanta, with its average of 2.8 people per acre, is the least dense among the nation's top 15 metro areas, which helps attract newcomers, the editor welcomes the task force's idea of preserving the region's good life and pretty yards by focusing on redevelopment, higher local densities, and mixed uses with varied-price housing.

With chairman Bell hoping to have six area jurisdictions ''to sign on to what might be called new minicities'' near transit, but also noting that the Atlantic Station project in Midtown ''required 700 zoning variances,'' the editor stresses that local governments ''will have to invest in a new idea and step away from half-acre and 1-acre lots,'' which would allow people from all income brackets ''to live nearer their jobs.''

Then he concludes, ''The task force recommendations are inventive because they don't urge or envision people giving up their cars. The idea is simply to densify enough to reduce automobile trips on the margins. If the task force's numbers are real, it is on to something very good.'' -- Atlanta Business Chronicle   8/23/2004

Resource(s): http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/

Separation of Affordable Housing and Jobs Hurting Workers in Atlanta

The Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP) has released a new report, ''Making the Case for Mixed-Income and Mixed- Use Communities.'' Based on a large body of research on transportation and housing costs in sprawl-plagued areas such as Atlanta, the report reveals the drastic mismatch among where jobs are located, what they pay, and where housing affordable to workers is located. It concludes that many factors dramatically influence affordability in Atlanta, including transportation costs associated with the often large distances between affordable housing and jobs.

For lower-income workers who can't afford a dependable car, such jobs can be nearly impossible to get and keep when they are located beyond the reach of Atlanta's limited bus or rail service. Residential development is restricted or prohibited in many of the areas where large numbers of jobs are clustered. Where new housing is constructed near jobs, in areas such as Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead, the housing costs far exceed the means of many of the people who work in those districts.

The report concludes that when housing costs are combined with the cost of transportation, the average family in Atlanta earning less than $40,000 a year is spending nearly two-thirds of its income to cover these expenses. -- Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc.   7/25/2004

Resource(s): www.andpi.org/

Land Use Issues Dominate Hall County Elections

In Hall County Georgia, land use issues are at the center of the upcoming election for chair of the county commission. Incumbent Gary Gibbs calls the election ''a referendum on the comprehensive plan'' and warns that removing the growth restrictions would create the type of overdevelopment that's found in neighboring Gwinnett County. Gibbs maintains that a smart growth policy, restricting the uses and densities allowable, will enable the county to absorb growth and ''be the reason people want to live here.''

Challenger Tom Oliver argues the opposite, saying that property rights are too regulated. The current comprehensive plan, defended by the incumbent, clusters new growth in areas with infrastructure. The election is being viewed as a battle over the comprehensive plan, to decide the future shape of the county. -- The Times   7/14/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvilletimes.com/index.shtml

Marietta Set to Create Mixed-Use Center Out of Blighted Complex

Joining Cobb County's effort to create ''a template for redevelopment' in its depressed areas, Marietta officials entrusted the long-overdue transformation of the blighted public Johnny Walker Homes complex into the $63 million mixed-use Esplanade of Marietta to the Madison Retail partnership, with one of its investors, former Post Properties CEO John Williams, stressing, ''Marietta needs to focus on becoming a community where people choose to live, work and play.''

Formed last October for long-term pursuit of such projects from Virginia to Florida, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Brenden Sager, the partnership includes two other urban-village developers, Urban Land Institute 1997 award for excellence winner G.K. Johnson, and Tri-Kell Investments CEO Steve Whisenant, the latter saying ''all of us feel like the mixed-use concept makes an awful lot of sense.''

Slated for construction late this year, the writer finds, their 12-acre Esplanade of Marietta will feature 86 town houses, 118 loft-style condominiums -- up to $300,000 each -- 97,000 square feet of office and retail space, including a 29,250-square-foot grocery, and 717 parking spaces.

Partly subsidized through a tax allocation district (TAD) created for the neighborhood last year, the writer notes, the project is described by Williams as a sure and important ''catalyst for redevelopment'' along the Powder Spring Street S.W. corridor.

Nevertheless, some nearby residents worry about the project's density and increased traffic congestion. Louisville Community Improvement Association vice president Sam Elliott sees ''inherent problems'' with the grocery's supply trucks, and a county chairman hopeful, Craig Harfoot, thinks tax district residents overlook that they will be subsidizing newcomers and new service workers, adding, ''The developers are not paying for any of the services.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   6/21/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

ARC Grants Help Create Vibrant Community Centers in Outlying Atlanta Communities

Tired of uniform subdivisions and car-dependency, metro Atlanta residents are increasingly demanding mixed uses, higher densities and sidewalks, with officials -- helped by Atlanta Regional Commission's (ARC) Livable Centers Initiative grants -- devising long-term land-use and transportation plans, and developers ''turning burgs or nothing more than a busy crossroads into new, vibrant community centers.''

A case in point is Woodstock, some 25 miles north of Atlanta, in Cherokee County, where leaders used their 2002 ARC grant to pay for a city plan and changed zoning last year to let Hedgewood Properties turn the 60-year-defunct rail stop and 32 heavily overgrown acres along Main Street's east side, across from the meager downtown, into ''a coveted address'' of new stores, offices, homes, condos, town houses, and parks -- some of them also behind the westside strip of commercial buildings and churches that now stands for downtown Woodstock, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christopher Quinn.

Main Street florist H.C. ''Skip'' Shipman tells him, ''Woodstock has always been a place where you drive through to get to your destination. Hedgewood will allow Woodstock to become the destination.''

Anticipating a financial windfall for merchants and property owners ''willing to work within the parameters of what the city and Hedgewood are trying to accomplish,'' he notes, some residents bought additional properties for future development, while some developers asked city planner Richard McLeod about the likelihood of smaller commercial projects. And what the city wants to accomplish is a well-designed and easily walkable downtown area, the planner says, signalizing the possibility of a 90-day permit moratorium to enact an overlay or a design standard.

The city, the writer adds, expect a $125,000 ARC grant for preliminary engineering in 2006, and $1.1 million for implementation later. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   6/6/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Growth Task Force Guidelines Recommend Shifting Atlanta's Growth Patterns Through Local Government Empowerment

Reflecting the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce's worries over chronic area congestion and nascent water shortages, its Quality Growth Task Force worked out guidelines for a shift in the region's deep-rooted growth patterns -- a difficult goal that may require a legislative push to give local governments more power in negotiations on land rezoning requests and to link transportation funding with land use.

Current state laws lack clarity about ''how far a government can go to control development,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer David Pendered, quoting Association of County Commissioners executive director Jerry Griffin, who explains, ''One of the reasons local governments don't do some of these things we're talking about is because they don't want to take the risk. They want to stick with the tried and true, so if they end up in court they have a pretty good idea of what they can stand on.''

Meanwhile, according to an earlier report by the daily's Janet Frankston, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is doing its best to advance smart growth. Putting another $136 million in federal transportation money into its Livable Centers Initiative (LCI), under which a total of 51 communities in ten metro counties have received millions in planning grants since 2000, the ARC expanded the program to eight formerly exurban counties, classified by the U.S. census as ''urban'' because of increased population density.

''We have already sprawled to those places,'' pointed out ARC comprehensive planning director Tom Weyandt. ''The point is to begin to deal with that fact and help these areas think more about the form of their development.''

Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce President Sam Williams applauded the LCI extension to those counties as the right incentive for development near their centers and transportation corridors. The ARC also announced the newest round of smart-growth grants for the ten core counties, with most of the $29 million for the July 2004-July 2006 period -- which requires a 20-percent local match -- helping projects to make town centers more pedestrian-friendly, improve access to transit, and boost downtown areas.

Having received $2.2 million for a town-center streetscape and a walking-biking path, Snellville Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer called it a shot in the arm for the city's efforts, noting, ''That's as much money as we've gotten from the county SPLOST (Special Local Option Sales Tax) program in the last four years.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   5/10/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

''Fast Forward'' Transport Plan Includes Bus Rapid Transit, More HOV Lanes for Atlanta's I-75

Using his gubernatorial prerogative to guide Georgia's transportation policy, Republican Governor Sonny Perdue announced his six-year, $15.5 billion ''Fast Forward'' plan, which envisions wholesale improvements throughout metro Atlanta, with the largest portion of state transit money, $700 million, going for construction of bus rapid transit (BRT) lanes along the choked stretch of I-75 from the Cobb Galleria mall to Cobb Town Center nine miles farther northwest, and another $700 million for a parallel extension of the highway's HOV lanes between these regional business and employment hubs.

According to a study by the American Highway Users Alliance, a group of road builders, car companies, and trucking firms, report Atlanta Journal-Constitution writers Richard Whitt and Brenden Sager, this nine-mile I-75 stretch is among the top 20 national bottlenecks, with 239,193 cars a day. Transportation officials stress that HOV lanes, for cars with two or more persons, substantially ease congestion, reducing traffic on I-75 through Fulton County by almost 13 percent in each direction a day, or by 21,800 vehicles northbound and 25,400 vehicles southbound.

Georgia Department of Transportation Board member Johnny Gresham expect the governor's plan to have ''a huge impact'' on improving traffic flow and air quality in the metro area, although during the years of construction, congestion will get worse before it gets better.

The governor's plan ''will one day significantly change driving patterns for the millions of people who travel the I-75 corridor through metro Atlanta,'' the writers observe, noting among the plan's top goals the widening of several metro and rural roads, and expanding both the Navigator Intelligent Transportation System, with its cameras and other traffic monitoring devices, and the Highway Emergency Response Operator network, with ramp traffic controls. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   4/16/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

South Fulton County's TDR Plan Sees Solid Results

In the five years since south Fulton County resident Steve Nygren envisioned and helped launch the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance to save metro Atlanta's last major forest land from future sprawl through transfer of development rights (TDR) to three high-density urban villages and several smaller areas, the grassroots plan has gotten traction, with the county amending its zoning, Urban Land Institute national official Jo Allen Gause considering it ''a model'' for some other regions, and Nygren's own Serenbe development quickly selling 32 of the first 40 homes at prices from $190,000 to $800,000.

''Everyone talked about what they didn't want to happen down here,'' Nygren tells USA Today writer Larry Copeland. ''Now, we've decided what we do want.''

The alliance's plan, the writer reports, aims to keep almost two-thirds of the 100-square-mile hill country intact and concentrate development in three square-mile, mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly villages with up to 14 housing units per acre clustered around a public green -- 10 percent of them capped at $130,000 to be affordable to families of four earning 80 percent of the metro's median income -- and at least 10 percent of the site left as open space.

The villages will depend on alternative sewer systems, without running in costly and invasive lines from elsewhere.

Noting that so far about 30 of 630 area farmers and landowners expressed willingness to sell their development rights, alliance president Stacy Patton says many ''are waiting to see how difficult the process is,'' while local Farm Bureau head J. Wayne Stradling notes that some have already sold their rights for $4,000 an acre, or about half the area's fair market value. He thinks the plan ''will work,'' but the key is to overcome the farmers' traditional reluctance to cede land control and make them understand the advantages of rural preservation.

A land use planner, conservation subdivision designer Randall Arendt, agrees, calling transfer of development rights ''a very difficult proposal to implement,'' since ''people don't want to take more development from the other end of the county if it means more people in my backyard.'' -- USA Today   4/7/2004

Resource(s): www.usatoday.com/

Emory University Considers Adding Smart Growth Principles to Campus Master Plan

With Emory University in northeast Atlanta updating its Campus Master Plan to meet new sustainability, transportation and green space challenges in the next five years, School of Law Professor William Buzbee told a forum of division representatives, administration officials and campus planners that the university should embrace smart growth and address ''environmental issues before there is a problem'' as the campus expands.

Campus Planning Director Jennifer Fabrick, reports Emory Wheel writer Christina Casadonte, noted that besides reflecting an environmental attitude, the campus plan ''sets the image for the university,'' and Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration Michael Mandl expressed hope that the university can start to build affordable housing for faculty and staff within walking distance of the campus.

Although director Fabrick excluded large-scale environmental retrofitting of older campus buildings for financial reasons, she allowed for the possibility of a small ''exhibition project'' that would highlight the uses and advantages of alternative energy sources. -- Emory Wheel   3/30/2004

Resource(s): www.emorywheel.com/vnews/

Downtown Connector Road Expansion Plan Jeopardizes Midtown Atlanta's Pedestrian Progress

While Atlanta Midtown businesses and the influential Midtown Alliance strived to make the area ''a place where people get out of their cars and enjoy walking along pleasant sidewalks,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer David Pendered, state transportation officials finalized a $73 million plan to reconfigure the area's crucial Downtown Connector by widening the 14th Street bridge from seven to eight lanes and the street itself to six lanes, reviving the latent controversy over what's best for ''the emerging cosmopolitan heart of Atlanta.''

Thanks in large part to current smart-growth redevelopment of a former steel mill site as the mixed-use Atlantic Station, Midtown Atlanta has became ''a trendy destination,'' with new shops, restaurants and more than 5,000 housing units added in the last four years,'' but now the ''massive road expansion'' may force some of these businesses to close or relocate.

Considered inappropriate by Midtown Alliance president Susan Mendheim, construction may begin in summer 2005 and last almost three years. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   3/17/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Columnist Asks Atlanta's City Council to Envision a ''Walkable City''

Captivated by the view of Atlanta from the upper floors of Atlantic Station's new office tower, the yellow 17th Street bridge below crowded with pedestrians, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Colin Campell thinks pedestrians are ''the wave of the future,'' but the city must make walking more safe, practical and enjoyable, so it ''could be a major supplement to cars, buses and trains, as it already is many other cities,'' and ensure cleaner air, more stores, cafes and customers, and better social interaction.

Exploiting ''advantages that compact cities have over sprawling suburbs,'' walking also could improve public health since it ''burns off deadly fat, strengthens the heart and gets the blood moving.'' The situation is now better than a few years ago, when ''cars were king and pedestrian were dirt'' and even new streets ''paid no attention to walkers,'' but more must be done, the columnist writes, asking the City Council to ''sponsor a practical vision of a walkable city.''

The council, he notes, should hire more inspectors to enforce its sidewalk quality regulations, cooperate with the Midtown Alliance, other pedestrian-friendly business groups, and Mayor Shirley Franklin's Walkable Atlanta Task Force, its report expected soon. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   3/7/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Smart Growth in North Atlanta Would Half Land Requirements for Projected 2025 Population

Briefing the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce on the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority's $500 million improvement plan for the 30-mile Ga. 400 between Buckhead in north Atlanta and Cumming in Forsyth County, Regional Project Manager Roger Henze showed that under the Atlanta Regional Commission's smart growth principles of mixed-use and transit-oriented development, the area could accommodate its projected 24-percent population growth by 2025 on 47,000 instead of 90,000 acres.

By promoting higher densities near urban centers and along transportation corridors, smart growth means shorter car trips, less traffic and better air quality, the project manager said, stressing, ''Just land use planning does not solve our quality of life problems. There has to be a link to transportation.''

The Ga. 400 improvement plan, notes NorthFulton web writer Hatcher Hurd, would add general use and HOV lanes, expand bus service, harden shoulders for express buses, set up six exclusive rapid-bus and HOV interchanges, and fund construction of parallel collector-distributor roads for short-trip traffic.   2/11/2004

Resource(s): www.northfulton.com/

Speed, Convenience and Cost Top Atlanta Residents' Wish List for Mass Transit

Mass transit should be fast, convenient and reasonably priced to draw drivers out of their cars, states an independent marketing survey commissioned by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and community improvement districts in Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton counties, with chamber president Sam Williams saying, ''We found that if you do all of those things, up to two-thirds of commuters would consider using transit.''

The self-taxing community improvement districts invest their extra property taxes into transportation, public safety and other services, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, quoting Cumberland district (Cobb County) chairman Tad Leithead, who pointed out that instead of asking respondents about where and what transit systems to build, the new survey is the first to focus on what would attract most commuters. By understanding the market, he said, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) and the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) can choose the most effective transit solutions to relieve traffic congestion.

The survey sponsors, the writer notes, timed its release with a GRTA board tour of possible transit routes from intown Atlanta some 10 miles northwest, to the Cobb County area near I-75 and I-285. The board is expected to consider the survey results in its decision-making process. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   2/3/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Editorial: Georgia Think-Tank Sees Flaws in Smart Commute Program

Having given strong editorial support to Fannie Mae's ''Smart Commute'' program of qualifying home buyers near MARTA stations for higher-than-usual, ''transit-friendly'' mortgages, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution affords an Equal Time response opportunity to Georgia Public Policy Foundation (''an independent think tank'') vice president Benita M. Dodd, who calls Fannie Mae's initiative ''a feel-good and unenforceable attempt at social engineering, with no gauge of success,'' content that ''(f)or many people, a location near transit is an incentive in itself.''

Although Smart Commute providers assume, she argues, that a two-income household can save $250 a month and hold a mortgage $14,000 higher than a strictly income-based one, the program ''doesn't ensure that borrowers actually use public transit,'' only extracting such ''a promise.'' Also, she writes, Fannie Mae ''clearly concedes the high risk of the program by requiring hefty mortgage insurance,'' about $78 a month on a $100,000 house with $3,000 down, in contrast to $39 a month with the usual 10 percent down. ''How smart is a program aimed at increasing housing affordability by encouraging greater debt and financial risk among new homeowners,'' she asks,'' convinced that ''(t)ransit in the metro Atlanta area is no competition for the automobile, in flexibility or timeliness.'' -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/27/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

''Smart Commute'' Program Gives Added Mortgage Benefits to Home Buyers on Atlanta's Transit Routes

Citing the Washington-based Surface Transportation Policy Project's data that the average Atlanta household pays some $8,500 a year in car-related costs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution applauds the ''Smart Commute'' pilot program, just launched in the area by the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) as its 17th nationwide, as an example of ''smart growth'' and one of the ''creative, thoughtful solutions'' needed to reduce the region's traffic congestion and air pollution, and to increase home ownership.

Under the program, the daily says, applicants who buy a home within a half-mile of a MARTA bus or rail stop, have only one car and will use transit for daily commuting are credited with prospective savings on reduced car use and can qualify for proportionally higher mortgage loans from SunTrust banks, up to $333,700, and get an additional incentive in the form of a six-month MARTA pass worth about $315. Later, Fannie Mae may not only invite other lenders to join the program, but also expand it to Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett counties, which have introduced their bus services.

Dismayed that some deride such solutions and smart growth itself as ''social engineering,'' the daily quotes Fannie Mae's Atlanta office president Archibald B. Hill III, who says, ''What we've been hearing from working families is that the costs of transportation have become a barrier to the American dream of home ownership. If this is social engineering, then so be it.'' The daily adds, ''The quality of life in our region won't improve until bankers, developers, state officials, local governments -- and most of all, homebuyers -- start connecting the dots between housing and transportation policy. The Smart commute program may help them do just that.'' -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/27/2004

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Forsyth County Moves Toward Smart Growth with Approval of Updated County Land Use Plan

In a crucial step toward Forsyth County's smart growth future, the Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the updated county land use plan and map, with Chairman Jack Conway promising some members still concerned about details to make additional changes in February, just before the plan must be resubmitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for endorsement and formally adopted by the county, both necessary to secure state grants. Officials have ensured large public involvement in the planning process, reports Forsyth Herald writer Nancy Smallwood, by dividing the county into ten subareas, where local committees drafted specific land use goals and maps, all later joining J.J & G consultants in work on the first draft of a countywide land use map. Criticized by many property owners and developers, that first draft was recently revised by the county planning department. County long-range planner Marcia Diaz said main changes include the removal of specific border lines and the expansion of retail and commercial zoning near major roads. The unsettled questions revolve around low and medium density limits, but Chairman Conway said about the map, ''This is a good compromise. I think we got something we all can work with and massage.'' -- Forsyth Herald   12/15/2003

Resource(s): www.northfulton.com/index.asp

Smart Growth Policies Could Save 107,000 Acres, Allow 2 Million More People in Metro Atlanta Area by 2030

If the 13-county metro Atlanta region adopts smart growth policies for denser cluster housing in town centers and transportation corridors, it can easily accommodate another two million people by 2030, while cutting the average time they waste each day in traffic congestion from 36 to 33 minutes and saving 107,000 acres of open space, concludes a URS Corp. study done for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and its diversified Quality Growth Task Force, whose co-chairman, Cob County Commission Chairman Sam Olens expects the findings to help Republican Governor Sonny Perdue work out the necessary financial incentives. The other co-chairman, Cousin Properties CEO Tom Bell, tells Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston that such a move toward smart growth policies and implementation incentives ''has got to be a bottom-up deal. It's not something that can be ordered.'' Alpharetta City Councilwoman in charge of development agrees that state smart growth incentives could work. ''But if they think we should embrace higher densities at transportation corridors and don't give us money to improve the infrastructure to at least ease congestion,'' she says, ''then it's not a good idea.'' The study, the writer adds, finds a market for smart-growth higher-density urban projects among retiring baby boomers, young professionals and couples without children. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/13/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com

Gwinnett County's Bus System Now Standing-Room-Only

In a vindication for Gwinnett County and other metro Atlanta transit advocates, ''(t)he county-run bus system Gwinnett started two years ago is now, quite literally, a standing-room-only success,'' cheers an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial, astonished that some county officials ''still don't get it'' and criticize the need of ''public subsidies'' to cover about two-thirds of the system's operational costs, the other third covered by fares.

Noting that the system's passengers complain only about occasional lack of seats during rush hours, which will change after the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority opens its 11-county express bus network next year, the editorial says Gwinnett bus critics should look at the bigger picture, more important than money. ''While the costs of public transit are easy to quantify,'' the editorial notes, ''there are other benefits that don't show up as readily on a balance sheet -- improved air quality, higher productivity and a more mobile, less stressed work force.''

The editorial concludes: ''Gwinnett's slow but inevitable embrace of public transit is an encouraging lesson for other suburbs that have also been reluctant to adopt a more well-balanced transportation diet. Although it may still be difficult for some to swallow, metro Atlanta cannot live on roads alone.'' -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/11/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Developer Says More City Development Will Help Atlanta's Infrastructure Through Increased Property Revenues

To take better care of its residents, Atlanta should encourage inside development, not delay it with a moratorium proposed in a few letters to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, replies Green Street Properties chairman, Mindspring founder Charles Brewer, pointing out in his own opinion piece that the water and sewer problems the city must fix weren't caused by recent projects and that new water and sewer service ''is a high fixed-cost business,'' whose success depends on volume and more customers. He gives an example of his mixed-use Glenwood Park near Grant Park just southeast of the city center. It will generate some $4.5 million a year in property and sales tax for state and local governments. Atlanta will get about $1 million of the money, plus $250,000-$450,000 annually in resident and business water bills, a total of at least $50 million over 40 years just from this one medium-size project, without no upfront spending at all. ''We will put in all the new water and sewer lines for our neighborhood,'' he writes. ''We will build the streets and sidewalks. We will plant the trees. We will build parks. And we will pay for it all. Plus we and our new residents and businesses will pay a substantial amount in permit fees, hookup fees, impact fees and business license fees.'' -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/10/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Editorial: Redevelopment of Existing Properties Is Trend of the Future

''As land prices continue to soar and development costs are at all time highs due to many imposed regulations, the re-development of existing properties utilizing smart growth is the trend of the future,'' which will also help lessen ''a pervasive feeling of isolation'' among homeowners who rarely know their neighbors, states the North Fulton Revue & News, enthusiastic about nearby Duluth in Gwinnett County, where city officials enhanced the historic downtown, while Dan Woodley Communities, Inc. and All Good Builders, LLC, are introducing ''metro-Atlanta's most exciting residential designs inspired with Smart Growth.''

The winner of the 2002 Gold Professional Award for Land Use Planning for his diversified Village Park Place at Brookhaven, Dan Woodley says, ''Seeing residents walking dogs together, chatting on the sidewalks in front of one of the shoppes or meeting to dine -- these homeowners know and like each other. This neighborhood is more than stone and brick buildings, it is more about building relationships.'' His next mixed-use project, Towne Parke Place across the street from the Festival Center in downtown Duluth, offers homes, flats and lofts, along with a planned 150,000 square feet of stores, offices, restaurants and professional services. All this being brought to the city, ''where you can Live, Work, Shop & Play Everyday,'' by a company with a motto ''We build on our reputation everyday.'' -- Revue & News   12/3/2003

Resource(s): www.northfulton.com/index.asp

Citing Safety Risks, Parents Continue to Drive Kids to School

Alarmed by children's increased inactivity, obesity and health risks, federal health and environmental experts have joined physicians and public interest advocates in a campaign to promote student walking and biking -- the calls for small neighborhood schools also backed by preservationists and Realtors -- but many parents still prefer to drive children even a short distance, worried about the lack of sidewalks, car traffic and safety, while school district officials find land in residential areas scarce and prohibitively expensive.

Last summer, Fayette County school officials ended bus service for students living less than a half-mile from school and set stops only at subdivision entrances or a half-mile apart in most areas, saving $1.4 million for the district's almost $150 million budget, but also making more parents drive kids to school, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, quoting parent Mary Martin, who says, ''There's just too much busy traffic. We have more crime now. Drivers just don't acknowledge the children.''

According to a recent state survey, the writer notes, the number of those children who live within one mile and walk to school has dropped from 20 to 13 percent since 2000, while the total for all schoolchildren ages 5 to 15 slid from 3 to 2 percent. Aside from the impact on children's health and fitness, with potential complications in the future, this parental driving increases road congestion, air pollution and the risk of accidents, while a shift from large suburban to small neighborhood schools would ease these problems, reduce busing costs and provide communities with after-hours activity centers.

Noting the basic agreement between school officials and most parents that neighborhood schools within short walking distance would be ideal, Cherokee County Superintendent Frank Petruzielo is trying to make it happen despite the high cost of land in such locations by asking developers to ''do the right thing'' and donate sites or money for new schools. ''We've gotten over $8 million from intimidation tactics,'' he says. ''Every dollar we get from a developer is a dollar we don't have to get from a taxpayer.'' -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/2/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Study Finds High-Density Redevelopment Better at Stimulating Economy

The huge mixed-use Atlantic Station under construction on a former steel mill site in Midtown Atlanta best shows the advantages of high-density urban redevelopment over sprawl for stimulating the economy and employment, says a national study by the Washington-based Good Jobs First labor and tax policy group, a finding called by Atlantic Station LLC vice president Brian Leary ''good news for Atlanta as a region to do more smart growth.'' The largest project in Georgia, with about 1,000 workers, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, Atlantic Station will ultimately employ 20,000 to 30,000 people in the whole range of jobs, from unskilled to professional. Still, Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association policy director Jeff Rader, member of a new Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce task force on land use and sprawl, cautions that higher costs of dense urban redevelopment will be passed on to consumers, who -- at least in the Atlanta region -- see ''a great advantage in suburban efficiencies.'' But task force chairman, Cousin Properties President and CEO Tom Bell, believes consumers seek more housing and work options, saying, ''The market has already moved ahead of us.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/21/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Land-Use Task Force Could Be Key to Growth Management in Atlanta Metro Area

With the region's sprawl and traffic getting worse and another 2.5 million residents expected by 2025, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce hopes its new and highly-diversified land-use task force -- the first to bring together key corporate figures, state officials, suburban mayors and conservationists -- will finally make a real difference for smarter growth management, especially since many people are ready to change their life styles and habits. The dozens of agencies currently in charge of metro Atlanta planning include the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, ''whose roles most metro residents can hardly guess at,'' reports Gwinnett County Daily Post writer Kristen Wyatt, noting that the Chamber of Commerce task force is also limited to making recommendations. Outlining its top priorities, the task force wants to boost density in congested corridors, expand affordable housing near jobs, revitalize blighted neighborhoods and spur planning for outer, mostly rural suburbs. This can be only achieved, stresses task force vice chairman, Cobb County Commissioner Samuel Owens, if everyone works together regionally. With the smart growth recommendations expected next spring, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin asks, ''Do we have the political and civic will to make a change conceptually, to make the hard choices?'' -- Daily Post   11/8/2003

Resource(s): www.gwinnettdailyonline.com/default.html

Road Impact Fees Cut in Half by Pro-Growth Cherokee County Board of Commissioners

The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners under Chairman Mike Byrd -- who a year ago unseated the sprawl-battling Chairwoman Emily Lemcke -- halved the road impact fees imposed in 2000, with the chairman saying the cut sends ''a message to the business community that Cherokee County is open for business,'' and a lone dissenter, long-time Commissioner Harry Johnson, stressing that contrary to the board's intention, the cut will really benefit not commercial and industrial developers, but home builders. ''It's clear that the home builders have tremendous influence on this board,'' he said, citing county records that they have paid $1.28 million in road impact fees since 2000, while commercial, industrial and other developers paid some $632,000, $64,000 and $48,000, respectively. Chairman Byrd and equally pro-growth Commissioner Derek Good took commission seats last year with large campaign contributions from the building industry, observes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christopher Quinn. He also notes that Cherokee County was the first in Georgia to spend impact fees countywide rather than in their collection areas only, distributing $3.03 million for fire protection, $2.03 million for roads, $1.7 million for parks, $1.71 million for jails, $1.12 million for libraries, and about $600,000 for administration, sheriffs and consultants. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/3/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Many Atlanta Area Zoning Codes Lack -- or Discourage -- Smart Growth Principles

Only 10 of 26 metro Atlanta jurisdictions examined by the Regional Business Coalition of 16 chambers of commerce in its ''Quality Growth Audit'' allow mixed uses, 12 require sidewalks on both sides of the street in residential areas and six permit home lots under 7,000 square feet, while some stem smart growth by large lot minima, with coalition executive director Eric Meyer saying, ''Our zoning codes have been called the DNA of development. If the DNA dictates sprawl, then that's what you'll get.'' The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) encourages smart growth, but it cannot make local governments change their zoning codes to facilitate such projects, notes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, quoting ARC planning director Tom Weyandt, who says codes let communities and developers know what to expect, lending ''stability and certainty to what can be a confusing development process.'' Director Meyer agrees, pointing out that if developers face uncertainties and waste of time, they are ''less likely to do the right things.'' And since many local codes discourage mixed-use, high-density and pedestrian-friendly projects, ''it's no surprise that so few people walk in this region,'' he adds. ''Cul-de-sacs remain the norm in our codes.'' Not in Atlanta, Decatur and Alpharetta, the writer reports. In Midtown Atlanta walking is common. So is it in downtown Decatur, where developers responded to revised zoning by building smart-growth projects, and in Alpharetta, whose decade-old sidewalk code reduced car traffic and enhanced pedestrian safety. Seeking similar smart-growth benefits, Rockdale County officials are revising county codes to require mixed-use, high-density projects in two newly-designated districts, along with conservation subdivisions, which permit developers to build on smaller lots in exchange for saving some land as open space. In a push for such projects, the writer adds, the Regional Business Coalition will lobby local governments to update their zoning codes. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/3/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Atlanta's Growth Strategies Task Force Gets Rolling with Exploratory Meetings

Newly created to prepare the 10-county region for another 2.3 million residents by 2025 and help facilitate mixed-use development, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce growth strategies task force inaugurated a six-month series of exploratory meetings, with its chairman, Cousins Properties President and CEO Tom Bell convinced that although the prevalent one-acre suburban home lots won't vanish, the long waiting list for high-density condos in Midtown's Atlantic Station reflects the increased market demand for housing near transit, jobs, shops and entertainment. With the recent disclosure by the Atlanta Regional Commission that its 25-year, multi-billion dollar road and transit expansion plan will do little to ease traffic, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, the 35 officials, activists, developers and business leaders in the task force know that improving metro traffic flow while absorbing millions of new residents ''will take more than new trains, buses, roads, bike paths and sidewalks'' and that ''(b)uilding patterns will have to change.'' Chamber president Sam Williams stressed ''You can't separate transportation and land use. The whole issue of (traffic) congestion is about how we accommodate future growth.'' Briefing the task force on population density, Bain & Co. Managing Director Alan Colberg cited the newest Texas Transportation Institute mobility study, with the 2000 census showing Atlanta the least dense among the top 15 metro areas -- under three people per acre, in comparison to five in the Washington-Baltimore area and 11 in metro Los Angeles. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   10/3/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Waiting List Growing for Atlanta's Smart Growth Redevelopment Site

The demand for housing at Atlanta's landmark smart-growth redevelopment site, the mixed-use Atlantic Station midtown, exceeds all expectations, with more than 800 people on the Lane Co.'s waiting list for the first 69 of the Art Foundry phase condos, which will be ready next spring and cost from $130,000 to the $200,000. Upbeat Lane officials, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer David Pendred, will hold a mid-October reception for potential buyers, feting them with food, wine and music, and also expecting to pre-sell more than 250 units slated for completion next fall and in 2005. Located at 17th Street, next to the station's Grand Ellipse Park, the Art Foundry will include a business center, covered parking deck, pool and sculpture garden. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/29/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Curbing Sprawl Is Key to Eliminating Hazards of Smog

''If smog isn't routed, it returns,'' writes Smart Growth America Communications Director and former Atlanta Journal-Constitution associate editor David Goldberg on the paper's opinion page, pointing out that several years ago Metro Atlanta adopted California's -- the nation's toughest -- tailpipe emission-control programs and technologies with measurable success, but now Southern California officials say sprawl and SUVs are rolling back regional air quality gains, a harbinger of what may soon happen in the Atlanta region. But it could be avoided, the writer observes, if the rapid growth patterns didn't force ''excessive driving,'' if heavier vehicles like SUVs weren't ''inexplicably'' granted ''a special exemption from emissions standards,'' and ''if the federal government would give states and localities the tools they need'' to curb sprawl and expand transit. Metro Atlanta needs such tools even more than Los Angeles, the writer continues, because Atlanta's number of miles driven per person each day is 33 as compared to 21 in Los Angeles, its transit covers a much smaller area and it has a lot fewer pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. And although Metro Atlanta regional and local officials are planning a train-like bus line network, some rail service and key road improvements, and ''beginning to revise development codes to permit and encourage the walkable districts that are essential for convenient transit service,'' these plans will fail ''if Congress adopts a proposal to all but eliminate funding for new transit projects and radically cut funding for those on the drawing board.'' Scorning claims that ''(c)ars and urban air are so much cleaner now than in the 1970s that we don't need laws anymore'' and ''(t)echnology will take care of the rest,'' the writer says ''with sprawl outpacing technological gains and Congress itself refusing to demand the best available technology,'' smog will certainly be back. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/1/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Gov. Perdue Calls Northern Arc Road Project ''Dead''; Fate of Purchased Right-of-Way Unclear

Obliged by a campaign promise that helped secure his surprise victory last year, Georgia Republican Governor Sonny Perdue told a transportation town hall meeting hosted by the grassroots Northern Arc Task Force in Cumming, Forsyth County, what its members especially wanted to hear -- that the 59-mile toll route through Gwinnett, Forsyth, Cherokee and Bartow counties north of Atlanta is ''dead,'' with the first step in the funeral taken two weeks earlier, when he ordered the state Department of Transportation to withdraw an environmental impact statement for the $2.2 billion project. Still, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Brian Feagans, asked about his plans for the 750 acres bought with $38 million in federal dollars for the Arc right-of-way in Gwinnett County, the governor said he is considering County Commission Chairman Wayne Hill's idea of a 12.6-mile cross-county connector between Ga. 316 and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard to relieve the area's mounting traffic. He is also open to the idea of using the land for a greenbelt, although the federal purchase grants would have to be returned. Days earlier Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Duane D. Stanford reported that Northern Arc Task Force president Jeff Anderson -- his group now numbering about 5,500 members in the four counties -- would like the state to repay the grants and preserve the right-of-way stretch of land as a greenbelt. Disclaiming any ''not-in-my-back-yard'' (NIMBY) motive in the fight against the Arc, Anderson says he and group current vice president Bob Charles found data on state government web sites to be outdated and deceptive, with the project's cost far greater than the benefit. Now the group may change its name to the Northern Alliance Task Force and involve other counties in more consistent planning and zoning throughout the region, Anderson says, ''so it's not just concrete and billboards to the Tennessee border.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/15/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Gwinnett Task Force Wants Potential for School Overcrowding to be Factor in Denying Residential Rezoning

Appointed by the Gwinnett County Commission, the school board and the Chamber of Commerce, the citizen County Commission-Board of Education Task Force wants officials to lobby the area's state lawmakers for a change in the Georgia law that lets jurisdictions consider school overcrowding as an argument against residential rezoning, to let them make it the sufficient single reason for a project denial or delay, with task force member Bill McCargo stressing the need to give the community some ''way to control growth so it can catch up with building new schools.'' In its draft recommendations due for presentation next month, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Doug Nurse, the task force explains that jurisdictions could set specific overcrowding thresholds for residential zoning denials or delays, looking perhaps at schools with 35-50 percent enrollments over their capacity and relief planned within three years. School district planning director Greg Stanfield thinks 20 to 25 area schools could reach such a threshold by 2008. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/13/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Pro-Growth Cherokee County Commissioners Set to Rewrite Land-Use Plan

Having felt since 1999 as if a Cherokee County Commission hearing ''was a trial,'' developers put their money last year behind pro-growth candidates Mike Byrd and Derek Good -- the first ousting staunch anti-sprawl chairwoman Emily Lemcke, the other taking an open seat -- and with a shift by swing-vote commissioners J.J. Biello and Ilona Sanders, they isolated slow-growth commissioner Harry Johnston and now feel ''welcome again'' in this northern metro Atlanta county. New commission chairman Mike Byrd tells Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christopher Quinn developers ''just want a fair hearing'' and their donations buy them no favors, noting that he recently convinced a developer and Commissioner Johnston to split the difference in their insistence on the county's one-home-per-acre rural zoning and a much higher density for a residential project, with a stipulation that over half of the site will be kept as green space. Commissioner Johnston grants that the chairman ''is not airtight pro-development,'' but says should the county -- population about 165,000 -- lose its rural zoning standard, not much would keep it from becoming like adjacent Gwinnett County, with its 660,000 residents, ''(w)all-to-wall-subdivisions'' and ''the ultimate in sprawl.'' County Zoning Board of Appeals member Roy Taylor believes the other four commissioners' ''desire'' for ''balanced'' growth, but he doesn't ''see it in their actions.'' The commissioners replaced Planning Commission chairman Garland Steward, critical of giving a developer greater density than planners recommended. They intend to rewrite the land-use plan that was rewritten under Commissioner Lemcke, who wanted to halve future growth. Instead, they have cut in half the road-targeted portion of her court-upheld impact fees that also pay for parks, sewers and emergency services. They also formed a task force to find ways of attracting growth with such incentives as impact fee waivers for businesses with high-paying jobs. Without fee reductions and other incentives, worries Commissioner Good, developers who in 1999-2002 bought almost 4,900 acres near cities with no impact fees and asked for annexation will continue to erode the county's tax base and ''there's nothing we can do to stop it.'' Getting denser zoning than planners recommended for his project, a developer sought no city annexation and put aside money for nearby roads, the commissioner says, adding, ''We saved the county half a million in road improvements.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/11/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Trolley Belt Line Would Use Old Rail Beds for Transit in Atlanta's Intown Neighborhoods

Anticipating another 2 million people in the Atlanta region by 2025, many officials, activists, developers and residents see a new potential for its long-term prosperity in the proposed 22-mile trolley Belt Line upon old rail beds around intown neighborhoods, with City Council President Cathy Woolard stressing that the project ''has more constituencies'' than any other she has ever done, Atlanta Housing Authority officer Tony Picket saying the vacant industrial land along the line can seat ''mixed-income, mixed-use development,'' and developer Kim King calling it ''a jewel of an opportunity.'' Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein architect Ryan Gravel, who first proposed the intown trolley loop during his graduate studies at Georgia Tech., tells Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, ''It's a great transit project, but it's also a land-use framework'' with ''a huge'' quality of life importance for the neighborhoods, since the question isn't ''whether there will be development'' but ''whether there's going to be a transit line to serve it.'' MARTA director of transit-oriented development Bill Martinez also considers the Belt Line project ''a unique opportunity to decide where growth and change will go and how it will go,'' pointing out that revival of depressed city neighborhoods will also benefit other areas, because ''As Atlanta grows, so does the region.'' Its technology relatively inexpensive, the line -- with either electric or rubber-tire flex trolleys -- would cost between $250 million and $450 million, the writer reports, noting that Council President Woolard thinks the city could follow its Atlantic Station funding strategy and issue construction bonds that would be repaid by property taxes from development along the line. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   7/14/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Population Swells in Atlanta's Suburban Ring

In contrast to Augusta, Macon and Savannah, which lost population last year, Atlanta gained 7,318 residents, almost two percent, and its suburban ring now includes 12 of the state's 15 fastest-growing cities, two of them -- Canton and Woodstock in Cherokee County, with 18.7 and 14.5 percent growth, respectively -- becoming the 5th and the 15th fastest-growing in the nation. With 3,168 new residents within a year, Canton is readying a long-range development plan, expecting its population of 11,338 to reach about 40,000 by 2015, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Christopher Quinn, noting that on the way to becoming a regional shopping destination, the city is also working on a 700-acre office-industrial park, its first big project. Last year's placement of eight Atlanta satellite cities among the 100 fastest-growing nationwide by the U.S. Census Bureau doesn't surprise Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Research Division chief Bart Lewis, who says, ''You are looking at one of the fastest-growing (metropolitan) areas nationwide. It stands to reason that areas on the edge of that region are suddenly coming into the growth path.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   7/14/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Restoring Walkability to Atlanta's Streets One Step at a Time

Whatever cars have taken away from public space safety and walkability in the past 40 years can be restored through better street design and gradual improvements to one block or intersection at a time, two transportation experts assured officials, builders and others at an Urban Land Institute-Atlanta chapter forum, with Oregon Department of Transportation bicycle and pedestrian program manager Michael Ronkin noting, ''Most people hate streets, yet we spend a good portion of our walking lives on them, so we need to make sure they work'' and traffic engineer Walter Kulash from Glatting Jackson consultants of Orlando, Florida, saying the lesson learned by retail and commercial developers is that ''context sells, and walkable context is what really sells now.'' Ronkin, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Eric Sunquist, saw Atlanta's biggest walkability challenge in ''retrofitting heavily traveled arterial streets'' with ''sidewalks and good crossing points,'' medians and newly-dedicated bike and turn lanes. Kulash agreed, pointing out that should reserving some lanes for bikers and turns affect car traffic, drivers in the area would readjust by finding alternate routes. He also stressed that in commercial districts ''no single element of design is more important than parking,'' with drivers feeling free to speed along stretches of asphalt, but cautious enough to slow down along sidewalks, especially since interior store parking usually makes streets busier by letting shoppers walk to other nearby shops and offices. Atlanta Planning Commissioner Charles Graves promised officials will soon create a walkability task force to ensure that city projects enhance instead of degrade the streetscape. Roswell Mayor Jere Wood said area mayors asked the state Department of Transportation for revised urban and suburban highway guidelines, to encourage walking and non-car uses. -- Atlanta Journal- Constitution   6/16/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/

Gov. Perdue's Traffic-Relieve Plan Focuses on Atlanta Roads; Federal Funds for Light Rail in Jeopardy

Having rejected Democratic predecessor Roy Barnes' $822 million traffic-relief bond package -- which included $176 million for initial lines of a $2.1 billion regional commuter-rail system and for a multimodal downtown Atlanta terminal -- Republican Governor Sonny Perdue isn't yet ruling rail out, but he certainly prefers to spend $430 million in bonds lawmakers approved last month on metro Atlanta roads and a bus rapid transit system as less costly, more flexible and faster to build. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin objects to halting money for the multimodal terminal and may ask lawmakers to override the governor's decision, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Duane D. Stanford, quoting her as saying, ''We have the federal money in place. We need the state match. This project is crucial to the long term future of Atlanta.'' Part of the former governor's five-year plan to invest $8.6 billion in roads, commuter rail and mass transit, the $822 bond package, designed to speed up projects, was to be paid off from federal transportation grants Georgia expects over the next 20 years. Opponents of the proposed Northern Arc feared the bonds could also accelerate that controversial Atlanta bypass project and challenged the bond mechanism in court as an illegal exclusion of the General Assembly from the state debt approval process. Should the projected 790-mile commuter rail go forward, the writer notes, it could carry 8.7 million passengers annually in 15-20 years, helping relieve roads from 17,500 cars during rush hours, the equivalent of traffic on an 8-to-12-lane perimeter highway. Meantime, the writer adds, the 11 metro Atlanta counties slated to receive $85 million in new bonds for improvements of 44 major roads agreed to contribute about $21 million over three years to the operational cost of the proposed regional rapid bus service. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   5/16/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/politics/ ; www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/

Atlanta Traffic Signal Coordination Plan Seen As Simple Solution for Immediate Results

Republican Governor Sonny Perdue announced his first major congestion relief initiative, to repair and coordinate metro Atlanta's 3,000 traffic lights, at a public meeting of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA), his appearance taken as a sign that he will depend on the agency, created by Democratic Governor Roy Barnes in 1997, to make transportation improvements across jurisdictional boundaries, with GRTA Chairman Walter ''Sonny'' Deriso saying, ''His presence here today and his remarks indicate that he is formalizing a (transportation) plan and policy.'' The governor's traffic lights coordination initiative, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie Hairston, will be run by a joint task force of the GRTA, the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Department of Transportation, with an implementation plan due by the end of 2004. Such efforts can produce significant results, the writer notes, quoting GRTA project manager Roger Henze, who says coordination of 178 lights in Gwinnett County sped up travel by 22 percent and cut delays by 36 percent, while coordination of 12,000 lights in California sped up travel by seven percent and reduced delays by 16 percent. Convinced that ''getting simple solutions done now'' and planning ''cost- effective projects for the near future'' will ensure benefits in a short time, the governor endorsed Flex Trolleys, buses with trainlike features, as a possible low-cost option for metro Atlanta. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   5/15/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/

Athens Grow Green Coalition Defines Short-Term Smart Growth Goals

Instrumental in the electoral success of conservation-minded Athens-Clarke County Mayor Heidi Davison and several commissioners last year, the Athens Grow Green Coalition laid out a series of smart growth goals for the near future, hoping to get more residents involved in updating the long-range regional MACORTS transportation plan, boost public support for a ''transferable development rights'' ordinance and make the unified city-county government hire an environmental coordinator and an urban planner. The MACORTS plan, for the Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional Transportation Study, is updated every five years, reports Athens Banner-Herald writer Lee Shearer, quoting Athens Grow Green Coalition spokesman Seth Wenger, who points out that the transportation plan ''has a major impact on where growth happens,'' but its current version neglects pedestrian and biking options, while the proposed roads across Athens' beltway are ''obviously incompatible'' with Clarke County's land use plan. Formed in 2000 by environmental, civic and other activists opposing the county's new zoning ordinance as a deviation from its 1999 comprehensive plan and an encouragement to sprawl, the Athens Grow Green Coalition was formally constituted only last year. It has been steadily gaining political clout and increasing its involvement in the area's social and growth-management issues. -- Athens Banner-Herald   5/13/2003

Resource(s): www.onlineathens.com/stories/

Mixed-Use Regional Mall on Hold for Forsyth County

Four years in planning, an upscale mixed-use regional mall sought by Forsyth County to balance its fast residential growth will not come up any time soon, as the Maryland-based Rouse Co. concluded the weak economy doesn't make the $350 million Forsyth Commons project feasible, deciding to look for less ambitious alternatives within the next months or eventually drop the purchase option on the 151-acre site along Ga. 400 east of Alpharetta. County officials are stunned, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Paul Kaplan. Hoping the mixed-use mall would spark other retail and commercial projects, they planned to invest about $20 million in the site's improvements. The money would come from the local sales tax extension recently approved by voters to raise $160 million for county infrastructure upgrades. Nevertheless, the writer notes, Commission Chairman Jack Conway says the county's demographics, wealth and land availability will sooner or later attract a regional mall. Forsyth Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Joni Owens thinks a just-announced decision by New York Life, an insurance giant, to locate a data center near the Ga. 400 site may help the Rouse Co. reconsider its stance. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   5/6/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/northfulton/

Developers See Opportunities for Pedestrian-Friendly Projects With Gwinnett County's Mixed-Use Redevelopment Plan

Passed just last October, Gwinnett County's ''mixed-use redevelopment overlay'' designation is becoming popular among developers, first Gwinnett Partners, LLC getting the permit for an apartment-townhouse-retail complex off Buford Highway in January, and now Emory Morsberger concurrently with Liberty Development Corp. seeking permits for similar pedestrian-friendly projects three miles apart, amid strip malls, box stores and car dealerships along ''the come-with-a-car-orþdon't-come-at-all'' U.S. 78 west of Snellville. Both developers, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Brian Feagans, want to replace scattered old houses and businesses with ''live-work-and-play'' neighborhoods -- Morsberger seeing his Mountain View Village as 100 single-family homes, 200 townhouses, 200,000 square feet of offices, retail stores, a park, a lake and an amphitheater; Liberty planning its Bluff at River Bend as about 300 houses, townhouses and ranch condos, 150,000 square feet of commercial space and less extensive office footage, with boutique-type stores around a core of restaurants and plazas opening to a street full of benches, planters and lush landscaping. Morsberger wants to be proud of his development -- in which people ''may live in a three-story town house where their law office, chiropractic office or speech therapy office is on the bottom floor'' -- as one that others will ''fly in to see.'' Liberty development director Tad Braswell describes its project as designed for all age groups, saying, ''You'll have anywhere from singles just out of college, to families, to people in retirement.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   5/3/2003

Resource(s): www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/

Atlanta Developer Outlines ''Green'' Attributes of Mixed-Use Atlantic Station

As the foundation rises at the once-contaminated site of the former Atlantic Steel mill in Midtown Atlanta, Jacoby Development chairman and CEO Jim Jacoby is promoting the $2 billion, 138-acre, mixed-use Atlantic Station -- he is building jointly with the American International Group (AIG) -- as a smart-growth and ''green'' construction model, stressing, ''There's gold in environmental redevelopment.'' Once a strip mall and Wal-Mart developer, notes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, Jacoby now meets regularly with conservationists and like-minded developers in an ''eco lunch bunch,'' which recently hosted the president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute at Washington- based Smart Growth America, former Maryland governor Parris N. Glendening. Part of EPA's Project XL -- for excellence in public health and environmental protection cost-effectiveness -- Atlantic Station will have 3,000-5,000 apartments, townhouses and single- family homes; 6 million square feet of office space; 1.5 million square feet of retail space; 1,000 hotel rooms; and a parking garage for 7,000 cars. Central air-conditioning for commercial buildings will lower their energy bills; a sewage system will be protected from stormwater overflow by a two-acre retention pond that will double as a community lake, surrounded by a four-acre park; many of 2,800 newly planted trees will shade trails and sidewalks; and five lanes of the nine-lane 17th Street bridge across the Downtown Connector to Atlantic Station will be reserved for pedestrians, bicyclists and a shuttle bus. Expecting these pedestrian and other amenities to encourage walking and exercise, Jacoby says his development partner will get extra benefits: ''If people are healthier, AIG is going to get a better return on (its) investment as an insurance company.'' -- Atlanta Journal- Constitution   4/21/2003

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Fulton County Board of Commissioners Pass Transfer of Development Rights Ordinance

In a first for Georgia, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners passed a grassroots-inspired Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) ordinance, which should help preserve 40,000 of 60,000 rural acres between the city of Palmetto and the Chattahoochee River by directing growth to three proposed high-density urban villages, with Commissioner Bill Edwards predicting, ''We're going to see this in other places around the state.'' The board voted unanimously, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Charles Yoo, but Commissioner Emma Darnell voiced her concern that even if development right sales are voluntary, the ordinance may inadvertently infringe on some owners' property rights, that is, ''assign people where they could live or restrict any developer.'' South Fulton landowner Steve Nygren, who brought together many others in creating the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance to push the TDR idea over the past two years, cites the examples of Colorado and Maryland, where TDR deals let sellers realize 30-70 percent of their land market value, saying the transactions will especially benefit small and aging farmers. They will get a cash infusion, without the need to sell for development and leave their land. ''This is far more democratic,'' he points out, ''and far more capitalistic.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   4/3/2003

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/

Fulton County Ordinance Would Create ''Land Bank'' for Transfer of Development Rights

Fulton County's grassroots-inspired transfer of development (TDR) ordinance, which seeks preservation of 40,000 acres, or 80 percent of the rural land between the city of Palmetto and the Chattahoochee River while channeling growth into three proposed high-density ''villages,'' is heading toward a Board of Commissioners vote this spring, with Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance president Stacy Patton, the one behind the landowner-activist initiative, saying, ''This is a voluntary tool. You don't have to use it unless you want to.'' Those who don't want to do so, observes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Charles Yoo, could still develop their properties under the current area zoning for one house per acre. Written at the University of Georgia Land Use Clinic, the proposed TDR ordinance would create a land bank, run by the county or a nonprofit group, with developers able to buy development rights from owners in ''sending areas'' slated for preservation and use them to increase density in ''receiving areas,'' that is, the three prospective mixed-use villages. According to the alliance, in states such as Colorado and Maryland that have long used TDRs, such sales bring preservation-minded owners 30-70 percent of the full market land value. The writer notes that Georgia lawmakers are considering an amendment to the current state TDR legislation, to let local government speed up the process without voting on each transfer deal. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   3/10/2003

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Timber Company, Nature Conservancy Agree to Protect 929 Acres in Georgia's Northwest Mountains

In another win for multi-prong efforts to protect the best mountain land in Georgia's northwestern sector, threatened by downward sprawl from Chattanooga, TN, and upward sprawl from Atlanta, the Nature Conservancy and Texas-based Temple-Inland Forest Product Corporation placed the company's 929 acres in Floyd County under a conservation easement, with the company retaining the ownership, receiving tax breaks for development rights and continuing selective logging, while letting the conservancy co-manage the land, facilitate new forest growth and save its unique Coosa Valley Prairie, home to dozens of rare plants and animals. Part of last year's agreement between the conservancy and Temple-Inland to identify, protect and manage environmentally crucial sites on the company's 2.1 million acres in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Stacy Sheldon, the Coosa Valley Prairie deal reflects the company belief that ''sustainable forest principles will help grow better forests.'' Georgia Forestwatch executive director Brent Martin tells the writer that with federal conservation funds getting scarce, timber companies like Temple-Inland ''hold the key in a lot of ways to the future of these forests,'' calling it a huge success to win their commitment to preserving forest land forever. In two other deals to preserve another 2,315 acres since last summer, the writer notes, the Trust for Public Land helped acquire the last tract for the Burnt Mountain Preserve near Jaspers in Pickens County and the state linked Cloudland Canyon State Park with the 4,500-acre Lula Lake Land Trust preserve in Dade County. Pickens County ''has a triple whammy if you will,'' says Mountain Conservation Trust executive director Barbara Decker, ''from retirees and second homes and regular suburban subdivisions,'' with all the corollary commercial development. Trust for Public Land activist Bobby Davenport, whose family donated 1,200 acres to the Lula Lake preserve, says counties more to the northwest were beyond developers' radar until Georgia began offering HOPE scholarships in the mid-1990s, which attracted a residential influx from nearby Chattanooga. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   2/11/2003

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/

Atlanta's Northern Arc Road in Doubt After Report Reveals Beneficial Alternatives

Metro Atlanta's proposed 59-mile Northern Arc toll road -- high among Georgia Department of Transportation priorities, but long fought by environmentalists and opposed by new Republican Governor Sonny Perdue -- received a potentially crippling blow from an extensive two-year Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) study of three growth alternatives for the 442,700-household north suburban area, which found a no-highway alternative most beneficial for residents, future traffic congestion relief and the environment. This no-arc alternative, reports Atlanta Journal- Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, would focus transportation investment on mass transit and promote zoning regulations to concentrate mixed-use development near transit stations, yielding almost $2 billion in area economic benefits, or an average annual savings of $672 per household. The two build-the- arc alternatives, one involving full implementation of all current transportation programs and the other providing for new HOV lanes and wider feeder roads, would yield $1.37 billion and $314 million in benefits, respectively. Northern Arc critics were jubilant, the writer notes, quoting the resident-based Northern Arc Task Force's chairman, Jeff Anderson, who felt vindicated that finally ''some study had the guts to point out the obvious,'' and a GRTA board member, Georgia Conservancy president John A. Sibley III, who elaborated, ''If you invest in transportation to support the regional development plan, you not only get better mobility, you also get the fairest system, the best environmental protection and the one that's cheapest for our households.'' Still, Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens expressed unwillingness to push for greater density before the state lays ''the track'' for transportation improvements and his Gwinnett County counterpart Wayne Hill cautioned advocates that density won't work everywhere and advised them ''to be realistic and use some common sense.'' Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Transportation Planning Director Jayne Hayse called the GRTA study ''very important'' for devising the 2030 transportation plan. The writer adds that GRTA planners will discuss their findings with local officials and residents next month, to include their input in the final report due in May. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   1/24/2003

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/

Decatur Approves Blueprint for Redevelopment of 50-Acre Industrial Site

Guided by Decatur's 2000 strategic plan and strong public preferences, city commissioners unanimously approved a 25-year blueprint for market-driven redevelopment of a 50-acre industrial and commercial site around the Avondale MARTA station as a mixed- use neighborhood, with street-level stores holding up to four floors of condos, town homes and apartments. The blueprint, partly funded by an $80,000 grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and subject to its final approval, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Karen Hill, envisions the highest redevelopment density close to the station's parking lot, tapering toward the edges of surrounding neighborhoods and leaving present small businesses unaffected. ''There is no reason why Smith Ace Hardware (and) Dearborn Animal Hospital can't stay,'' said the city's director of community and economic development director, Lyn Menne. ''They fit in with the neighborhood. We want them there.'' Mayor Bill Floyd complimented area landowners and prospective developers for being ''very patient, very forward-looking, very cooperative'' while the blueprint was drafted and then honed at a series of public meetings last year. -- Atlanta Journal- Constitution   1/2/2003

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Editorials Illustrate Controversy Over Transportation Costs of Sprawl

Sprawl-induced transportation costs often reach or even exceed family expenditures on housing, but car-dependency always hurts low-income families hardest and Georgia ''must begin investing seriously in public transportation'' to reverse this trend, states The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an opinion titled ''It's metro transit that should be spreading,'' while running an Equal Time response by Georgia State University history professor emeritus Stuart Galishoff, who considers the link between sprawl and transportation costs overblown and insists that ''suburbs pay their own way.'' The daily points out that although an average metro Atlanta household spent 19.6 cents of each dollar on housing and 21.7 cents on transportation in 1997-98, households ''earning between $11,000 and $23,000 a year typically spend about 27 cents on every dollar to get around,'' usually by cars. Besides urging public investment in transit, the daily calls on the lending industry to follow the Federal National Mortgage Association in preferential treatment of applicants choosing locations near transit. The professor emeritus writes that the area's family transportation costs aren't much higher in the suburbs than in the city, since ''wherever you live in Atlanta, you will want to own a car.'' On the other hand, a family paying an $1,100 monthly mortgage for a 2,300-square-foot suburban home gets a bargain, because it would have to spend almost as much ''in property taxes alone for a similar house in Buckhead,'' he writes, noting that ''most middle- class and affluent Atlanta residents send their children to private schools at a cost of $5,000 to $12,000 a year per child, none of which is tax-deductible.'' Suburbs pay for themselves by attracting retail and commerce ''that generates surplus tax revenues,'' while urban living advocates ''seldom oppose heavily subsidized mass transit, sports stadium and convention centers,'' he argues, quoting the like-minded director of the Center for Environmental and Regulatory Reform at Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, Steven Hayward, who concludes in a similar context that ''the complaint about a subsidy of suburban homes is revealed as mere anti-suburban bias.'' -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution   12/12/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/ ; www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/business/

The Cost of Sprawl: How Much Does it Cost to Drive to Work?

As bigger and cheaper homes pull people ever farther from their jobs, they pay the hidden sprawl price in commuting costs, not realizing or not caring that the combined cost of owning and operating a new car was put by the American Automobile Association at 50.2 cents a mile, including loan interest, tax, registration, insurance, gas, maintenance and depreciation. According to U.S. Department of Labor 1999-2000 data, this translates to an average of $6,829 (18.1%) in annual household spending for transportation across the Atlanta metro area, compared to $8,254 (21.9%) for housing, with equivalent national figures of $7,118 and $7.114 (both 18.7%). But many Atlanta families in outlying suburbs are paying more for transportation than for housing, reports Atlanta-Journal Constitution writer Janet Frankston, with Carrie and David Wolford of Hiram, Paulding County, calculating their commuting costs at $1,230 a month versus a $1,100 mortgage, and Misuk and Michael Rodgers of Stockbridge, Henry County, citing theirs as $898 and $858, respectively. Although transportation takes a big bite out of family budgets, some mortgage lenders, including Bank of America, gloss over its impact on borrowers' cash flow. Not the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, whose chief economist Richard Fritz stresses the need to ask not only ''where people are going to live and can they afford it,'' but also ''where they are going to work and can they afford to get there?'' Consumer driving needs are also important to many car insurance companies that offer low-mileage discount rates, in the case of Allstate Insurance Co. for driving fewer than 7,500 miles a year. Still, owning a suburban home, which ''will increase massively in value over time,'' is part of the American dream, says Rutgers University urban policy professor Robert Burchell, and that's why people are ''absolutely willing to do it.'' -- Atlanta-Journal Constitution   12/9/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/business/horizon/

Roundtable Highlights Smart Growth Options for South Fulton County

Determined to bring smart growth to south Fulton County, which missed the decade-long metro Atlanta boom and still has 80,000 acres for residential and commercial use, a nonprofit Partnership for Tomorrow group held its first planning and conservation roundtable for local officials, developers and residents, with a slide show of crowded, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly town squares and vibrant downtowns. Launched by County Commissioner Bill Edwards, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Charles Yoo, the group is led by public relations expert Candace LaForge, who said the roundtable was part of ''a proactive approach to attract quality growth.'' Among local examples of a similar pursuit, moderator William de St. Aubin of Sizemore Group -- which is working on master-planning in the county's Sandtown district -- highlighted a growth-management proposal by the civic Chattahoochee Country Hill Alliance. The alliance hopes to preserve almost 40,000 acres of the area's forests and its traditional character by concentrating future growth in three urban villages, an effort involving 1,250 landowners. Developer John Perlman told roundtable participants that county officials could help smart growth by speeding up some land-use permit procedures, adding, ''We want to do smart growth, but if they throw hurdles at it, then it's not necessarily worth the effort.'' -- Atlanta Journal- Constitution   12/5/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

More Condos Planned for Atlanta's Mixed-Use Buckhead Neighborhood

Moving toward smart growth ''in a stop-and-go fashion'' for almost a decade, the Buckhead neighborhood in north Atlanta is becoming a dense mixed-use center of upscale residential towers -- six high- rise condos already open, two under construction and another six planned -- with developer David Allman of Regent Partners saying, ''We have plenty of office and commercial (space), and we need residential to get the street peopled day and night.'' The developer, reports Atlanta-Journal Constitution writer David Pendered, is following his landmark office Tower Place with an adjacent $66 million, 35-story apartment building slated for completion in early 2004, the rents likely to exceed $4,000. Another developer, Mark Hackner of Fog Capital Inc., is planning a $95 million, 40-story condo atop a nearby retail building. He sees the future Buckhead as a walkable live-work-play district like Chicago's highly successful Lake Shore Drive, where ''the residential, retail, office and parking all coexist.'' In view of Atlanta's sewer and storm runoff problems, the writer notes, some Buckhead developers build on-site holding tanks to ease the strain on central processing plants while the city continues area system upgrades. Also, business members of the Buckhead Central Improvement District added $275,000 to a $1 million federal grant for recent upgrades at 23 of its busiest intersections and the city hopes to launch a $40 million Peachtree Road overhaul in early 2004, to transform its major section, says Buckhead Area Transportation Management Association (BATMA) executive director Denise Sterling, into ''a signature boulevard that will provide a sense of place for the community.'' The writer adds that BATMA plans to relieve the road's daytime congestion through a shuttle service next fall, while working with area business and metro transit leaders to make the local MARTA station more accessible and to connect it with a pedestrian and shuttle bridge to the other side of Georgia 400. -- Atlanta-Journal Constitution   12/2/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Task Force Unveils Atlanta Parks Expansion Plan

The Atlanta Parks and Green Space Task Force unveiled a $400 million plan to improve and expand area parks by 2012, with task force chairwoman Barbara Faga saying, ''If we want to be a world class city, we need world class parks.'' Under the plan, the city would seek voter approval for a $200 million park bond issue in 2004, to leverage equal private donations. The plan calls for creation of an Atlanta Park District to manage the program, whose centerpiece would be a new 500-acre urban park, almost three times the size of Piedmont Park, the city's biggest. Mayor Shirley Franklin said, ''We want to start with the best ideas, then figure out what is good.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/22/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/atlanta/

Gov. Barnes Hopes Water Protection, Green Space Preservation Continues in New Georgia Government

As he prepares changes in Georgia government, led by Democrats for more than 100 years, Republican Governor-elect Sonny Perdue told top agency officials to resign and reapply for their jobs if they share his management ideals, while outgoing Governor Roy Barnes urged the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) to hold new leaders ''to a standard of making tough calls no matter what the price'' and to continue efforts to preserve the state's quality of life, natural resources and open space. The governor-elect, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Duane D. Stanford, asked all agency chiefs willing to stay in his administration to read a book entitled ''Principle-Centered Leadership,'' by corporate management guru Stephen R. Covey, who also advised former President Clinton and his wife, Hilary, after Republicans won a Congressional majority in 1994. Many agency heads intend to reapply for their jobs, crediting the governor-elect with a good business approach. The outgoing governor, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, praised the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) for its successful cooperation with ARC, the Department of Transportation and county governments in advancing metro Atlanta bus service projects and for its role in redeveloping a former midtown steel-mill site into the mixed-use Atlantic Station. He said the region's future growth will depend on water protection and conservation of water resources, and called for continuation of his $30-million-a-year green space preservation program as crucial for ''water purification needs and for our quality of life.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/22/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Gwinnett County's First Mixed-Use Overlay Ordinance Emphasizes Public Spaces, Allows Higher Density for Large Redevelopment Projects

As Gwinnett County's suburban panorama of one-acre lots recently became marred by patches of decayed ''big boxes'' and half-empty malls, the County Commission set out on the path of smart growth, with unanimous approval of its first mixed-use overlay ordinance, under which builders proposing to redevelop already-paved sites of at least 10 acres may push the current maximum density from 13 to 32 units per acre, and mix condos, apartments, offices, shops, restaurants and parking decks both vertically and horizontally. Under the ordinance, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Brian Feagans, any mixed-use overlay project must reserve one-fifth of the site for public space, while no single use -- retail, office or residential -- can exceed 70 percent of the site, with specific standards for building materials, landscaping and parking, and with incentives for plazas, sidewalks, benches and fountains to make it pedestrian-friendly. In response to suggestions of expanding the mixed-use ordinance to some undeveloped areas, County Commission Chairman Wayne Hill said he wants to see how the first projects will look. Commissioner John Dunn invited metro Atlanta developers to take advantage of a new opportunity, saying, ''Gwinnett County is open for the revitalization business.''   10/23/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Revitalization Expert Offers Strategies, Urges Citizen Involvement at Henry County Quality Growth Hearing

As metro Atlanta reaches southeast into Henry County, a downtown and Main Street revitalization expert, Bruce Green, urged all at the county's Council for Quality Growth public hearing to challenge the status quo and prepare for the future by ''knowing, seeing, thinking and caring'' about shaping their community differently, with a vision of smart growth. ''As southerners, we don't want to ruffle any feathers,'' he told an audience of area officials, builders, bankers, realtors and residents. ''Get over it. Ruffle some feathers. If we don't, what we treasure as southern life will change dramatically.'' Council executive director Judy Neal, reports Daily Herald writer April Avison, said the guest's ''knowledge of smart growth strategies and creative zoning'' will help the public realize their importance for quality growth and sense of community. Council president Stan Cameron added, ''As a council, we've done a lot of things, but we haven't done a great job of defining quality growth -- and Bruce just did that for us.''   10/17/2002

Resource(s): www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1100

Urban Villages Are Focus of Fulton County's Chattahoochee Hill Development Plan

In an effort to protect southern Fulton County's forests, meadows and riverbanks from sprawl and pollution, county commissioners unanimously approved a grassroots-inspired plan to steer Chattahoochee Hill area development into three mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented urban villages and their hamlets -- with developers allowed to exceed the current one-home-per-acre limit up to 14 times, under a purchase of development rights formula requiring them to compensate for each additional unit by saving an acre elsewhere. Since the development rights will be traded like stocks, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Ty Tagami, all area property owners stand to profit from the plan, not only those who own land in the villages. ''That's why you saw not one voice of opposition here and saw a unanimous vote,'' said plan initiator, local resident Steve Nygren, who began rallying others for his idea two-and-half years ago and helped flesh it out during community meetings with county planners. Having agreed in August on the location and composition of the three villages, the commissioners also followed with guidelines for their designs. Noting that the county won't extend sewer lines to the villages, expecting developers to ensure local sewage treatment, the writer quotes Commissioner Bill Edwards, who said, ''When you start digging pipes somewhere, development follows the pipes. Ain't going to be no pipes to follow.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   10/3/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Atlanta's High Profile Smart Growth Project Keeps Pace

The nation's most complex ''smart growth'' project, the $2 billion redevelopment of a former steel mill site in midtown Atlanta into the pedestrian-friendly Atlantic Station mini-city, has steadily cleared hurdles and even turned the sudden exit of the proposed Georgia Aquarium to its advantage, with 70 percent of the future office space already pre-leased, many prospective buyers on the waiting list for condos and major retailers soon expected to follow the smaller stores signed up to date. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer David Pendred reports that the move of the $200 million aquarium downtown will likely appease a group of local residents who last month asked Fulton County Superior Court to halt the project until their traffic concerns are addressed. And although some issues of site remediation are still being probed by state and local officials, the decisive factor for Atlantic Station was federal approval for construction of the 17th Street bridge over the joint I-75 and I-85 highways despite Atlanta's non-compliance with federal clean air standards. The U.S. EPA made the exception because the developers promised to fund frequent bus shuttles to the nearby MARTA Arts Center Station and because it found that the high-density Atlantic Station would cut the area's overall air pollution by limiting sprawl and its associated inevitable car travel. The project's state-of-the-art solutions will include an environmentally-friendly central cooling system for retail and office buildings, light-colored heat-proof roofs, runoff monitoring wells, and separate stormwater and sewage outflows. Among its amenities will be an 11-acre park with a lake featuring fountains and a decorative bridge. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/16/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Republican Gubernatorial Candidates Would Halt Atlanta's Northern Arc Project

Advocating road improvements and transit expansion for the congested metro Atlanta area, all three Republican hopefuls for the party gubernatorial nomination would scrap the $2.2 million, 59- mile Northern Arc project strongly backed by Governor Mike Barnes, with the most outspoken of them, Bill Byrne, also willing to dissolve the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) and skip any bond issuance based on the expected influx of federal transportation funds in the next 20 years, while the more moderate Linda Schrenko and Sonny Perdue would only dilute GRTA powers and use bonds sparingly. Byrne, reports Atlanta Journal- Constitution writer Christopher Quinn, dismisses such smart growth ideas as higher-density housing, calling it ''a tree-huggers' viewpoint.'' Comfortable with Atlanta's prospective spread along a network of upgraded roads, he would expand bus systems and local rail lines, but kill the proposed commuter train to Athens and Macon. Schrenko would disperse Atlanta's state jobs and commuters among about eight new regional offices, shift some cargo from Hartsfield International Airport to Augusta, Macon, Columbus and other airports, and alleviate metro congestion by augmenting the popular express bus system and offering businesses tax incentives for employee telecommuting. Perdue would push for vanpooling as a most frugal means of reducing car use and for a bus rapid transit system, with more park-and-ride lots. He would also try to let 25 percent of government workers telecommute and possibly seek the same in the private sector, with tax credits for telecommuters. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/13/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Slow-Growth Candidates Victorious in Atlanta-Area Elections

Increasingly popular in the metro Atlanta area, a slow-growth and road-wary electoral stance gave primary or final victories to activist candidates for open commission seats in Cobb, Forsyth and Henry counties, with the paradoxical exception of Cherokee County Commission Chairwoman Emily Lemcke, painted by a rival as too anti- growth for the county's good. In Cobb County, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Kevin Duffy, activist Helen Goreham overcame Judy Williams, with an almost nine times bigger budget due largely to developer contributions, confident that voters saw her ''as the candidate who would represent homeowners rather than the development community.'' In Forsyth County, with the nation's third- fastest growth rate, incumbent Commission Chairman Keiffer and Commissioner Michael Bennett lost to challengers Charles Laughinghouse and Jack Conway, both winners propelled by the grass- roots Northern Arc Task Force Action Organization, which is fighting the proposed $2.2 billion, 59-mile east-west toll road north of Atlanta. In Henry County, Commissioners Phil Crosby and Nita Spraggins were beaten by slow-growth advocates Gerry Adams and Lee Holman, with Commission Chairman Leland Maddox elated about the change, saying ''We need quality of life, not quantity.'' The writer notes that should Holman win in November, Henry County, the sixth fastest-growing nationwide, could see development impact fees and a one-year building permit moratorium, measures also favored by Maddox and Adams. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   9/12/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

$5.3 Billion Approved for Road and Transit Improvements in Atlanta Metro Area

With funding for the controversial $2.2 billion Northern Arc toll road project put on hold by Governor Mike Barnes in July, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) easily approved a three-year, $5.3 billion road and transit improvement plan as promising to meet the higher metro air quality standard set up by a new court ruling several days earlier. Half of the funding-eligible projects, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, come from the governor's $8.6 billion transportation program presented last year, including an Athens-Macon commuter rail, a new Midtown-Cumberland Mall transit line and many new feeder-road lanes. There is also money for HOV lanes, bike paths and sidewalks in many communities. In a series of five hearings across the region, the commission will seek public input on the plan. The writer also reports that Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin held the first meeting of ARC's ethics committee, which will propose financial disclosure requirements for commission members, along with new procedures for registering and resolving citizen complaints. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/29/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/

Citing ''Dangerous Precedent,'' Atlanta's Northern Arc Road Opponents Challenge Unrelated Transportation Bond Plan

In a pre-emptive strike against Governor Roy Barnes' hard-pushed $2.2 billion, 59-mile Northern Arc toll road project, its opponents asked Fulton County Superior Court to stop an unrelated but imminent issuance of $882 million in bonds for a regional bus system, new HOV lanes and commuter rail lines in metro Atlanta, arguing that the funding mechanism violates a 1972 amendment to the Georgia Constitution and stating publicly that despite their support for many of the projects their suit may undercut, they had to sue to prevent setting a bond precedent for the arc. ''Without our intervention today,'' declared one of the anti-arc Northern Arc Task Force leaders, Bob Campbell, ''this type of illegal scheme would set a dangerous precedent, permanently silencing the choice of the people and saddling future generations with extraordinary debt.'' Since the repayment of this type of bond depends on future money from the federal government, explains Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, the state could face problems should the federal contribution shrink, as Virginia and New Mexico have already learned. She notes that the State Road and Tollway Authority was to use part of the challenged bonds to repay $300 million borrowed last November to jump-start work on rural roads. The governor's spokeswoman, Joselyn Baker, said the administration is ''confident there is nothing illegal or inappropriate'' about the bonds and the authority's executive director, Jim Croy, added he expects their approval by the court once the case is argued on September 4. But regardless of the ruling, an appeal is likely, the writer observes, which would insert the area's transportation and funding debate into the fall election campaign. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/20/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/

Mixed-Use Village Zoning Approved in Georgia's Fulton County

The idea of managing rural area growth through mixed-use ''villages,'' adopted by commissioners but thwarted by landowners some time ago in Cherokee County north of Atlanta, has been successfully revived by the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance of landowners in Fulton County south of the city, with the County Commission unanimously approving ''live-work'' zoning for three villages in a 62-square-mile forest area increasingly attractive to developers. The village proposal, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Charles Yoo, was spearheaded for two years by Palmetto hostel owner Steve Nygren, who has inspired local discussion on how to prepare for growth and led a team of residents and engineers in creating the area's master plan. Its infrastructure and regulatory details still have to be worked out, but Fulton Commissioner Bill Edwards applauded residents for taking charge of their land's future, telling the group at the commission's meeting, ''Let's keep working.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   8/8/2002

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Atlanta Developers Turning to ''Conservation Subdivisions''

Higher buyer demand combined with lower infrastructure costs have turned many Atlanta area developers from the usual suburban design toward ''conservation subdivisions,'' increasing their confidence that clustering homes on small lots and leaving much of the green space undisturbed is both good public policy and good business. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston reports that several metro counties have recently passed or are readying conservation zoning, with Cherokee officials launching the trend in 1998, inspired by developer Chaunkee Venable's innovative Orange Shoals subdivision, where each of 317 homes, in the $260,000 to $375,000 range, backs up to a forest giving residents more than 100 acres of common recreational space. ''I was trying to do something I'd be proud of,'' the developer says. ''I'd be embarrassed to do something ugly, cookie-cutter. I'd be embarrassed to live in one. I'd be embarrassed to build one.'' In Gwinnett County, which passed a conservation ordinance last year, York Development Inc. is building such seven smaller subdivisions, pricing homes from $130,000 to under $160,000 and saving 164 of 324 total acres. Its development manager, Ryan Sullivan, says, ''We impact less of the land in the process, while setting aside a large portion of open space. If the numbers didn't work, I wouldn't do it.'' The writer explains that builders draw cost benefits from grading less land, cutting fewer trees and laying shorter roads and utility lines for clustered homes. And noting metro Atlanta's imminent water crisis due to polluted stormwater runoff from ever larger paved and other impervious surfaces, the writer adds that conservation subdivisions can help alleviate the threat since their untouched land stores water and remains a natural buffer for lakes and streams. But she also quotes the director of environment and policy at the Washington-based Urban Land Institute, Michael Pawlukiewicz, who observes that notwithstanding their environmental benefit, conservation subdivisions still perpetuate sprawl. They save some nature, he says, but absent transportation alternatives, they ''haven't affected anything like air quality or energy efficiency.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   7/29/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Governor Recommends Temporary Postponement of Atlanta's Northern Arc Road Project

Prompted by allegations of conflict of interest among those due to decide the ''if'' and ''where'' for the $2.2-billion part of his bold transportation improvement plan, the 59-mile east-west Northern Arc tollway skirting metro Atlanta, Governor Roy Barnes recommended the postponement of all actions on the road by the State Transportation Board, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) ''until the General Assembly can pass strong ethics legislation,'' a move welcomed both by proponents and opponents of the road. His legislation proposed last month, the governor said, ''will require conflicts of interest to be made public and require those with conflicts to recuse themselves from the planning process.'' He stressed that GRTA has followed such a disclosure procedure since its formation and people know that the agency decisions are ''based on sound transportation policy -- not personal profit.'' ARC and Clayton County Commission chairman C. Crandle Gray called the governor ''absolutely on target.'' Saying they both know ''all the innuendo of conflict of interest,'' he added he doubts ''there's much conflict,'' but ''there is a perception.'' With ARC expected to decide in November on the allocation of $158 million toward the purchase of rights of way for the Northern Arc, its director Charles ''Chick'' Krautler said the agency can take the action next spring or in mid-2004, depending on how the ethics legislation stands. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution lists several ARC, GRTA and state transportation officials with properties near the proposed road's route, noting that ARC board member, Atlanta attorney Richard Chandler Jr., resigned last week, but denied any conflict of interest. Journal-Constitution writers Jim Galloway and Janet Frankston quote the president of the business-based Georgians for Better Transportation, Terry Lawler, who pointed out that his group and the governor still see the ''need for improved east-west traffic across the state.'' In contrast, the chairman of the resident-led Northern Arc Task Force, Jeff Anderson, said his group still believes the road ''has no merit and no business case'' and will be ''monitoring the situation carefully.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   7/6/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Rapid Development Putting Atlanta's Watersheds At Risk

Metro Atlanta population growth from 3 to 4.1 million and the parallel spread of paved and other impervious surfaces in the last decade, has inflicted a heavy toll on the region's watersheds, with violent stormwater runoff from roads, roofs and parking lots eroding soil, polluting streams, degrading habitat and disrupting normal water seepage, states a U.S. EPA study, led by the agency's scientist at its regional office in Atlanta, Jim Harrison. ''If we continue to develop as we've done in the past,'' he warns, ''we're going to destroy our streams.'' With most scientists saying a stream can remain healthy if the impervious surface in its watershed, or drainage area, is under 10 percent, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Charles Seabrook, the study of Georgia's more than 1,400 watersheds found that 51 of them, mostly in the 16-county metro Atlanta Region, have undergone significant changes from 1993 to 1999. In 32 watersheds the impervious surfaces increased from below 5 to 5-10 percent; in 12, from 5-10 to 10-25 percent; and in 7, from 10-25 to more than 25 percent. The increases brought the state's total number of watersheds in these three risk-progression categories to 137, 67 and 25, respectively. The findings should alarm all Southeast states, from Florida to Virginia, since their rapid urbanization may wipe out 72 million to 81 million acres of farmland and forests by 2040, Harrison says, expecting the heaviest growth impact on the Piedmont, the Lower Atlantic and Gulf coastal planes and the Southern Appalachians. ''Prevention is critical,'' he stresses. ''If we get serious now about the importance of imperviousness, we can avoid totally unnecessary stormwater degradation of streams, and put those waters already impacted back on the road to recovery.'' The writer adds that the 16-county Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District has prepared several model ordinances for area municipalities to deal with post-construction runoff, bank erosion and other stormwater surge effects. Municipalities refraining from doing so will face stiff penalties. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   7/1/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

98-Acre Mixed-Use Development Rejected in Gwinnett County, Ga.

Pleading with Gwinnett County officials and red-shirt-clad opponents to let him ''work through a system that doesn't allow smart growth,'' developer Doug Spohn argued that if they bar his mixed-use project with 256 residential units and several small businesses on 98 acres along Rosebud Road near Grayson, they will certainly see fast-food restaurants and strip centers spreading northeast from metro Atlanta, but the county Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners turned him down anyway. His sole supporter, Commissioner Marcia Neaton-Griggs, lauded him for having varied-price housing for young families and empty-nesters close together, with which he's been highly successful in Duluth some 15 miles away, but she wasn't able to sway the board from siding with local homeowners, who fought the project as incompatible with the area's mansions, farmland and cow pastures. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Brian Feagans notes that the developer wanted to mix $180,000 duplexes with $400,000 homes and offered to work with the community on the architecture, streetscapes and other project features. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   6/19/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/

Live-Work, Mixed-Use, and Multifamily Zoning Bills Approved by Atlanta City Council

In response to growing public interest in urban lifestyle and builder confidence in new urbanism, the Atlanta City Council unanimously passed three bills creating live-work, mixed-use and multifamily zoning, with their key proponent, Councilwoman Debi Starnes, pledging the council's cooperation ''with any developer that will try these and build the projects we are hoping for.'' The live-work zoning, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Milo Ippolito, will let small-business owners work on the ground floor and live upstairs; the mixed-use zoning will encourage building homes, stores and offices in a single complex; and the multifamily zoning will permit high-rises with cafes, florists, laundries and other services on the street level. All three categories, the writer notes, reverse old policies of building homes, stores and businesses in separate zones, with the practice helped and solidified since the 1920s by cars as common means of transportation. Internet-entrepreneur-turned-developer Charles Brewer, whose Green Street Properties practices new urbanism, thinks the obstacle to ''good urbanism is that in most places in the country, it's illegal.'' A co-owner of several post-industrial properties in Atlanta's older sections, Robert Rothberg hopes that the new zoning will prepare local residents for ''what can be done'' in their areas and speed up property sales without the need to negotiate each project detail with the neighborhood, but he also questions whether zoning is a proper tool ''to try to force a certain type of development.'' City planner Enrique Bascunana observes, ''People want to experience an urban atmosphere.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   5/23/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Sugar Hill, Ga. Commissioners Reject Annexation for Planned-Unit Development

To cheers from a standing-room-only crowd spilling out from the Sugar Hill City Hall onto the street, planning commissioners voted 5-0 against a developer request to annex 110 acres on the outskirts and rezone them for a planned-unit development (PUD), with clusters of 268 homes, 132 townhouses and 30 acres of green space, which local homeowners on three-times larger lots fought as too dense and certain to worsen area classroom shortages. Atlanta Journal- Constitution writer Brian Feagans quotes planning commissioner Joe Clarino, who said he'd like to see the Falling Water Inc.'s subdivision built under different plans, since a ''47-foot-wide lot is not a lot,'' but ''a sandbox.'' On the street, fifth-grader Hannah Hodge waved a poster reading ''Don't Be Fools, Stop Overcrowding Schools'' at passing drivers, as she told the writer she went to class in a trailer last year. Taken aback by the vehement opposition, the company's director of planning, Mike McDonald, said the subdivision plans will be reviewed and perhaps changed before a City Council vote on June 10. Developer attorney Jeff Mahaffey added that under Gwinnett County residential zoning, the company could build about 330 homes on the 110-acre tract, but it prefers the city's PUD zoning for its greater density. -- Atlanta Journal- Constitution   5/21/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

EPA Extends Deadline for Metro Atlanta to Meet Federal Ozone Standard

Having previously extended the Metro Atlanta deadline for meeting the federal ozone standard from 1999 to 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the state's request for another extension until November 2004, agreeing that the region's air pollution is made worse by nitrogen oxides adrift from other states, mainly from Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and both Carolinas. Noting that the EPA's decision comes after a federal court gave Georgia and 21 other Eastern states until 2004 to cut air pollution exacerbated by an inflow from outside sources, Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankstone quotes state environmental official Ron Methier, who says regardless of the new extension, the state will continue strengthening air protection rules to attain the quality standards by 2003. Concurrently, the writer notes, the EPA is preparing even stricter clean air standards that are already being taken into account by Atlanta Regional Commission transportation planners. The standards, she adds, affect road location and extension and outlays for regional bus and rail systems.   5/8/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Atlanta Walkable Community Development Runs Into Environmental Snag

Jane and Robert Marsden of Buckhead want developer Steven Delonga of the Core Development Group to build luxury townhouses on their 5.6-acre wooded tract, within easy walking distance of Peachtree Road businesses, the Peachtree Battle shopping center, a MARTA bus line and a planned mixed-use high-rise, which ''sounds like a textbook case of blending land uses to create walkable communities,'' but since the tract lays in a Peachtree Creek flood plain, notes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer David Pendered, the project ''pits 'smart growth' against environmental concerns.'' State officials, the writer reports, notified their Atlanta counterparts that the tract doesn't need a stream buffer, but some city council members are in a quandary over smart growth and flood plain protection needs. Local representative, Councilwoman Clair Muller sympathizes with the project's opponents, saying she is ''very much in favor of dense urban development,'' but the tract ''is a very environmentally fragile piece of property.'' The developer, who donated a nature easement and $10,000 for a creek bank cleanup at his other area project, promises to remedy flood plain disturbance from relocating earth. He says, ''Centralizing growth into the central core of the city is the smart thing to do.''   4/22/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

''Smart Growth'' Apartments Meet Resistance in Suburban Atlanta

''Growth might be smart, but that doesn't make it popular,'' reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston from the metro Atlanta suburbs, where business park developers now want to build apartments for younger employees eager to live near jobs and shops, but local officials lack the political will to issue permits because their suburban constituents resent higher densities. The area's ten county commission chairmen on the Atlanta Metro Commission (ARC) board back its smart growth policies and planning grants, but feel more obliged to home voters bent on their big-lot, car-dependent way of suburban living. Pointing out that ARC smart growth policies are ''recommendations only'' and that higher densities can worsen local traffic, Cobb County Commission Chairman Bill Byrne asks, ''How do you implement an academic solution to a real-life problem that has no alternatives to it?'' Fulton County Commission Chairman Mike Kenn poses the same question, ''It looks good on paper, but how do you implement it?'' Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Wayne Hill also focuses on apartments' density aspect, saying ''The average person on the street will tell you we're dense enough. Not every area will work for mixed use and higher density.'' Nor does Harvard University urban economist Edward L. Glaeser see a suburban market for smart growth. The big obstacle for smart growth in suburbs, he says ''is lack of demand for high- density dwellings and public transportation.'' But prominent developers remain undaunted. Technology Park/Atlanta Inc. is suing Fulton County over its recent denial of a request to build almost 400 apartments in the 1,900-acre Johns Creek office complex, with company president Rick O'Brien saying, ''Politicians are more interested in getting elected and staying elected instead of promoting good planning.'' M.D. Hodges Enterprises is bracing for next month's Gwinnett County decision on a request to rezone 23 acres for apartments in the 416-acre Huntcrest mixed-use complex, with company president Jeff Small saying commissioners who ''are preaching smart growth'' need to ''stand up and do what's right and approve these rezonings.''   4/15/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Smart Growth Policy Defeated in Fulton County Development Decision

''In the latest battle between smart growth and suburban values,'' the Fulton County Commission breached its own smart growth policy and voted 6-1 against letting developers of a mixed-use Technology Park project build 384 apartments vehemently opposed by local homeowners, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Milo Ippolito. Developers said the apartments would make it possible for low-income workers to live within the project and walk to jobs instead of driving from elsewhere and increasing congestion on major roads. Area homeowners countered that apartments would damage nearby wetlands, even though they weren't concerned about office buildings that usually result in more pavement and bigger storm water runoff. Commissioners censored them for inflexibility and faulty environmental claims, with chairman Mike Kenn saying that he didn't hear ''a legitimate argument of why we are against apartments other than we are against apartments,'' but having to decide between ''the advice of their paid planners or the will of their political constituents,'' the writer points out, they chose the latter.   3/14/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Task Force Will Coordinate Planning Decisions to Ease School Overcrowding

With Gwinnett County's relentless growth filling schools above 150 percent of capacity, its Planning Commission and Board of Education will create a seven-member task force to coordinate future decisions and possibly delay residential building permits in the most crowded school areas. Noting projections that some schools will exceed 200 percent of capacity, Commissioner Teresa Cantrell said the task force's top priority should be finding ways to prevent overwhelming schools with students from new subdivisions and apartment complexes. The commission passed her motion by a 9-0 vote. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Brian Feagans reports that the commission and the board will each appoint three members of the task force, and the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce will nominate the seventh member. School board spokeswoman Sloan Roach promised to be receptive toward local proposals for the task force's consideration.   3/7/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Northern Arc Highway Opponents Considering Suit to Stop Project

In a stepped-up fight over the 59-mile Northern Arc for Metro Atlanta, the so-called Northern Arc Task Force (NATF), made up mostly of residents in the highway's likely path, turned its informational gathering of 600 people in Gwinnett County into a political forum and pep rally against the project, while a Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) board member, businessman James E. Stephenson, ended his fund-raising support for state Republican Senator Rusty Paul, sponsor of bill to shift the $2.4 billion arc construction funds to improvement of area roads. Atlanta Constitution-Journal writers Brian Feagans and Julie B. Hairston report separately that NATF leaders, encouraged by some political candidates, are preparing a suit against the highway, while Senator Paul replied to Stephenson's strong letter, distributed to 178 others, that his phone and e-mail messages are 25-30 to 1 against the highway. Both the senator and his Republican colleague Bill Stevens, who co-sponsored the bill, see its chances as ''slim.'' But NAFT co-chairman Jeff Anderson calls the letter an emotional outburst of ''an ill-informed distributor of heavy equipment'' that indicates that the anti-arc campaign is making headway.   3/4/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Cars Could Take a Back Seat in Atlanta's Proposed Zoning Code

After six years of meticulous work and varied group input, Atlanta planners sent the City Council a radical plan to replace a restrictive zoning code that has long separated land uses with four new-urbanist categories that would shape entire mixed-use city neighborhoods and make them a viable alternative to similar pedestrian-oriented communities emerging in the suburbs. The four mixed-use categories would become the base of so-called Special Public Interest districts -- already tested in Midtown, the Centennial Olympic Park area and near the MARTA Lindbergh station -- reversing a 50-year practice whereby the car was ''the single most important factor influencing land-use policy,'' writes David Pendered of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He quotes Atlanta Planning Commissioner Michael Dobbins, who points out that after World War II, the ''centuries-old sets of relations between people and buildings were ignored'' and zoning actually encouraged and induced the phenomenon of building ''in a sea of asphalt, accessible by car.'' Stressing that his German colleagues in Berlin also are trying to restore classic zoning and recover from post-war planning geared only to cars and super-blocks, the commissioner says ''new urbanism is old urbanism for people like myself who have been working in core cities all their careers.'' Still, differences over aspects of rezoning remain, the writer reports. Recent college graduate and transportation planner Katie Sobush -- who likes her bike and doesn't want a car -- is ''thrilled'' that everything could be accessible within a short distance. But Midtown sports bar manager Brett Weehunt blames his business downturn on the new full- service buildings around, guessing that ''all the people moving into Midtown stay in their apartments or condos with their pools and their gyms,'' which may turn the area into an isolated urban enclave. Indeed, area real estate broker R. Charles Loudermilk notes that its market-driven economics aims for everything ''upscale,'' like a furniture store with $10,000 sofas, and he describes the newcomers' affluence as ''stunning.'' The writer adds that developer John Dewberry, who places high hopes on the area's rezoning, is suing the city for the resulting restriction on through-park side access to his projected Peach Street building, a charge city lawyers deny in the ''entire zoning code'' context.   2/25/2002

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''Mile-Based'' Auto Insurance Proposed in Georgia

On behalf of her Decatur in-town constituents, who typically drive ''only a short distance to work or take mass transit,'' state Democratic Representative Stephanie Stuckey Benfield introduced a bill to let insurance companies offer ''mile-based'' coverage -- with a policy fee and a per-mile charge -- which could mean substantial savings for people driving under 10,000 miles a year. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Jim Tharpe quotes one of the idea's backers, Decatur lawyer Ken Rosskops, 62, who says, ''I use a bike wherever I can, and sometimes my car sits around for days,'' stressing that mile-based coverage ''would give people another financial incentive to take transportation other than their cars.'' The representative admits that her bill, co-sponsored by her Democratic colleague Karla Drenner, has little chance this legislative session, but she at least wants to start discussion. Noting the bill's similarity to a law passed in Texas last year, the writer also quotes a spokeswoman for the Progressive Corp. insurance company, Leslie Kolleda, who says a pilot mile-based coverage tested by her company in the Houston area saved about 25 percent for those driving fewer than 10,000 miles a year. She points out that the global-positioning devices used to monitor car use were expensive for the company and difficult to install, but adds, ''We remain committed to the concept. We just need to find a way to make it work.''   2/25/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Editorial: Northern Arc Highway Good for Future Georgians

Hitting Northern Arc opponents -- ''a group that now includes door- shutting Republicans scrambling to mirror last-in local sentiment and anti-suburban activists with an 'anti-sprawl' agenda'' -- for their simplistic conjecture that Governor Roy Barnes ''is kowtowing to greedy developers'' in supporting the highway project, Atlanta Journal-Constitution associate editorial page editor Jim Wooten applauds the governor's push for construction as ''a gutsy one, reflecting a clear vision.'' With a barb for former Governors George Busbee and Zell Miller, who ''let politics rein'' and prematurely widened some roads instead of buying right-of-way in the north metro-Atlanta corridor, the editor sees some ''subsidy-sucking white elephants'' in Governor Barnes' $8.3 billion transportation plan, but considers it ''an honest and good-faith attempt at addressing problems his predecessors avoided.'' He then concludes, ''In the era of instant polling, politicians are drawn to decisions that are the most popular. The most popular course for Barnes would be to abandon the Northern Arc. But for future Georgians, it would be a disservice.''   2/11/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Georgia Governor, Lawmakers At Odds Over Northern Arc Highway

Governor Roy Barnes seeks speedy construction of the proposed $2.4 billion, 59-mile Northern Arc highway between I-75 and I-85 north of Atlanta, but some call it ''a developers' road'' and welcome efforts by Republican lawmakers to fund instead immediate road upgrades in Cherokee, Bartow and Forsyth counties. The sponsor of a bill to divert Northern Arc funding, Republican Senator Rusty Paul, says the highway was conceived 20 years earlier to run through ''pastureland'' and he could support it 10 years ago and perhaps 10 miles farther north, but not now when many communities are in its path. Highway opponents admit that neither Senator Paul nor Representative Tom Knox can garner enough Democratic votes to halt Northern Arc, but expect their bills to reignite public debate about the project's costs and effects. ''We want people to wake up and see what's going on,'' says Stop the Northern Arc activist Bill Muller, with lobbyist Parrie Pinyan adding that the public should know that the highway won't relieve current road congestion and will ''take away communities, houses and quality of life and leave some residents without homes.'' Atlanta Journal-Constitution writers Diane Stepp and Duane Stanford also quote Canton resident Doug Hoover -- owner of a new upscale home in the highway's likely path -- who feels he is ''being steamrolled,'' thinks the governor ''has insulated himself from the public on this'' and claims the highway ''makes no sense.''   2/11/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/

Atlanta to Test Segway ''Scooter'' in Pilot Program

''Scooter wins fans in Atlanta debut,'' reports Atlanta Journal- Constitution writer Janet Frankston from the city's SciTrek museum, where inventor Dean Kamen showed about 100 officials and visitors how to use his two-wheel, electronic Segway Human Transporter -- a self-balancing device that extends pedestrians' mobility range and lets them move efficiently within an urban or any other activity-hub radius of a few miles without cars. Coordinated by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), the city's Segway pilot program is expected to start in March, with about 20 scooters used by police, Downtown Ambassador Force personnel and Hartsfield airport workers. Officials liked their test rides. Georgia Regional Transportation Authority executive director Catherine Ross thought the device ''will change the pedestrian world.'' ARC planning director Tom Weydant said it ''triples your walking distance.'' ARC director Charles Krautler expressed his hope for state or federal aid to buy the test Segways, likely to cost from $3,000 to $10,000 depending on the model. Another Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer, Joey Ledford, also marvels at the intuitive easiness of Segway's use, but notes that because of the limited range, it will never become a true commuting vehicle or replace a car, though it ''may well hasten our already alarming trek towards becoming a totally sedentary society.'' The inventor replies, ''We're not selling exercise equipment. We're selling productivity efficiency.''   1/15/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/

Atlanta Sees Mixed-Use Projects Near Transit as Best Tool for Promoting Smart Growth

The Atlanta Regional Commission's best tool for promoting smart growth in the metro's ten counties is the $280 million in federal money over ten years promised under its 2000 Livable Centers Initiative for both planning and implementing mixed-use projects near transit, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, quoting ARC planning director Tom Weyandt, who says, ''Money captures people's attention.'' The writer points out that communities must match 20 percent of the money with local funds, and that since the initiative's inception, ARC has received 102 community applications for planning grants and has distributed $2 million among 22 winners so far, with the newest recipients to be announced shortly. This July, Arc will also distribute the first $20 million in implementation funds to nine planning areas, with the largest amounts, $6.1 and $2.7, going to Atlanta's Midtown Alliance and the city of Douglasville for street upgrades. Area developers agree that ARC grant money is vital for their ability to pursue mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly projects. Adding that ARC progress will be tracked by the Washington-based Urban Land Institute, the writer quotes its Land Use Policy and Outreach director David O'Neill, who confirms that public funds ''are key components to getting 'smart growth' off the ground'' and that the ARC program is the only one nationwide offering both planning and implementation aid. He considers the program more promising than ''95 percent of the 'smart growth' policies out there.''   1/14/2002

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/

Realtors Put the Pressure on Georgia's St. Simons Island

Badgered by high-pressure mainland Realtors luring them with at least $100,000 per acre, many St. Simons Island black landowners are posting ''Don't Ask, Won't Sell'' signs, distributed by the St. Simons African-American Heritage Coalition after a suggestion by Minneapolis Metropolitan State University professor and former civil rights activist Charles ''Chuck'' McDew. Coalition executive director Amy Roberts, herself on the island for generations, tells Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Jingle Davis, that some black landowners are tempted to sell because they can no longer afford sky-high island taxes and agents are ''offering the old folk more money than they've ever had.'' Development, she adds, ''has really taken its toll on black people here,'' which the writer illustrates with census figures showing the island's 20-year total population growth rising from 6,532 to 13,381, but the number of black residents only inching from 440 to 494. Professor McDew is blunt. ''Black people, especially older people,'' he stresses, ''are almost afraid to tell white people, 'Just get out of my yard; get off my porch.' Many of these old people just don't have the energy to say 'no' any more. It's terrible when you can't even sit on your front porch on Sunday without somebody coming by and making an offer.'' He thinks the law should bar gated communities and golf courses on the island to protect insular historic black communities and stem the development surge, which also threatens whites. The coastal islands have been changing and they are now ''for the gentry,'' he says. ''Soon, even middle-class white folks won't be able to live there.''   12/20/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/

Gwinnett County's Bus Service Picking Up the Passengers

Within a month since the launch of a modest bus service between its business centers and Atlanta, Gwinnett County -- till then, the country's most populous one without mass transit -- has recorded demand far greater than expected, with more than 760 boardings a day, which has prompted officials to set additional departure times. Confident that the $2 fares and fast trips will gradually attract more and more commuters, the county's transportation deputy director, Bill Powell, says officials will review the situation early next year to see ''whether we need to change the schedule or obtain additional buses.'' Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Doug Nurse reports that having twice blocked referendums on joining Atlanta's MARTA, the county plans to spend almost $80 million in five to seven years for a system of 22 express buses, 38 local buses and 14 special vans, with about $50 million in state and federal funds.   12/6/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/

Pedestrian-Friendly Zoning Part of Atlanta's New Midtown Plan

After four years of planning and broad local consultations, the business-led Midtown Alliance ''is putting teeth and money'' into its $45-million long-term vision of the area as ''a community for people rather than cars,'' securing from the city new pedestrian-friendly midtown zoning and a $6 million streetscaping grant for major corridors. ''Midtown needs to be a place to go to rather than a place to go through,'' says Alliance planning vice president Shannon Powell, pointing out that the new zoning requires future projects to have 20-foot wide sidewalks along Peachtree Street and 15-foot wide elsewhere. The $6-million grant will allow the alliance to reduce the number of lanes in West Peachtree Street from six to four, establish parallel parking on both sides and a right-side bicycle lane, and widen Peachtree Street sidewalks. The Alliance chairman and president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Jack Guynn, says, ''Cities that people really enjoy are cities where there are people on the street.'' Noting that city planning and development commissioner Michael Dobbins considers the new midtown zoning ordinance part of a wider effort to diversify Atlanta zoning, Maria Saporta of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes: ''In any discussion of new urbanism and smart growth, single-use zoning is often mentioned as the biggest obstacle. That's why these new zoning ordinances are so significant. They encourage developers and landowners to rethink the nature of their projects.''   12/3/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/

Georgia: Northern Arc Highway Seen As Answer to Gridlock

The Northern Arc is the only way to loosen the "grip of gridlock" north of Atlanta, where studies predict population will grow by 182 percent, jobs by 417 percent and weekday trips by 406 percent over the next 35 years, writes Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jim Wooten, convinced that without the arc, the average vehicle speed in the northern corridor "will drop from 41 mph in 1990 to 13 mph in 2035. Backing Governor Roy Barnes against his smart-growth critics on the issue, the columnist considers it odd that not one of them would question the impact of the downtown Atlantic Station on road, water and sewer systems or the wisdom of sinking hundreds of million of dollars into a commuter rail project. As to the threats to block construction with lawsuits, the columnist writes, "We have entered a dangerous era of adventurism in the courts, where groups and individuals who don't get their way in the legislative arena -- often because their ideas can't win majority support -- find a sympathetic judge to legislate their agenda from the bench. Or they sue and press for an out-of-court settlement that gives court sanction to their agenda. Sue? Of course they'll sue."   11/27/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc

Georgia: Northern Arc Highway: Traffic Solution or "Environmental Nightmare"?

Governor Roy Barnes' advocacy of the $2-billion, 50-mile Northern Arc highway, scheduled to open in 2015 under his accelerated transportation plan, "is a mystery to many of his 'smart growth' supporters," who call it "an environmental nightmare that will perpetuate unhealthy development patterns, gobble up green space and add to the region's water and pollution woes," writes Julie Hairston of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But proponents, she notes, consider the highway a long-overdue answer to traffic congestion on the east-west route between residential and employment centers of the north metro counties. The governor himself explains that he would have opposed the Northern Arc as another I-285, allowing "development to come up." However, "with a wide right of way, balanced with green space, limited access, limited points of coming in and out, and a toll," the governor thinks "it could work." Still, the writer expects opponents, including environmental groups, to challenge the construction in courts.   11/26/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc

Georgia: MARTA Eyes Budget Cuts

Hit by a $20 million MARTA deficit due to the economic slowdown, a ridership decline and higher employee wages, the agency's directors and top staffers are eying drastic cost-reduction measures, including pay freezes and furloughs for most non-union workers, lower transcard discounts for corporate and university partners, and service cuts as "the option of last resort." According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Stacy Shelton, some trains may be running every ten rather than eight minutes and the 38 least used bus routes may be eliminated, which would save about $4.6 million in the fiscal year ending in June. MARTA Assistant General Manager Gloria Gaines says service on 22 of these routes consists of one bus running twice a day, often with only a few passengers, mostly domestics employed in Buckhead and other wealthy neighborhoods.   11/17/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc

Georgia Transport Authority Approves Development Assessment, Transit Plans

In a move hailed by its leaders as "a gigantic step" toward better land use and air quality in metro Atlanta, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) board unanimously approved a procedure for assessment of large-project traffic and pollution impact and, with two objections, a $4.6 billion plan for funding roads and transit over the next three years. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston reports that once started in January, the assessment procedure will cost developers between $12,000 and $100,000, depending on project type and scope. GRTA will scrutinize all ten-county area projects that exceed the threshold of 400 units for housing and hotels, 400,000 square feet for offices and 300,000 square feet for commercial sites. GRTA has the power to withhold state and federal transportation funds from projects failing its criteria for curbing traffic, car-dependence and air pollution. The two board members voting against the funding plan, neighborhood advocate Eric Hovdesven and Georgia Conservancy President John A. Sibley III, objected to the $25 million for preliminary work on the controversial Northern Arc highway as certain to induce sprawl. They sided with a spokesman for the Metropolitan Atlanta Transportation Equity Coalition, Terry L. Allen, who told the board that the plan "worsens the imbalance of funds that are spent in the northern suburbs, which will draw development farther from downtown and the minority population." Urging the board to shift Northern Arc money to other projects, designate more HOV lanes, secure state funds for MARTA and address road construction impact on the environment, he added, "Improving transit service for a transit-dependent population should be an equal priority to expanding service for people who have transportation choices."   11/15/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc

Smart Growth Study Underway in Atlanta's Sandtown

One of Fulton County's oldest communities, Sandtown in Southwest Atlanta, is conducting a smart growth study, gathering public input on new schools, recreational facilities and community services for an envisaged "traditional village center." The Sandtown Association, the Fulton County Economic Development Authority and Sizemore Floyd Architects will present residents' ideas and expectations for further comments at a community workshop November 29.   11/12/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com/ajc

2,300 homes proposed for Flowery Branch in Gwinnett County mean "a population explosion" for this small city of 2,000

Although 2,300 homes proposed for Flowery Branch in Gwinnett County mean "a population explosion" for this small city of 2,000, its council preliminarily approved the 900-acre Rolling Hills Lake Club project under 41 conditions last month, noting that the developer, Looper Lake LLC, has already included biking and walking paths, a general store and other requisites of smart growth. City Manager Dennis Bergin says the council wants the developer to set aside at least 20 percent of the land as green space or common areas, with other conditions addressing the environment, watershed protection, storm water runoff, sewer service, transportation, education and public safety. Mayor Gene Reed notes that the project's 13-year construction schedule will give the city "time to adjust as it grows." With an average home price of $350,000, the mayor adds, the project "should pay for itself and then some," generating enough property taxes to pay the increased service costs.   10/18/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) will begin to scrutinize large projects in metro Atlanta

In January, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) will begin to scrutinize large projects in metro Atlanta's 13 counties that fail federal air quality standards, with size thresholds lowered by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in its 10-county area from 500,000 to 400,000 square feet for office and mixed-use projects, from 500,000 to 300,000 square feet for commercial projects and from 500 to 400 homes for residential projects. In the three remaining metro counties -- Coweta, Forsyth and Paulding -- the size thresholds are determined by their respective Chattahoochee-Flint, Georgia Mountains and Coosa Valley regional development centers. Since GRTA can withhold state and federal road construction funds from projects that would worsen area traffic and air pollution, developers and their attorneys expect it to establish clear and prompt procedures for its scrutiny, reports Atlanta Journal- Constitution writer Janet Frankston. She quotes the president of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, Bill Shean, who points out that if the GRTA review is "user friendly" and ends within 45 days, "developers won't try to find a way around it." Otherwise, he predicts, instead of proposing large, say, 900-unit projects, developers may propose three 300-unit ones. Attorney Carl Westmoreland thinks the lower size thresholds may be a problem for commercial projects without residential units or nearby transit to "help them with air quality credits," but on the other hand, he says, they can encourage mixed-use projects, especially those with apartments.   10/18/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

The Atlanta City Council is ready to ...

The Atlanta City Council is ready to approve the first $75 million -- and the state and federal government are sure to follow with $130 million -- for the $2 billion, 138-acre, ten-year brownfield redevelopment project, Atlantic Station, seen by many as the nation's most ambitious model for smart growth. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Melissa Turner points out that the project's initiator, developer Jim Jacoby, has focused on browhfield reclamation since the mid-1990s. Seeing the potential of the former Atlantic Steel mill site, he formed Atlantic Station LLC, a joint venture of Jacoby Development and AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp. of New York, to turn it into a mixed-use "mini-city," with more than 1,000 varied-income housing units, 400,000 square feet of office space, about 1.5 million square feet of retail space, hundreds of hotel rooms and an entertainment center. He asked the EPA to choose the site as the nation's first "Project XL" and the rest, the writer notes, "is history in the making." Impressed with Jacoby's vision, the federal government "waived a moratorium on road construction in Atlanta," allowing a new interchange and a six-lane bridge across the Downtown Connector; Governor Barnes gave it a green light and aid from the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority; and Mayor Bill Campbell propelled it through "a local zoning and permit minefield." In recent days, Jacoby confirmed AMC theaters' intention to anchor the project with a 20-screen multiplex, which an expert at the Washington-based Urban Land Institute, Michael Beyard, calls a "huge coup." 09.24.2001   9/28/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, created by ...

The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, created by Governor Roy Barnes to help improve traffic flow and air quality in metro Atlanta, is launching its first bus system, C-Tran, on two congested Clayton County routes to the MARTA station at Hartsfield International Airport, hoping to start the Quicklink Macon-Atlanta bus service in mid-November and a Buckhead shuttle next year. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Henry Farber cites authority spokesman William Mecke as saying, "Up to this point, we've really been a planning agency. Now the rubber hits the road. Now, we're an operating agency." C-Tran Director Richard Bray stresses that the joint work by diverse government entities -- a county, GRTA and MARTA -- is something new in Georgia, promising another three Clayton bus routes within three years. County Commissioner Carl Rhodenizer expects C-Tran to attract all commuters tired of traffic jams and to evolve in time into a regional south-metro transit system. But Commissioner Charley Griswell worries that Hartsfield's slowdown in the September 11 aftermath may dampen C-Tran ridership. The writer notes that 80 percent of the expected $30-million C-Tran costs over three years will be paid by the federal government, the rest by the county and the state. 09.26.3001   9/28/2001

Resource(s): www.accessalanta.com

In these days of high-density urban infill ...

In these days of high-density urban infill, live-work-play- walk communities, are the days of the massive, mixed-use suburban development numbered? asks Atlanta Business Chronicle contributing writer Martin Sinderman several of area developers and experts, finding them convinced that despite financial hurdles, such mega-projects as Peachtree City, Peachtree Corner and Windward -- seemingly opposite to smart growth -- will be built, though perhaps on a smaller scale. For example, he writes, the Dallas-based Terrabrook firm that has gradually built the 3,400-acre Windward project in Forsyth County, with 2,200 homes, 5 million square feet of offices for 13,000 employees, a 200-acre lake and a golf course so far, is following up with the nearby 1,300-acre Windermere development, which features 350 apartments, office and commercial sites, and 400 homes sold for $250,000-$600,000 since 1999. Another company, Mirror Lake LLC, has a 1,570-acre mixed-use project under way in Douglas County, with 390 lower-cost homes, a 96-acre lake, a golf course and 50 acres assigned for apartments and 30 for commerce. The writer notes that with land getting scarce and much more expensive, especially north of Atlanta, and with banks concerned about the viability of big projects to its west, developers are eyeing the southwestern suburbs for such development once financing gets easier. He quotes Colliers Cauble & Co. executive vice president Caldwell Zimmerman, who says that many developer firms have become public real estate investment trusts, REITs, and "have to generate earnings on a consistent basis." By investing a lot of money in raw land for big projects, while paying taxes, spending on infrastructure and getting no returns for years, he points out, they may depress their stocks, "which is very difficult for a public REIT to do." The managing director of Robert Charles Lesser & Co., Greg Loggan, adds that bankers and other lenders, who want "a pretty quick return on their investments," also favor smaller projects. Nevertheless, the prevailing developer belief that large-scale, mixed-use, far-flung projects have a future is shared by the executive director of the Urban Land Institute's council in Atlanta, Jim Durret, who says, "Even though they are largely greenfield developments located outside the urbanized area, I don't think mega-developments fly in the face of smart growth."   9/17/2001

Resource(s): www.atlanta.bcentral.com

At a Greater Atlanta Homebuilders Association forum ...

At a Greater Atlanta Homebuilders Association forum, all three mayoral candidates, Gloria Bromell-Tinubu, Shirley Franklin and Robb Pitts, assured the audience that whoever wins will streamline and accelerate the city's woefully slow residential and commercial permitting process. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer D. L. Bennett reports that the process is often seen as "overly bureaucratic and hostile to the trade," with some builders avoiding the city and many homeowners doing small jobs without permits because they take longer than the work. According to the city's own estimates, permit delays cost it more than $10 million in lost fees and taxes annually, which brings its expected deficit to $45 million next year. The writer notes that a developer committee has been working with the City Council on an easier permitting process. He quotes builder Doug Cotter Jr., who says the process must be a helpful, "not a punitive one." 08.29.2001   9/4/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Don't let not-in-my-backyard mentality stop smart growth ...

Don't let not-in-my-backyard mentality stop smart growth in Atlanta, appeals Georgia Tech planning professor Steven P. French to the Fulton County Commission, urging it to dismiss local opposition, follow regional guidelines and approve a mixed-use Sandy Springs project within a three-minute walk of the MARTA station. Professor French -- who helped developer Charlie Roberts trim the project in response to earlier neighborhood concerns -- writes in an Atlanta Business Chronicle opinion piece that residents still complain about the number of apartments, exceeding the prescribed 40 percent of all housing, even though the area is a designated Living-Working Corridor, where the commission encourages more rentals near transit. Pointing out that metro Atlanta taxpayers have invested a billion dollars in MARTA's north rail line, and that MARTA, the Atlanta Regional Commission and county planners support the project, the professor calls it "the opportunity to finally practice what we've been preaching and to bring higher-density, live-work-play developments within walking distance of a MARTA station." The project, he ends, "promises to lighten traffic, improve pollution and encourage more people to use mass transit."   8/1/2001

Resource(s): atlanta.bcentral.com

After a decade-long period of deterioration, the ...

After a decade-long period of deterioration, the historic Memorial Drive between the state Capitol in downtown Atlanta and Stone Mountain in DeKalb County is finally slated for renovation, with the state Department of Transportation budgeting improvements at the I-285 interchange, DeKalb Technical College reorienting its campus toward the drive and the county's public-private Memorial Drive Revitalization Project group envisaging pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use development in its corridor. One of Atlanta's first upscale suburban retail centers, writes Jingle Davis of The Atlanta Journal- Constitution, the drive is now pockmarked with pawn shops, boarded-up stores and run-down apartments, owing much of its remaining vitality to new immigrants. The writer quotes planner Todd Noell of Robert Charles Lesser Inc., who is running an economic study of the drive, as saying that "immigrants, especially political refuges often brought over by Atlanta churches" are "cranking up" the area's entrepreneurial machine, opening small stores and ethnic restaurants. The county project's manager, Lynn Thornton, is expecting "big changes." Her group and other local activists want to revive the drive with "live, work and walk" communities; a diverse mix of housing, businesses, government offices and cultural, educational and entertainment centers, along with creative landscaping, better signs and parking, walkways, parks and green space and possibly a 500-resident campus-style senior center. 07.16.2001   7/24/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

The 'smart growth' people have not identified ...

The 'smart growth' people have not identified a problem sufficient to justify their solution, argued transportation consultant Wendell Cox at a meeting of state transportation engineers, once again advising Atlanta to build more freeways and once again insisting that "the theory that smart growth is going to make traffic better is just plain wrong." Once again, too, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution gives him a lot of credence. Calling his views "contrarian yet thought-provoking," Journal-Constitution writer Joey Ledford cites several of Cox's arguments against "most of metro Atlanta's proposed solutions to its traffic, sprawl and air quality woes," but only "one of the biggest flaws in Cox's logic." He mentions Cox's apparent proposal to level "scores of metro Atlanta's sprawling suburban subdivisions and business districts to retrofit the region with more freeways and a grid system of surface streets." Most experts say it too late for that, the writer notes and then vouches for "the truth" of Cox's main thesis, "not just for Atlanta, but for America in general." He quotes the thesis from Cox's speech at the engineers' meeting: "The overwhelming reality of the future of transportation in this country is that automobile use will continue to increase, and it's time to recognize that. People will not abandon cars for transit because it does not take them where they are going." 07.15.2001   7/24/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Smart growth is "not 'smart' after all ...

Smart growth is "not 'smart' after all," opines The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, basing its judgement on a comparative study of Atlanta and Portland development just posted on the Georgia Public Policy Foundation web page and authored by "a noted transportation planner and public planning consultant," Wendell Cox. His study, entitled "American Dream Boundaries: Urban Containment and Its Consequences,"challenges findings by Dr. Arthur C. Nelson, professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) reported in an American Planning Association publication, Economic Development and Smart Growth. Persuaded that the Cox study "dispels some of the myths generated by academicians, public planners and politicians," the daily cites him extensively on "the fallacies of smart growth" with regard to traffic reduction, affordable housing, job expansion and infrastructure costs. According to Cox, despite its focus on mass transit, Portland's daily Vehicle Miles Traveled rose 28.5 percent in the last decade, compared with Atlanta's 20.6 percent rise. Portland's median home price rose 110 percent to $168,000 and home ownership fell 6.6 percent, while Atlanta recorded increases of 65 percent in the median home price, to $150,000, and 11 percent in homeownership. Portland's employment increased 30.5 percent and median household income 44.7 percent, but Atlanta's rose 37.3 and 52 percent, respectively. Total state and local expenses rose 29.5 percent per capita in Oregon and 15.5 percent in Georgia, with infrastructure costs rising 82 percent in Oregon, but only 13 percent in Georgia. Citing these data, the daily advises the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority to examine them before it enacts its "first land-use restrictions this summer." The daily concludes: "Sure, Cox waves red flags. But the proper response is not to dismiss the critics, such as Cox, but to address the legitimate issues they raise." 06.27.2001   7/2/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Preparing to launch a tough review process ...

Preparing to launch a tough review process for big projects in metro Atlanta later this summer, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority released an early draft of the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) plan that would make developers submit analyses of area air quality and traffic consequences with their permit and zoning applications. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer John McCosh reports that of the few local governments that require developer traffic studies, none meets the authority's suggested thresholds. An Atlanta Regional Commission's review coordinator has voiced concerns over additional developer expenses for such studies. The authority will be gathering public comments on the DRI draft in July. Separately, the writer notifies readers about a June 28 half-day seminar at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, entitled "Myths and Realities of Smart Growth." Builders will highlight several south Fulton projects with at least one smart growth element, such as mixed-use, infill, green space, transit proximity and so on. 06.18.001   6/19/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Calling for an end to "these petty ...

Calling for an end to "these petty vendettas against suburbanites" and "lifestyle choices pejoratively called 'sprawl'," urging the design of a transportation system mindful that "the internal combustion engine" has transformed the nation by freeing us "to live where we choose" and "is here to stay," and stressing that the era dreamt of by New Urbanists "may return in quaint, planned villages, but it is gone," the Atlanta Journal- Constitution Editorial Board offers its own seven-point "smart transportation plan for metro Atlanta." First, it says, "build the Outer Perimeter as a 1,000-foot wide, limited-access, green space-buffered transportation corridor for roads, rail, fiber optics, recreation, safe bike paths and jogging trails" -- an "Outer Perimeter Green Space Transportation Corridor." Second, "double-deck critical freeways," as San Francisco does, because it's "critical to maintaining mobility -- and a viable economy." Third, "build mini-transportation transfer points where the people are -- along the Perimeter, the Northern Arc and eventually the Outer Perimeter" to enable them to park and use van pools, express busses or other means of transit. Fourth, expand "express bus and van pool service" around transit points since it's "more flexible than rail and can accommodate changing traffic patterns." Fifth, move trains and trucks "out of downtown Atlanta" to the Outer Perimeter corridor, with any future commuter rail, "either light or heavy," also circling the city, because trains must carry commuters faster than highways to be "a viable alternative." Sixth, envision the eventual extension of mass transit lines to the Outer Perimeter transfer points and the possibility of "a Chattanooga-to-Atlanta rail line." And seventh, expect "express bus service from the Outer Perimeter transfer points" to reach "other Georgia cities, such as Macon and Athens or Columbus." 06.14.2001   6/15/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority worked out ...

The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority worked out the initial 16 measures of the implementation and impact of metro Atlanta's comprehensive $36 billion, 25- year transportation plan, which combines road, transit, bikeway and sidewalk projects, to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. Using its own and other state data, the agency will start counting the number of days with health-threatening smog levels, transit ridership, miles of new bike and HOV lanes, percentages of population and employment within a quarter-mile of rail and bus routes, and so on. Describing these "performance measures" as "a well-thought-out beginning," the agency's chairman, Sonny Deriso, said they "will be a work in progress." 06.14.2001   6/15/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

In line with Fayetteville efforts to reduce ...

In line with Fayetteville efforts to reduce local car traffic, a group of four builders, Bob Dixon Homes, David Weekley Homes, Chris Parrot Homes and Jordan Homes, is clearing ground for the city's first pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use project -- the 110-acre Villages at LaFayette Park, with 203 turn-of-the century townhouses and single-family front-porch homes, sidewalks, bike lanes and three parks. Fayetteville Planning Director Maurice Ungaro says the project "will help define and set the tone" for downtown revitalization. Builder Dixon says the outlay evokes "a time when people didn't have television," giving residents "a chance to get out and get to know one another." The project includes offices, businesses, restaurants and perhaps an amphitheater. The townhouse and home prices will start below and in the low $200,000, respectively.   6/12/2001

Resource(s): www.accesatlanta.com

The notion of sustainability, meeting today's needs ...

"The notion of sustainability, meeting today's needs without compromising the needs of the future, is still searching for a home in Atlanta," reports Atlanta Business Chronicle writer Erica Stephens, with urban designers attributing it to the lack of client interest and conservationists to the lack of a grassroots push. The president of the Atlanta chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Steven Swicegood, points out that nobody would say "I'm against sustainability," but the problem is achieving it, with "green" projects often more time consuming and more costly that traditional ones. An official of the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, Brian Hagar, adds that Atlanta's push toward sustainabilily "kind of faded away" after the 1996 Olympics, with local environmental organizations "relatively small and weak in comparison to the business interests." Still, the writer hopes, some exceptions augur a change. She notes trails and green space at UPS Inc.'s Atlanta headquarters and "significant strides in sustainability" on three green projects by Emory University. Its new interdisciplinary science building will be certified under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Designer Scott Wheeler of Cooper Carry Inc. describes LEED as a non-prescriptive tool for giving credits for a project's green features. The firm's Pope Bullock sees sustainability as the area's "next wave," with more people considering it "highly marketable."   6/12/2001

Resource(s): atlanta.bcentral.com

Confronting the perception of zoning as risky ...

Confronting the perception of zoning as risky for property rights -- seemingly prevalent throughout Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountain region -- the broad-based Habersham Smart Growth Coalition is nudging the county toward land-use measures that would preserve its farmland, water supplies and natural beauty, while promoting development in current service areas and renewal in town centers. The coalition includes farmers, business people, educators, developers and conservationists, all trusting that the county's "silent majority" wants to protect its quality of life against potential "runaway growth" and that local ordinances can save its economy , which depends on agriculture and tourism. The coalition's president, an AT & T retiree, Jim Blackburn says, "The tourists who come up here want to see vistas, not houses and chimneys" and should they see "houses instead of trees on the ridges ... they might not come back." His colleague, a member of the Soque River Watershed Association, Dudley Sisk, notes that the county already has 300 subdivisions and adds, "The developers buy land, put in the lots and move on. We're left with impermeable surfaces that lead to runoff and pollution in our waterways." On the other hand, most of the 800 attendees of a recent regional meeting on the 1989 Georgia Planning Act at Truett-McConnel College in Cleveland were preoccupied with their property rights, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Rebecca McCarthy. The act obliges counties to present the state's Department of Community Affairs with updated land-use plans every five years, along with regulations for implementing state requirements for protecting wetlands, groundwater recharge areas, watersheds, river corridors and mountains. The besieged department director, Harold Reheis, promised "the sometimes-hostile" questioners to review the five environmental requirements and issue new ones early next year. The scope of questioners' concerns? Some echoed the "perennial Republican candidate" for Atlanta mayor, lieutenant governor, governor and state senator, Nancy Schaefer, who claims in her printed materials that the United Nations will use smart growth "in every state to undermine our national sovereignty and private property rights." 05.28.2001   5/30/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Envisioned in the mid-1970s and updated ...

Envisioned in the mid-1970s and updated in the late 1990s, Historic Westside Village in Atlanta's blighted former African-American commercial hub at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Ashby Street is still two years behind schedule, but its promoters believe that their problems are over and the "Buckhead-quality mixed-use" project, often seen as a model for New Urbanism in inner city, will soon move forward. Its master developer is the Atlanta Development Authority, whose president Kevin Hanna says the problems, financial and procedural, illustrate "how complicated and difficult intown mixed- use developments can be," especially "in African- American neighborhoods which have suffered disinvestment for the better part of 30 years." Located in the middle of a large area where half of the households have annual incomes bellow $15,000, the $139 million Historic Westside Village project, "like many big public works efforts in poor neighborhoods," writes Melissa Turner of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, requires financing through combined "conventional loans, private equity, bonds and federal loans and grants." But after spending $6.8 million from the U. S. Housing and Urban Development Department to acquire the 15-acre site and $9.2 million from the Atlanta Empowerment Zone program to clear it, its prospective commercial anchor, the Florida-based grocery chain Publix and the main lender, Fist Union National Bank, still required extra contractual assurances, probably unnecessary for "other areas of the city." Nevertheless, the project has already sparked area revitalization. Adjacent older public housing has been redeveloped into a mixed-income community, a new 45-home subdivision is under construction and the Atlanta Develpment Authority and Clark Atlanta University have broken ground for a $21 million residential complex, the Heritage Commons. 05.28.2001   5/30/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

In the latest move in the year-old ...

In the latest move in the year-old contest between Cherokee County and the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, Commissioner J.J. Biello proposed a countywide rezoning moratorium, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with a public hearing scheduled for June 12. Last year, the association sued the county for imposing impact fees, calling them illegal. The county planned to spend the collected $3.2 million for roads, libraries, parks, recreation, fire and sheriff services and emergency facilities. However, a Superior Court judge struck down the fee portion earmarked for the first four uses, since the money would also benefit cities outside the county's impact fee program. The daily also reports DeKalb County statistics showing a peak in land conversion for development followed by a sharp decline between 1996 and 1999. The county lost 1,022 acres to the bulldozer in 1996; 2,636 acres in 1997; and just 633 acres in 1999. Still, county planners say that under the current growth scenario, the remaining 23,000 acres of residential land will be exhausted by 2017. 05.28.2001   5/30/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

With the Atlanta Regional Commission finalizing its ...

With the Atlanta Regional Commission finalizing its primary smart-growth budget of $350 million over 25 years for the Livable Centers Initiative to help localities plan high-density development near transit stations, state officials and business leaders are pressing it to distribute the bulk of the money within the next several years, to speed the transformation of smart growth "from concept to reality." They cite the growing consensus among planners, reports Atlanta Journal Constitution writer John McCosh, that the only way out of worsening traffic problems is to build transit-oriented urban villages "where people can live and do most of their daily business without getting in a car." The writer mentions a Fulton County consultant, Wassim Selman, whose computer analysis of the county's transportation system after projected $5-million upgrades over 20 years revealed that many of its roads will remain hopelessly congested. "No matter how much transit and roads are built," the consultant says, "there is still demand for more," given current land-use policies. But localities ready to change these policies need financial aid for devising new plans, ordinances and regulations -- as much and as soon as possible. Thus, a board member of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, Eric Hovdesen, is drafting a resolution directing the commission to increase its 2004 smart growth funds from $13 million to $35 million, as a way of dealing with "land use and population changes." The Regional Business Coalition goes further, urging the commission to distribute all $350 million by 2005, as envisioned in its initial plan. Coalition member Eric Mayer says, "This is the only regional incentive program to make smart growth happen." 05.21.2001   5/24/2001

Resource(s): www.ajc.com

With a new study estimating the Georgia ...

With a new study estimating the Georgia Department of Transportation's needs at $51 billion but revenue at $36 billion in the next 25 years, the department launched a two-week series of 12 regional meetings across the state, to gather public input on funding priorities for its July long-range plan update, required every five years under federal law. One consultant involved in the two-year study, Rod Wilburn of Day Wilburn Associates Inc., says that before looking at new initiatives, officials need to ask, "Are we going to have to start cutting some of the things we do now?" He notes a paradox: although federal aid for Georgia, increased in the 1998 six-year transportation bill to $918.8 million a year, improves the state's outlook, it also creates "a strain," since all federally-funded projects "require state matches." Georgia is unsuccessfully trying to raise these matching funds from gas taxes and vehicle-registration fees well bellow the national average -- 49th and 41st among all states, respectively. "For the last few years, we've been dipping into the general fund to meet our match," points out the president of the Georgians for Better Transportation business coalition, Terry Lawler. Conservationists would like the department to focus more on mass transit and use its influence in the legislature for moving on the proposed Atlanta-Athens-Macon commuter rail system. The Sierra Club's local Challenge to Sprawl campaign organizer, Bryan Hager, says the legislature acted very quickly on Governor Mike Barnes' bill to accelerate construction of rural four-lane highways, but he has "heard no stories that the DOT is putting pressure on the legislature for commuter rail."   5/14/2001

Resource(s): www.savannahmorningnews.com

Chamblee City Councilwoman, architect Clara Azcunes de ...

Chamblee City Councilwoman, architect Clara Azcunes de Ojeda, is working for smart growth in this once-neglected, multi-ethnic suburb of North Atlanta, remembering from her childhood in Venezuela that street sidewalks were mandatory and knowing that mixed-use is "not a trendy thing; it's a way of living in Europe." Stressing the need to create a better urban environment, she told Atlanta Business Chronicle writer Anya Martin that the city's new five-year plan to redevelop 250 acres around the MARTA station into a mixed-use neighborhood, named the MidCity Chamblee District, will attract more people to the area and "deter a lot of heavy traffic from side roads." Under the plan, based on a land-use efficiency study funded by a $40,000 grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission's Livable Centers Initiative, Chamblee will rezone the mid-city district from industrial to mixed-use and invest about $6 million in infrastructure improvements, including sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, street signs and lights along greenway trails.   5/8/2001

Resource(s): atlanta.bcentral.com

The Savannah Development and Renewal Authority is ...

The Savannah Development and Renewal Authority is revising the 1986 Broughton Street Urban Renewal Plan, to spruce up this main downtown commercial corridor, ensure a better mix of its uses, and make new rules enforceable by incorporating them into the city's comprehensive zoning ordinance. Savannah Morning News reporter Bret Bell writes that in the past 14 years, helped by federal funding, Broughton Street changed from "a desolate strip with empty storefronts to a street with a pulse," boasting names like Gap, Starbucks and Banana Republic. Its property value has risen from $38.7 million to $109 million, three blocks gained 46 residential lofts in the last three years, and 37 businesses opened in 2000. But at the same time, 10 businesses closed, rental prices jumped from $3-$6 per square foot up to $26 and the city's parking shortage increased, affecting 2,000 cars, mostly in the Broughton area. A member of the renewal authority and Urban Design Committee, architect Neil Dawson, says the national retailers that have come in "can pay top rent," but the city also needs to keep "mom-and-pop businesses" on Broughton Street. Its new development plan projects the expansion of the renewal area to the east and west; major zoning changes to allow inns, hotels, microbreweries and parking lots and to strengthen the mix of uses; and $5.6 million to improve the streetscape and building facades. A proposed task force will explore creating an entertainment zone and a buffer between businesses and the expanding residential properties.   5/2/2001

Resource(s): www.savannahmorningnews.com

It may be called new urbanism, sustainable ...

It may be called new urbanism, sustainable development, livable communities or smart growth, but area planners and residents of estuarial Whitemarsh, Wilmington, Talahi and Oatland islands are simply determined to control the islands' "exploding development," writes Savannah Morning News reporter Shannon Lynch, outlining a 20- year land use plan worked out by a multi-professional committee under the aegis of the Savannah-Chatham County Metropolitan Planning Commission. While the county grew seven percent last decade, the islands' population increased 42-percent, to 22,000, with only 755 acres left for development. The commission's comprehensive planning director, Tom Wilson, cites "pretty good hard science" that estuarine areas begin showing "measurable environmental degradation" once their development exceeds ten percent, with "severe degradation of the ecosystem" visible when 30 percent is taken for development. To keep development of the islands near the current level of about ten percent, the plan proposes changing the county's zoning ordinance to require a 35-foot height limit, larger setbacks and buffers, a minimum lot-size increase from 6,000 to 10,000 square feet and new commercial projects concentrated in pedestrian-friendly town centers. A member of the Island Citizens for Logical Growth group, Dick Parker, says residents wanted to keep the islands "mainly residential, with enough business to satisfy our needs," but without excessive catering to the traffic on U.S. 80, which is their only way out during hurricane evacuations.   4/25/2001

Resource(s): www.savannahmorningnews.com

The first urban redevelopment under EPA Project ...

The first urban redevelopment under EPA Project XL (eXcellence and Leadership), the $2-billion mixed-use Atlantic Station complex on the former Atlantic Steel mill site is entering the next phase, with developer Jim Jacoby hiring the Baltimore-based Development Design Group Inc "dream team" to lay out its retail-entertainment section and looking forward to work with "top-notch professionals to create a model for smart growth and urban revitalization." First proposed by Jacoby in May 1997, the 138-acre project hained strong support from Governor Roy Barnes and Atlanta officials. It "sped through zoning revisions and permit approvals," note Atlanta Journal- Constitution writers Melissa Turner and Renee DeGross, and cleared many hurdles, including a Midtown residents' fight against the 17th Street bridge and withdrawals of three development partners -- the Houston-based Hines Corp., Atlanta's Post Properties and the Virginia-based Mills Corp. Now, with road and sewer work under way and Atlanta willing to issue $120 million of tax exempt infrastructure bonds, Jacoby himself is taking on the new-urbanist open-air shopping center construction, while finalizing deals with new office, hotel and housing partners. The Atlantic Station master plan aims for more than 1.5 million square feet of retail-entertainment space; 1,000 hotel rooms; 5 million square feet of high-rise office space; up to 4,000 housing units; and 2 million square feet of roads, parks, monuments and a lake. All about the project at www.atlanticstation.com 03.24.2001   4/3/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Acting on Governor Roy Barnes' legislation to ...

Acting on Governor Roy Barnes' legislation to solve metro Atlanta's "water quality crisis," the legislature created the !8-county North Georgia Metropolitan Water Planning District, whose 29-member board will plan how to control storm runoff, increase sewage capacity and manage water supplies, with the Atlanta Regional Commission providing the staff and administrative support and the Environmental Protection Agency enforcing the plans. With the measure in effect on May 1, the board and the commission, reports Atlanta Joournal-Constitution writer Charles Seabrook, will be under a rigid, two-year timetable to produce a model storm-runoff ordinance; a district-wide watershed management plan; a short-term solution to immediate sewage-treatment capacity shortages; a 20-year plan to boost the district's sewage treatment capacity; and a blueprint for conserving water and meeting the region's future clean water needs. The writer cites local officials who estimate the costs of regional water quality and supply solutions at $2 to $4 billion within 10 to 15 years, not counting already committed funds. "It's going to be painful, but it has to be done," says Gwinnett County Chairman Wayne Hill, "We've got to protect our water." The writer adds that the legislature also passed the governor's highway funding proposal, which will speed up construction of rural highways and the Northern Arc by allowing the state to borrow against future federal highway grants. 03.26.2001   3/29/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Attracted by the perfect location of a ...

Attracted by the perfect location of a suburban Gwinnett County tract for his mixed-use project, developer Steve Gaultney made it possible despite the county's strict zoning by having the tract annexed by the city of Duluth, whose "flexible smart-growth zoning ordinances" allow a mix of retail, office and residential uses. The 200- acre project, Crossroads at Gwinnett Place, passed an Atlanta Regional Commission review and received an Honorable Mention in the Mixed-Use Deal of the Year category in Atlanta Business Chronicle's 2000 Best in Atlanta Real Estate Awards. It will include 450,000 square feet of retail space, 1.1 million feet of office and distribution space, 650 multifamily units and 150 townhouses, enhanced with sidewalks, multi-use paths and plenty of open space. A Chronicle writer, Lauren Keating, quotes one housing builder, Bob Krause of Paces Properties, as saying that the project's big draw is its mixed use, with the nearness of retail to a residential section as "a real bonus." The project's design, he adds, allows development of streetscapes and architectural elements "in a theme -- instead of spotty development everywhere."   3/23/2001

Resource(s): atlanta.bcentral.com

About two-thirds of working Cherokee County residents ...

About two-thirds of working Cherokee County residents commute to jobs elsewhere and officials pin their hopes for reversing that ratio on a 630-acre, $500-million Bluffs of Technology Park project on a former Canton Mills site, expected to contain 5 million square feet of office space and create 15,000 jobs over 15 years. Located next to a planned 300-acre scenic reservoir and a 2,000-home neighborhood under construction, the huge project was named Land Deal of the Year in Atlanta Business Chronicle's 2000 Best in Atlanta Real Estate Awards. Developer Richard R. O'Brien, CEO of Technology Park/Atlanta Inc., hopes to present officials with a master plan within two months and start infrastructure work shortly thereafter, pending legislative appropriation of $8 million for a road to the site. A Chronicle writer, Nancy Groves, quotes the developer as saying that given the mill site's proximity to Canton's commercial areas, the various types of development will create a self-contained community, with the best of urban and suburban amenities and "unlimited potential."   3/23/2001

Resource(s): atlanta.bcentral.com

A model varied-style Live/Work 2001housing project ...

A model varied-style Live/Work 2001housing project in Atlanta's old industrial Castleberry Hill district, whose proximity to downtown has fueled conversions of vacant plants and warehouses into upscale condominiums and townhouses, shows this car-dependent region the advantages of modern urban living, including the "zero- commute." The project was sponsored by Builder magazine, designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co of Miami, built by Beazer Homes of Atlanta and unveiled at the International Builder Show last month. Based on Duany's market research, it features three neo-traditional two- and three-story adjacent houses -- the 1,060-square-foot Live/Work for store-owner families living over shops; the 3,666-square-foot Liveabove with adequate office space for growing families; and the 3,644-square-foot Lifespan, convertable into two live/work units, for empty nesters. The prices range from $160,000-$270,000 to $586,000 and $670,000, respectively. "There isn't a single live/work model," Duany told Knight-Ridder writer Alan J. Heavens, " since "there isn't a single style of life" and "each stage of family formation and wealth requires a specific response, a specific model." The writer notes that according to urban planner Todd Zimmerman of Zimmerman/Volk Associates in Clinton, New Jersey, the number of neo-traditional communities has grown from five to 300 in the past eight years, despite major zoning, financing and permit hurdles. He also quotes Beazer Homes president Ian McCarthy who says his firm is ready to follow Atlanta Live/Work 2001 with 1,000 similar units elsewhere. 03.16.2001   3/19/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Green is cool. Green is smart. Green ...

"Green is cool. Green is smart. Green is environmentally responsive," writes Anne Melfi in her Atlanta Business Chronicle preview of Atlanta's March 12-17 Green Week events, which include the Georgia Tech Sustainable Facilities Forum, the Greening of Georgia Schools session on energy-smart schools, the Rebuild America National Forum and the Greenprints 2001 Sustainable Communities Conference and Trade Show. The conference director, Southface Energy Institute senior program manager Walter Brown, says the region should move faster to adopt eco-friendly technologies successful elsewhere. The first conference speaker, Time magazine's "Hero of the Planet," eco-architect William McDonough, will describe his innovative work for Oberlin College's Center for Environmental Studies and several top companies, including the overhaul of the Ford Motor Co.'s Detroit Rouge River plant, which will be the world's greenest by 2020. Later in the week, experts will conduct workshops and learning session on sustainable community design, construction ecology, clean energy and transportation technology, high-performance building and financing green projects.   3/1/2001

Resource(s): atlanta.bcentral.com

Align school construction with smart growth plans ...

"Align school construction with smart growth plans," appeals a strong Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial to Governor Roy Barnes and lawmakers, warning them about the risk of turning almost $400 million in proposed school construction aid into "yet another subsidy for thoughtless sprawl." Convinced that aid "could go a long way toward rectifying the poorly managed growth" marked by "the ubiquitous classroom trailer," the daily stresses that no school system should receive the money "unless it produces a multiyear construction and maintenance plan" that fixes present schools first and ensures that new ones conform to local zoning, road-building and water and sewer service prospects. "We like to pretend in metro Atlanta," the daily says, "that the direction and pattern of growth simply follow market imperatives," though "they are driven by government investment and planning policies," which trigger "a vicious circle." Anticipating growth, officials build schools on suburban cow pastures "and developers rush to surround them with subdivisions." Maryland, the daily says, recognized this a few years ago and in "a dramatic turnaround" now spends 85 percent of school funds on renovation. But Georgia still clings to the idea that bigger and newer is "automatically better" and its guidelines favor new schools, "more likely to be surrounded by asphalt than sidewalks." That's why, the daily concludes, the governor and other officials "should seize this opportunity to change course." 02.23.2001   2/28/2001

Resource(s): www.acccesatlanta.com

In an editorial blast at a Northern ...

In an editorial blast at a Northern Arc freeway proposal, lobbied for long and hard by the construction industry and suddenly backed by Governor Roy Barnes, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that as a smart-growth governor, he knows a multilane highway 20 miles north of Atlanta's beltway "would unleash hyper-sprawl" and finds his compromise plan too risky, too costly and "well ... dumb." Citing computer planning models and other analyses, the daily stresses that the governor's double bid -- to buy a 900-foot wide, 59-mile-long swath of land for the highway, and perhaps a rail line, protected on both sides with sprawl-immune 400-foot green buffers, and to pay for "all this land and asphalt" with bond money backed by toll and federal funds -- can't obscure the fact that this project "has always been designed to open up vast tracts to new, auto-dependent, sprawl development." The daily thinks the state could spend the money more sensibly to improve roads, "while adopting tight land use controls to preserve their viability." Then it ends: "In his smart growth rhetoric, Barnes often has emulated Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, architect of the most comprehensive growth management approach in the country. But while Glendening has killed five proposed bypasses, Barnes is stumping for the mother of all beltways. What gives, governor?" 02.23.2001   2/28/2001

Resource(s): www.acccesatlanta.com

Celebrating Black History Month, the Environmental Justice ...

Celebrating Black History Month, the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University invites the public to a campus-wide February 22 lecture and meeting with Ware Professor of Sociology Robert D. Bullard, Dr. Glenn S Johnson and Angel O. Torres -- authors of the book "Sprawl City: Race, Politics and Planning in Atlanta." The book explores the impact of random growth and its effect on economic and racial polarization. Information at (404) 880-6914 02.10.2001   2/15/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

In an opinion for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...

In an opinion for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New Jersey's Rutgers University political science professor James A. Dunn Jr. calls America's suburbs "a success," although not "perfect," and lectures their critics -- who "would declare a 'war on sprawl' and push for new government programs to improve the sustainability of communities by mandating 'smart growth' planned on models developed by the 'new urbanists'" -- that mass transit is "not the answer for suburbia." Seeing "real dangers and costs hidden in the anti-sprawl agenda," the professor lists the two biggest as "the demonization of automobile" and "the costly overselling of public transit's capability." He counters those dangers with numbers. The automobile accounts for 97 percent of surface passenger miles in urban and suburban areas; about 91 percent of families own at least one automobile; if an extensive rail system had meaningful impact on highway congestion, the New York, Washington and Boston roads "would be models of free-flowing traffic;" despite federal, state and local subsidies totaling nearly $400 billion since 1964, transit's share of the travel market has been steadily declining to a current three percent of surface passenger miles; it would cost untold billions to double that share "and 94 percent of the miles would still be traveled in automobiles!" The professor concludes that since air pollution could be also reduced more cheaply by improving engines and emission technology "than by trying to force people onto train and buses," blaming cars "for suburban angst and spending large amounts of public money to re-create the passenger rail system of the pre-auto era are bad ideas." AJC, 01.25.2001   2/1/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Governor Mike Barnes' green space commission awarded ...

Governor Mike Barnes' green space commission awarded 13 counties and their 41 cities the first 12 million of this year's 30 million in grants for permanent protection of land, wildlife habitat, historic landmarks and recreational trails, allowing them to spend the money as best fits their plans. Commission Chairman Clay Long said "we don't intend to tie their hands; if some great piece of land becomes available, we want them to be able to go after it." The rest of the 40 fastest-growing or most populous counties also ensured their grant eligibility by submitting plans to preserve at least 20 percent of their undeveloped land. They will receive the next batch of grants. Pledging to continue funding his green space program as long as he is in office, Governor Barnes included another $30 million in his 2002 budget, this time for counties with populations of at least 60,000 or an average growth rate of 800 residents a year.   1/25/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Georgia State University announced that speakers at ...

Georgia State University announced that speakers at its February 1 "smart growth" conference will include guests from Poland and Canada, who will speak about sprawl in their home countries. University of Warsaw public administration chief Professor Michael Kulesza will outline his city's growth-management problems and political quarrels. University of British Columbia professor Ray Young will present a paper entitled "Vancouver: Made in America, Eh?" Among other speakers will be Georgia University President Carl Patton, Clark Atlanta University professor Robert Bullard and Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Chairman Joel Cowan. For information, call (404) 651-4360   1/25/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Metro Atlanta environmentalists sued the U.S. EPA ...

Metro Atlanta environmentalists sued the U.S. EPA in U.S. District Court for failing to reclassify the region's air pollution from "serious" to "severe" after it missed a 1999 deadline for complying with the federal Clean Air Act. They also notified Administrator Carol Browner about their intent to sue the agency within 60 days for missing last year's deadline to take final action on the state's ozone reduction plan. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer John McCosh notes that since Administrator Browner will probably leave office to make way for New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, environmentalists "will soon have to change the name of the defendant in their suits."   1/25/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Frustrated by waiting 17 months for an ...

Frustrated by waiting 17 months for an Atlanta permit for his "smart growth" project to convert a defunct warehouse into 83 $200,000 lofts and townhouses in the impoverished Empowerment Zone, a top inner-city redeveloper, Rick Skelton, asks himself "why do I bother?" And he isn't alone. Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Melissa Turner reports that builders big and small have been criticizing Atlanta's multilayered and inefficient permitting process for years. Paperwork and decisions expedited by other urban centers and even nearby counties in a few months, weeks or hours, depending on projects' sizes and complexity, take much longer here and add to a horrendous backlog. It costs developers plenty, and the city and communities even more. A 150-unit condo project, selling for $300,000 a unit, generates about $600,000 annually in property taxes for the city, the county and their schools. A six-month delay in issuing a permit for the project, deprives those tax recipients of about $300,000. With more than a dozen such condo projects planned on under way, losses are in millions. The permit delays also hurt he city's drive to expand affordable housing. Developer Dennis McConnell says it takes the same effort "to get permit for a million-dollar house as a $100,00 house" and since he "can't afford the overhead," he stopped building entry-level houses. City Council President Robb Pitts, Bureau of Buildings Director Norman Koplon and other officials agree with developers and business leaders that something must be done to streamline and modernize Atlanta's permitting process. The model could be Cobb County's one-stop approach, letting a developer and his architect or engineer meet officials from water, sanitation, transportation and other departments all at once for a project review. The county usually approves major projects in two weeks and simple ones within two days.   1/25/2001

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Remember sidewalks? Those strips of pavement in ...

"Remember sidewalks? Those strips of pavement in front of most homes?" asks Tasha Gatlin of Savannah Morning News, reporting that many residents are rediscovering that sidewalks link neighborhoods and may help them recover a sense of community. The big lots and lawns that replace sidewalks in modern suburban developments, she writes, have created "an every-man-is-on-his-own mentality in some neighborhoods." Public wariness of such designs is fueling a national trend toward New Urbanism, with its small lots, trees, sidewalks and neighborly atmosphere. The reporter writes that the local drive to bing back sidewalks, led by the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission, disturbs some builders. When the commission voted down Rande Duke's 28-acre project for lack of sidewalks, but agreed unanimously to approve it if he adds them, the builder said such extra items come at a cost, especially to first-time homebuyers. Noting that sidewalks cost about $500 to $600 per lot, he agreed that "neighborhoods might be nicer and safer, but you'll have a bunch of neighborhoods no one can afford." The reporter adds that members of the Home Builders Association of Savannah have met with commission staffers to discuss the ordinance's planned sidewalk provision and its potential business impact.   1/22/2001

Resource(s): www.savanahmorningnews.com

In preparation for the next legislative session ...

In preparation for the next legislative session, Governor Roy Barnes is readying "a creative financing plan to speed completion of long-awaited rural highways and transit projects" in metro areas, report Atlanta Journal- Constitution writers Kathey Pruit and Kelly Simmons. The governor declines to reveal specifics, but some officials and experts expect his plan to raise billions of dollars within the next several years and to jump-start construction of rural four-lane roads proposed in 1989, a 59-mile I-75 and I-85 link called the Northern Arc, and perhaps a commuter rail system, with an Athens-Macon line. They say the money could be raised by selling revenue bonds that would be paid off with federal transportation funds coming in over the next decade. Such anticipatory transportation financing schemes have been recently implemented in Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and South Carolina and won legislative approvals in Alabama and Florida. A similar one is in the works in California. The executive director of Georgians for Better Transportation, Terry Lawler, supports the idea of paying for the projects up front, saying they would be paid for anyway. But a Southern Environmental Law Center official, Wesley Woolf, is concerned with the impact of road-building on metro Atlanta sprawl, doubting that "there could be enough smart growth transportation investment" in the package to "outweigh the damage the Northern Arc would do."   12/12/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

After two months of tough negotiations between ...

After two months of tough negotiations between state officials and environmental groups over details of Georgia's long-term transportation plan, Governor Roy Barnes sent them a strong letter offering key concessions, but also warning that they won't be allowed "to micromanage the state and regional transportation programs." The groups, including the state's Sierra Club chapter, the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic & Social Justice, the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda and Environmental Defense, had threatened the state with a lawsuit, urging more funds for transit, deeper cuts in tailpipe and other smog-causing emissions, and impact studies of water runoff and air pollution on the environment and public health. In his settlement letter, the governor promised to fund fully the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority's bus program; extend Atlanta HOV lanes farther north and south two years ahead of schedule; step up efforts to reduce single occupancy vehicle travel; launch more bike and pedestrian projects; and adopt land-use and density criteria for areas around commuter rail stations. He also promised to pursue a new mobility goal of ensuring "equal access to all places of employment, housing, worship and public facilities, including access by populations that do not own or operate personal vehicles."   12/12/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Previewing the three-day Urban Land Institute's Partners ...

Previewing the three-day Urban Land Institute's Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Atlanta, with Governor Roy Barnes and Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening in attendance, Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer John McCosh notes the movement's increasing appeal nationwide, along with some resistance to it in the metro Atlanta area. He mentions recent cases of residents' opposition to a neighborhood convenience store in Douglas County, to a mixed-use project in Cobb County and a cluster-housing project in Cherokee County. With most of the area's smart-growth type projects still on the drawing boards, the writer says their advocates hope that Maryland's smart-growth program will guide the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority to concentrate development near transit lines by cutting off funding for infrastructure in places where the government doesn't want it to go. The authority already requires local governments to incorporate smart-growth concepts into development plans designed to ensure metro Atlanta compliance with the federal Clean Air Act. Many of these governments also are working on plans that harmonize smart growth with regional goals set forth by the Atlanta Regional Commission.   12/7/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

The Clayton County Commission voted unanimously for ...

The Clayton County Commission voted unanimously for a deal with the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority to start a bus system between the county's employment centers and MARTA stations at Hartsfield International Airport and College Park. Ready to spend $27 million in state and federal grants as the system's seed money, the authority's executive director, Catherine Ross, hailed the county's decision as a major milestone toward our efforts to build alternative transportation services throughout metropolitan Atlanta. The bus system's initial two routes will be expanded to five within three years.   12/7/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Planning a system of seven trails, linking ...

Planning a system of seven trails, linking more than 400 historic battle sites statewide, the Georgia Civil War Commission says such historic preservation efforts can benefit localities by attracting tourists and are in tune with Governor Roy Barnes' goal of preserving 20 percent of land in the fast-growing and most populous counties as green space. Created by the General Assembly in 1993, the commission has applied for a federal grant of almost $1 million to help it acquire land and open a prototype trail between three battle sites in Bartow and Paulding counties, possibly by the summer. Counties, local chambers of commerce and community groups are expected to provide more funds for the trail system. We're not creating anything new, says commission chairman Tommy Barber, We're just funding what's already there. Georgia Natural Resources Commissioner Lonice Barrett says the hope is to tell tourists something about Georgia history and even better, let them meet some of our people.   11/22/2000

Resource(s): www.savanahmorningnews.com

The local election gave no mandate for ...

The local election gave no mandate for the slow-growth movement, which now has to wait until the next election cycle to show more muscle, says Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, assessing the results in Atlanta and the nearby Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas and Gwinnett counties. The results are mixed. Two ballot initiatives to raise money for green space, sidewalks and public facility improvements won in Atlanta and Gwinnett County, but lost in Cobb and Douglas counties. A slow-growth candidate won Cobb County, but another lost in Gwinnett County, where two slow-growth commissioners were elected in the July primary. Cherokee County slow-growth commissioners endorsed a slow to moderate growth candidate, who faces a runoff on November 28.   11/22/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

With Clark County commissioners working on zoning ...

With Clark County commissioners working on zoning ordinances for the Athens comprehensive land-use plan, many voters see the local election results as a mandate for smart growth, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Rebecca McCarthy. She quotes the local Democratic Party chairman, Bob Cunha, who says that the county's environmental movement is gaining momentum, that quality-of-life issues are important and that short-sighted decisions won't cut it anymore. All three local winners of the county commission race are Democrats in favor of land-use planning. Incumbent John Barrow is an ardent advocate of neighborhood improvements and quality growth. Newcomers States McCarter and Carl Jordan have been long involved in community affairs, including legal challenges to land use decisions. The writer notes that Jordan upset Republican incumbent Marilyn Farmer, criticized by conservationists for her willingness to approve zoning requests contrary to planning commission recommendations. Jordan had a strong support from the Athens Grow Green Coalition, which is sponsoring this month's workshops on issues of sprawl, green space and transferable development rights.   11/22/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Running on his eight-year fiscal and environmental ...

Running on his eight-year fiscal and environmental record, Gwinnett County Commission Republican Chairman Wayne Hill survived opposition claims that he fostered sprawl and won an unprecedented third term by a 57 to 43 percent vote. He was credited with the county's fiscal stability, preservation of 3,500 acres of green space and a push for a new high-tech waste water treatment plant. The voters also approved the extension of the one percent sales tax for parks, roads, libraries and public safety by a 55 to 45 percent margin.   11/22/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Smart growth and new urbanism community activists ...

Smart growth and new urbanism community activists in historic Sandtown, south Fulton County, are working with developer Doug Crawford on a mixed-use project that can eclipse their past zoning fights and make them all proud. The developer, who had hoped to build 1,500 apartments on the 230-acre Sandtown site and still awaits the outcome of his suit against county rezoning, says he has reformed, mellowed and learned from his mistakes. He is now proposing about 700 apartments as crucial for the master planned project's success. Local homeowners, who rejected any apartments six month ago, are willing to accept 350. With the other components already agreed upon, including 124 homes and townhouses, 50 assisted-living units, 150 flex-space units and about 500,000 square feet of office and commercial space, both sides hope to reach compromise shortly and submit the project to the zoning commission within a few months.   11/7/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

Smart growth must also be fair, said ...

Smart growth must also be fair, said the president and CEO of the Fannie Mae Foundation, Stacey H. Davis, at its conference held in Atlanta in conjunction with a four-day session of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning - both exploring the correlation between sprawl, smart growth and social equity. Fair growth takes smart growth one step further, Davis stated, by placing a greater emphasis on social equity and offering a a set of land use practices that attempt to curb sprawl without endangering housing affordability and access to jobs for minorities and low-income residents. Addressing this problem, an urban affairs professor at Detroit's Wayne State University, George Galster, presented a ground-breaking Fannie Mae-funded study, in which he and three colleagues developed a sprawl index and ranked the nation's 13 most sprawling metropolitan areas. The index sets eight land use criteria: density, continuity, concentration, compactness, centrality, nuclearity, diversity and housing proximity to employment and shopping nodes. The number of low values indicates the scope of sprawl. Thus, the most-sprawling list includes, in descending order, Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, Denver, Dallas, Washington, D. C., Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. Another expert, an urban planning professor at New York Columbia University, Lance Freeman, presented a paper entitled Scenario Planning for a Fair Growth Agenda, outlining four results of different approaches to sprawl by the hypothetical cities of Sprawlville, Smart Town, Equitopia and Millenniumburg. His ideal model, chosen for promotion by Fannie Mae, is Millenniumburg, which integrates smart growth and social equity goals in its strategy for a livable city and sustainable environment.   11/6/2000

Resource(s): www.fanniemaefoundation.org

With the presidential election apparently coming down ...

With the presidential election apparently coming down to a photo finish, pollsters predict that voters concerned about clean-air and clean-water issues could turn the tide, writes Savannah Morning Star reporter Gail Kruger. She cites two new polls. According to one, 75 percent of Georgia voters believe the state can have a strong economy along with a clean environment and 89 percent consider environmental issues very important or somewhat important to their votes. The poll was conducted by Beth Shapiro & Associates for the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, which doesn't endorse political candidates. According to the other poll, clean air and water issues are very important to 74 percent of independent and undecided voters nationwide. This poll was conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates for the League of Conservation Voters, which has endorsed Vice President Al Gore. The reporter also cites the chairman of the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, Republican Sam Booher, who declines to reveal his choice, but says, I hope we end up with a president who cares. If we don't, you'll see the environmental movement galvanized like it hasn't been galvanized in years.   10/31/2000

Resource(s): www.savannahmorningnews.com

Worried that traffic congestion may worsen and ...

Worried that traffic congestion may worsen and harm Metro Atlanta's economic competitiveness, business leaders praised the year-old Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) for a comprehensive transportation plan that promises better air quality by 2005, but urged it to shift emphasis from managing transit to strengthening multi-agency cooperation. A consultant progress report for the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, presented at its transportation task force's session with state and local officials and conservationists, pointed out that GRTA efforts to promote transit and car pools should be combined with other regional solutions. Citing Atlanta Regional Commission data that the area's usual rush hour speed of 35 mph for one-third of the miles driven will be typical of almost half the miles driven by 2025, Chamber Chairman Jim Balloun said the GRTA should aim for an improvement over today. Officials thought the only way to reduce the area's traffic was to free people from car-dependency by encouraging them to use transit and car pools or to telecommute, but agreed with the chamber's message of regional cooperation. The deputy commissioner for the state's Department of Transportation, Harold Linnenkohl, promised to focus planning on some alternatives other than the vehicle. The GRTA's executive director, Catherine Ross, said the advice to be solution-oriented and do a little visualization for our region was critical to moving us along.   10/26/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

In consecutive opinions on area election races ...

In consecutive opinions on area election races, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution endorsed a slow to moderate growth advocate, Harry Johnston, for the open seat on the Cherokee County Commission and supported reelection of Gwinnett County Commission Chairman, Wayne Hill, unjustly accused of fostering 'sprawl'. The daily noted that Cherokee County Commission Chairwoman Emily Lemcke, a genuine champion of smart growth who has had a hard time steering her colleagues on a steady course against sprawl, needs Johnston for his financial expertise. He will not agree with her on everything, the daily says, but his stance is likely to be based on rational argument, rather than knee-jerk emotions. Supporting Hill, the daily says he has acquired $35 million worth of green space, pushed a sales tax for road upgrades and built a high-tech water sewage treatment plant. Like any true conservative the daily says, he has demonstrated leadership skills by planning for growth with important infrastructure investments and refusing to kowtow to a vocal minority that, having gotten its piece of the pie, wanted to close the gates so no one else could enjoy the county.   10/26/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

In a Gwinnett County campaign indicative of ...

In a Gwinnett County campaign indicative of a wider electoral shift from party affiliation to quality of life issues, the leader of a mostly Republican group of homeowners, Brenda Lee, hits the county commission's two-term Republican chairman Wayne Hill for his pro-sprawl policies. The group's Boot Hill campaign advocates common sense balanced growth and backs Democrat John Kenney, reflecting residents' concerns over fast development, traffic congestion and the loss of trees. In April, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll of Gwinnett residents found 56 percent willing to restrict growth. The chairman's political consultant, Jim Lovejoy, agrees that growth will be the dominant issue in the November 7 election, but projects a double-digit win.   10/17/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

In a series of six hearings across ...

In a series of six hearings across the metro Atlanta area, the National Park Service is gathering public input in its work on a new General Management Plan for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Established by Congress in 1978, the 48-mile regional green space and recreation corridor, with the natural and cultural assets of 13 riverside parks, faces increased pollution and other environmental threats from fast metro growth. The park service must complete its new management plan, along with an Environmental Impact Statement, within the next two years.   10/12/2000

Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com

In a rush to participate in Governor ...

In a rush to participate in Governor Roy Barnes' green- space preservation program, 38 of the 40 currently eligible counties have already applied for shares of this year's $30 million appropriation, presenting the state with plans for saving 20 percent of their open land from development well ahead of the November 30 deadline. Only Paulding County in the metro Atlanta area and Murray County in the state's northwestern corner are still undecided. The governor's green-space preservation program gives the fastest-growing and most populous counties financial incentives to preempt sprawl, along with its side-effects such as traffic congestion and air pollution. Commenting on the program's popularity, the state chairman of the Sierra Club, Sam Booher, credits the state with flexibility in how counties meet their 20-percent goals - letting them work toward it gradually and use such voluntary measures as conservation easements. Everybody wants to do what's right, he says, and the governor is giving us the funds to do that.   9/8/2000

A two-day Tour de Sprawl event in ...

A two-day Tour de Sprawl event in Athens, September 8-9, explores the impact of random land use and car- dependency on local quality of life. The first day's key speaker is a new urbanism expert and social critic James Kunstler, with a slide presentation entitled Beyond the National Car Slum. Author of books Home From Nowhere and The Geography of Nowhere, Kunstler advocates sustainable, pedestrian-friendly towns, with higher density, mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhoods. The next day's agenda includes a 25- mile bus and cycle downtown-countryside loop, with stops for brief talks about open space and farmland preservation, sprawl's threats to air and water quality and other issues of sustainable growth.   9/8/2000

Metro Atlanta must take a regional approach ...

Metro Atlanta must take a regional approach to smart growth, land use, transportation, green space and air and water quality problems, said a top environmental and smart growth expert for thge Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, CEO Walter M. Higgins of AGL Resources Inc., as he left to lead Sierra Pacific Resources in Nevada. For a long time, the will in Atlanta was to grow, he said in a press interview, but this kind of growth is no longer sustainable and now Atlantans need the courage to implement some of the hard solutions to these problems. That means, he continued, changes in zoning, planning, urban design and commuting habits. Optimistic about the area's ability to solve its problems, he pointed out that business leaders have risen to the challenge and that Governor Roy Barnes has taken some great steps to provide a regional transportation overlay and to make people think about open and green space. He also praised the CEO of Post Properties, John A. Williams, for leading developers' smart growth efforts to save open space, reduce runoff and improve water quality, and applauded local philanthropic circles for always helping the less fortunate, describing the Atlanta community as much more generous than any other he knows.   8/28/2000

Atlanta's enormous and complex Atlantic Steel redevelopment ...

Atlanta's enormous and complex Atlantic Steel redevelopment project is on schedule, said its marketing director, John Bevilaqua, as developers hired the San Francisco-based URS Corp. engineering firm to design the 17th Street bridge over the Downtown Connector, to link the site with Midtown. They hope to open the bridge and complete the project's first phase by 2003. The 140-acre mixed-use project, including 3,000 housing units, along with 6.2 million square feet of office, high-tech, retail and entertainment space, still awaits a formal designation by the U. S. EPA as one that will mitigate traffic and help Atlanta restore its compliance with the federal Clean Air Act. EPA endorsed the project, expected to generate about 117,000 car trips a day, because it's located near MARTA transit and offers workers the opportunity to live on the site. Confirming EPA's view of the project as helpful for mitigating area traffic, agency planner Ben West said public hearings on that and other environmental issues will be held between September 4 and 22, with the final determination likely in October.   8/28/2000

Since the first $1 million in smart ...

Since the first $1 million in smart growth planning grants distributed by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) under its Liveable Centers Initiative went to the region's 10 counties, the metro area's Regional Business Coalition, formed by 13 chambers of commerce, wants the next round of grants - $4 million over four years - to benefit the most urbanized communities with the heaviest traffic congestion. The coalition's chairman and the ARC's new board member, developer Tad Leithead, said the ARC should abide by its Liveable Centers Initiative - to study ways to make regional activity centers more transit-friendly, more pedestrian-friendly and more bicycle-friendly. He also noted that the initiative's guidelines, which make only planning grant recipients eligible for $350 million in implementation grants, exclude many communities that pursue their own land use and multi-modal transportation plans. There is no reason, he said, to penalize those communities that took the initiative to search their own planning funds before this program was available. ARC planning director Tom Weyandt explained that the first planning grants went to its member counties because the commission wants to promote liveable centers throughout the region. Agreeing that communities engaged in their own planning shouldn't be barred from getting implementation grants, he promised to figure out how to assist them. He expects to award more planning grants by the year's end, allocate the first $20 million in implementation grants in 2003, and distribute the whole $350 million within seven to ten years.   8/10/2000

After 20 hearings statewide on Governor Roy ...

After 20 hearings statewide on Governor Roy Barnes' green-space preservation program, the Georgia Board of Natural Resources set rules for distributing grants to the most populous and fastest-growing counties, based on their willingness to safeguard quality of life and control sprawl through state-approved plans to save 20 percent of their land from development. Crediting Georgia's quality of life with much of its economic success, the program director, Harvey Young, said the 40 eligible counties, with more than 70 percent of the state's population, should submit their green-space preservation plans by the end of November to benefit from grants totaling $30 million in the fiscal year that just began. Counties that want to participate in the program but feel they can't reach the 20 percent goal should explain their preservation obstacles. The director stressed the voluntary character of the program, saying it opens negotiations between the state and urban or fast-growing counties about their future. It urges counties, but doesn't compel them, he continued, to imagine what they want to be like in the long haul and gives them the tools to implement that vision. A lobbyist for a state association of county commissioners, Chris DeVinney, also emphasized that the 20 percent is a goal, not a mandate and that the state realizes the goal may be out of reach for some counties.   8/4/2000

More than 30 public agencies, construction groups ...

More than 30 public agencies, construction groups and academic institutions in the new Georgia Quality Growth Partnership are preparing about 80 Internet how-to-grow guides, or tool kits on traffic, zoning and other growth-management solutions. Born out of last year's Department of Community Affairs smart growth initiative, the partnership has taken the quality growth name, explains Sam Engel of Research Atlanta, because smart growth is a pejorative term in some circles. The new partnership joins the growing number of Georgia anti-sprawl groups, which include the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce-led Smart Growth Partnership, the Partnership for Regional Livability, the Blueprint for Successful Communities, and Georgia Tech's Strategies for Metropolitan Atlanta's Regional Transportation and Air Quality, or SMARTRAQ. The river's full of boats, all navigating with a compass pointing toward smart growth, says Chamber president Sam Williams. But with so many people in the new partnership's boat, he doesn't know if they'll ever reach an agreement.   7/25/2000

In a move seen as a psychological ...

In a move seen as a psychological breakthrough for smart growth in Fulton County, the Sandy Springs Coalition of Neighborhoods softened its stance against denser housing and asked commissioners to exempt condominiums from its 1998 multi-family housing ban, if they are owner-occupied and within a half-mile radius of the area's three MARTA stations. Such condo units would be considered houses rather than apartments, which account for 60 percent of Sandy Springs housing stock. Local residents have been complaining that the glut of apartments, often with transient families and many children, overburdens schools, lessens civic involvement and worsens traffic. Under residents' pressure, the commissioners banned new multi-family housing until the ratio is reversed to 60 percent single-family houses. A planner with the Atlanta Regional Commission, Dan Reuter, welcomed the Sandy Springs coalition's proposal to exempt condominiums from the multi-family housing ban, saying if people are more accepting of density, then there's some progress. The commissioners will consider the proposal in September.   7/21/2000

Pointing out in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion ...

Pointing out in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece that Vice President Al Gore is the only major political figure to date to tap into Americans' concerns about urban sprawl and has made proposals for 'smart growth' and 'livable communities' part of his presidential campaign, a senior fellow and director of education policy at the Hudson Institute, Michael P. Garber, urges Republicans to find their own voice on the issue of urban growth and not allow themselves to be forced into the position of being the 'pro-sprawl' party. He advises them to advance a local-oriented, market-based alternative to Gore's big-government anti-sprawl campaign. He tells them to make clear that the current sprawl-friendly land-use patterns are not a simple expression of the free market at work and that the current highly prescriptive, single-use zoning codes and traffic engineering standards prevent building Main Streets today. Quoting Miami architects Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck, who assert in their recent book Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream that modern suburban development is highly segregated by land use and disadvantages large segments of society, the author lends its support to traditional suburban development as more consistent with creating a strong civil society, where extended families are able to age in place and generations are able to get to know and learn from one another.   7/18/2000

In a column entitled Growth lifted state ...

In a column entitled Growth lifted state from poverty, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Cob County columnist Jim Galloway reports from a county symposium on smart growth that a vice president for Cousin Properties, former chief of Hartsfield International Airport and Georgia Department of Industry and Trade, George Berry, declared himself economically incorrect and pronounced it hogwash. Trying to explain Berry's ire over the demonization of sprawl and over references to the mess we've gotten ourselves into, the columnist reminds readers that in 1938, when President Franklin Roosevelt called the South the nation's No. 1 economic problem, the region's average income was 52 percent of the national average, and Georgians in their sixties know that Georgia did not find the bootstraps it needed to pull itself up until the 1960s. Asking who else has made as much progress in such a short period of time, Berry, says the columnists, doubts the science of federal pollution standards, sees plans to limit road-building and spend billions on rail lines as a recipe for disaster and suspects that 'no-growth' champions lurk behind this talk of smart growth.   7/18/2000

Right at the core of 'smart growth ...

Right at the core of 'smart growth' is making sure we keep Atlanta as a city in a forest, says the director of Trust for Public Land-Georgia, Rand Wentworth, stressing that having lost 50 acres of trees a day for 25 years, the region must try harder to protect its green cover. A former developer, he points out that one thing developers like is consistency, including tree and open space protection policies. But now Atlanta and metro counties have different tree ordinances, standards and guidelines, with only some governments able or willing to make them work. DeKalb County CEO Liane Levetan would welcome a tree ordinance that is enforceable and compatible with the whole region, along with a group able to enforce it. Atlanta's planning, development and conservation commissioner Michael Dobbins thinks the model ordinances the Atlanta Regional Commission will offer as part of its smart growth tool kit can help the region with some common themes useful for all. The regional urban forester for the U. S. Forest Service, Ed Macie, says it's going to take the leadership of the business community to forge a unified tree ordinance.   7/10/2000

In a lawsuit prepared by the American ...

In a lawsuit prepared by the American Civil Liberties Union, seven DeKalb County residents, including state Democratic Representative June Hegstrom, are charging the county with unconstitutional restriction of political speech, for ordering a resident to take down a front yard sign that read Greedy developers suck. The resident, Katherine Nash, posted the sign to express her feelings about the area's loss of trees to development. Named as a defendant, DeKalb code enforcement manager Ernie Blow said the sign had to be removed regardless of the message, because it violated county sign-placement regulations, modeled after state rules almost verbatim.   7/10/2000

At the National League of Cities Advisory ...

At the National League of Cities Advisory Council session in Savannah, its six subcommittees listed affordable housing, brownfileld reclamation, regional planning, sprawl control and smart growth among the crucial urban goals that require continued help from the next president and his administration. Focused on reducing urban poverty and improving quality of life, the goals include increased funding for revitalization of old neighborhoods, public education, crime prevention, multiple transportation modes and environmental protection. Counting on solid federal commitment to intergovernmental cooperation, league officials hope to attract private investment, business and high technology to low-income communities, while improving their access to credit and eliminating racial profiling.   7/7/2000

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