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Dear subscriber, 
Want Training But Have No Travel Budget?Many of the state chapters of the American Planning Association offer free webinars. Webinars present an excellent opportunity to obtain specific training on planning and land use issues, particularly in this economic environment where travel budgets have either been reduced or deleted. Topics range from law to economic development, environmental protection, zoning, development codes, smart growth, urban design, and conservation design, to name a few. You can access the state chapters at planning.org/chapters/. Click on a state chapter and see what webinars they offer. The Utah chapter is particularly active. Upcoming selections include: • September 3rd – Planning and Law Division The North Carolina chapter offers a number of webinars through Lorman Education Services. Most of these have a cost associated with “attendance” but provide a low-cost solution to training and multiple staff can gather for the presentation. For a list of upcoming programs, go to www.lorman.com/training/NCAPA. Low-cost or free web-based training is also available through: • Planetizen These are just a few of the free and low-cost training options available to you and your staff. Explore the web and you’ll find many more!
Northeast Georgia’s Regionally Important Resources
In April, the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission (RC) designated 24 resources as “Regionally Important.” In addition to the Council-designated resources, State Vital Areas are also included as Regionally Important Resources (RIRs). State Vital Areas include water supply watersheds for municipal drinking water, jurisdictional wetlands, Groundwater Recharge Areas (high pollution susceptibility areas only), the 100' buffer zone adjacent to Protected Rivers, state parks, wildlife management areas, conservation easements, and national forests. RIRs have been mapped and one-page summaries have been developed for each designated resource outlining its value and vulnerability. Following RIR designation by the RC Council, the Planning Division, with the counsel of the Planning Advisory Committee, began developing a comprehensive Regional Resources Plan for protection and management of RIRs. The Plan will include a map of designated RIRs, best practices, and general policies and protection measures that can be implemented by local government to protect designated resources. To further the intent of designating these resources, the RC will evaluate Developments of Regional Impact located within one mile of a designated RIR against the Plan's best practices. Drafts of the policies, best practices, and protection measures are available for review. The draft of the full Resource Management Plan for Regionally Important Resources will be available for review and comment on Friday, September 3. There will be two opportunities to hear a presentation on the Plan and to comment before it is submitted to the RC Council for consideration for transmittal to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for Review. Planning Advisory Committee Meeting Public Hearing The Regional Resource Plan will be submitted to the RC Council for consideration at its September meeting following which, the Plan will be submitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for Review. The Regional Resource Plan will be incorporated into the subsequent development of the Regional Plan that will begin in September 2010. Questions concerning the Resource Management Plan should be directed to Lee Carmon at lcarmon@negrc.org. Back to top^
Regional Plan 2035The Planning Division has embarked on developing a new comprehensive plan for Northeast Georgia. The Georgia Planning Act requires Regional Commissions to develop a regional comprehensive plan every 10 years and each county in our region is required to participate. Like city and county comprehensive plans, the regional plan is organized around three sections, the Assessment, Stakeholder Involvement Program, and Agenda. The Assessment will present a factual and conceptual foundation upon which the reminder of the plan is built and consists of collecting and analyzing data and information about the region. The Assessment will identify potential issues and opportunities for further study as may be modified through analysis of regional development patterns, consistency with the Department of Community Affairs’s Quality Community Objectives, and the supporting analysis of data. The Stakeholder Involvement Program is to ensure that the regional plan reflects the full range of regional values and desires by involving a diverse spectrum of stakeholders in the Agenda’s development. This broad-based participation will also help ensure that the Agenda is implemented. The Agenda will provide a road map for the region’s future and include the region’s vision, key issues and opportunities, and an implementation program. The implementation program will include policies to provide guidance to decision-makers in making decisions consistent with the Regional Vision, performance standards that will identify specific ordinances, programs, or requirements that may be implemented by local governments in order to realize the Regional Vision, activities that the Regional Commission may take to implement the regional plan, and the Regional Work Program. The Community Assessment and Stakeholder Participation Plan should be completed by the end of the year and submitted to DCA for review and comment. The Community Agenda is due by September 2011. Please visit our website for updates on the Regional Plan. Back to top^
Have You Seen Your Pipes Lately?!
Are your pipes out of sight and out of mind, that is, until they break? Do you need to accommodate that new potential customer who will provide new jobs and tax revenues? Do you want to do effective planning and economic development? Why is customer X having issues with funny colored water? Are you digging up your streets at random looking for pipes? Are you worried about penalties for having untreated wastewater flowing into your streams? Is all of your system information in the head of the utilities manager who is only a few years from retiring? If you answered yes to any of the above, you need GIS mapping, where all of your information can be available on one paper map, and even as an on-line (internet) digital map, all in one place, available anytime.
How can this be done? Existing paper maps can be scanned and the important features turned into digital data. The digital data can be enhanced and updated with Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment. The resulting digital map data can then be used in multitudes of ways: overlaid onto aerial photos, elevation maps, soils maps, building outlines, addresses, land use maps, zoning maps, future plan maps. Questions can be answered at a glance. New questions and ideas can be considered that never would have occurred to anybody before. Even sophisticated modeling and “what if” scenarios can be studied. You can calculate how much of anything in the system that you have; inventories are a breeze. Are there new customers that can be reached with minimal investment? Estimating for new projects is made easier. You can demonstrate and illustrate need when applying for public grant
funding or loans. Where is the nearest fire hydrant? Where is the valve to shut off and repair the leak while impacting the fewest customers? It’s endless! Give us a call. We’ll put together a free - no obligation estimate for you, and maybe even find grant funding to accomplish the project with minimal cost. Contact Steve Cumblidge, GIS Manager (706-369-5650/scumblidge@negrc.org). Back to top^
Another Kind of Bottom Line
What does it mean to be ‘sustainable?’ This word is associated with numerous aspects of human life today, from recycled consumer goods, to the local food movement still sweeping the country, to organizational and governmental budgeting procedures, to improvements in energy efficiency for appliances, buildings, and communities, among others. Sustainability is more than a buzz word. It has been defined in different ways by groups and individuals with varying biases, but is most often associated with environmental conservation and preservation efforts. A definition of this type would describe sustainability as “a condition in which human use of natural resources, required for the continuation of life, is in balance with nature’s ability to replenish them.” American Planning Association, Policy Guide on Planning for Sustainability. A more universally applicable definition addresses the “triple bottom line,” comprised of Environment, Economy, and Social Equity. This concept is often depicted graphically as a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles, their intersection point indicating sustainability. When it comes to planning, this intersection may also be referred to as sustainable development, another confusing term, and one more closely linked to the economic element of the triple bottom line. Many may also associate sustainable development with measurement tools such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. While conscientious site and building design is one component of sustainability, it does not, in a vacuum, a sustainable community make. Sustainable communities, simply put, meet the needs of the present while ensuring that future generations have the same or better opportunities. The NEGRC Planning Division will be bringing you information on how your local government can incorporate sustainability principles in future issues of “Planning Ahead.” Trends in Sustainability At the State level, the Georgia Planning Association (GPA) is devoting their fall conference in Valdosta (see the Events section for more details) to the topic of sustainability, naming it “Transition to a Sustainable Georgia.” While specific sessions have not yet been solidified, GPA has solicited ideas from a variety of sources; one might expect to learn about energy and planning, local agriculture, and other topics that might fall under the heading of sustainability. The University of Georgia in Athens has just recently established an Office of Sustainability, responsible for the coordination, communication, and advancement of sustainability initiatives on campus. Their efforts might involve anything from improving recycling and waste streams to developing a bike-share program for UGA students, faculty, and staff.
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Transportation ChoicesPersonal transportation patterns vary widely across the United States, often with little predictability. For instance, while sunny Georgia registers among the lowest states in percentage of commuters walking to work (1.5%, barely over half the national average of 2.8%), much colder Alaska (7.1%), New York (6.3%), and Vermont (6.3%) lead the nation (the District of Columbia clocks in at 12.1%). So too with public transportation, Georgia lags behind the national average (5%), with only 2.4% of work commuting trips coming from transit; perhaps not surprisingly, New York leads all states at 26.7%. In mean travel time to work, Georgia is far closer to average – 27 minutes, as compared to the national figure of 25.5 minutes. Despite Georgia’s apparent relative resistance to non-automobile travel, transportation choices in the State are becoming more prominent, safer, more convenient, and, according to some highly varied sources, more necessary than ever. State legislators worked frantically toward resolution on a way for regions to garner flexible transportation funding in their last session. Columnists have spoken out about Georgia’s inability to rely strictly on road-building to “pave a way out of traffic congestion” (from an Athens Banner-Herald editorial, 4/19/2009). Local governments are constructing bicycling and walking facilities not only as safe corridors for transportation choices, but alongside chambers of commerce, they are promoting the economic benefits of these projects. Advocates are organizing and educating throughout the state, and teaming up with new partners such as school districts, public health professionals, and human services agencies. What does this mean for Northeast Georgians? The answer to this question is complicated, depending on where one lives, works, shops, plays, or attends school, but as a whole can be summed up by saying that alternatives to the private automobile are becoming more widespread in our region. Elbert, Greene, Jackson, and Morgan counties, as well as the City of Social Circle all offer rural public transportation, typically demand-response services that pick up and drop off passengers at specific addresses and desired times. Athens-Clarke County’s Athens Transit system delivers traditional, fixed-route service to residents and University of Georgia students, providing more than 1.5 million trips per year for employment, health care, education, and recreation purposes. One noteworthy fact on Athens Transit in particular is that each bus features a pull-down bicycle rack that allows cyclists to take their bikes with them; with nearby parking lots and pedestrian connections to stops, as well as a formal park-and-ride lot in the works, connecting to “The Bus” has never been easier. Speaking of multi-modal connectivity, while sidewalks exist in most Northeast Georgia communities, some local governments are requiring facilities for walking and bicycling (and even transit, where appropriate) in new developments. Sidewalk ordinances ensure safety within and between neighborhoods, with the construction costs added into the overall project scope; bicycle parking racks at stores, restaurants, offices, and other activity hubs can draw cyclists’ business by providing secure locations for their vehicles. Through SPLOST, federal programs such as Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School, and other sources, communities are building bike lanes, sidewalks, and combination, multi-use paths to provide safer spaces for existing cyclists and pedestrians and to entice others to try walking and bicycling. Counties and municipalities planning for these connections are too numerous to list; recent success stories can be found in Jefferson/Jackson County, Athens-Clarke County, and Oxford, among others. Clearly, Northeast Georgia offers a number of options for leaving the car in the garage every now and then, but what does it take to get moving? For starters, check out RideSmart if you’re looking to carpool. Run “bike commuting” through Google, and you’ll be rewarded with a list of nearly 1.4 million links – try Commute by Bike and Paul Dorn’s Bike Commuting Tips – that will help you choose a bike and gear, pick a route, and pedal safely and predictably. For walking, nothing could be simpler – find the right shoes for the job and choose your route based on safety, directness, and aesthetics. With all of these, you might want to consider a dry-run over the weekend before you dive in Monday morning, just to get a feel for how long it will take, potential obstacles to avoid, and anything else that you hadn’t considered, although bear in mind that bus service and traffic conditions often vary significantly between weekends and the work week. Below are some specific tips for getting about when you leave your car in the garage: 1. Your bike is considered a vehicle under state law – obey all traffic laws, understand that some drivers might not know how to react to cyclists, and invest in a bicycle that will suit your needs, especially if it will be doing the regular work your car once did. Wearing a reflective vest, taking more of the lane than the width of my elbows, and keeping tires inflated properly (the smoother and harder the surface, the more pressure you can put into them, but stick to the limits listed on the sidewall) keeps the cyclist safe and sound. 2. On that note, your first commuting bike can be of almost any type, as long as it’s in solid condition, in tune, and fits you well. Style and weight are far less important than feel and function at this point. A backpack or panniers (saddle-bags) will work well for carrying your gear, and keeping clothes and shoes at your office could be a big convenience. 3. For walking, choose a shoe you’re comfortable wearing – you can always carry more appropriate work footwear in a backpack or leave shoes at your office – and pick a route conscious of topography, sidewalk and crosswalk availability, shade, and other factors that you think might affect your experience. 4. To get to and from bus stops, almost every transit user will be a pedestrian at some point on his or her trip. The closest bus stop may not necessarily be the best – sun/shade, the presence of a bench or seat, and shelter from rain might make walking a bit further worthwhile, depending on the distance. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time to be at the stop before the bus arrives – the driver won’t likely wait. 5. Especially with a fixed-route, urban system, taking the bus might seem complicated. Fares, routes, and time tables could be difficult to figure out, but if you call your transit provider, they will help you along. Your first trip on the bus might leave you wondering where to get off and how to know when to pull the “Stop Requested” cord – the driver will be happy to help you depart at the right stop and will either let you know when to pull the cord or will pull over at the right stop on his or her own. Riding transit is a great way to see the community, in terms of what’s happening both inside and outside of the bus. 6. Cycling, walking, or riding transit to work will probably affect you in several ways: it might get you in shape, you could meet new friends, or you could discover things about your neighborhood that you’d never noticed. It may also make you a better driver: driving more carefully, slowing down, and keeping an eye out for things you might otherwise miss when you think about your experiences walking and riding. 7. One final note: SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY. A new focus on transportation choices has put Northeast Georgia in the spotlight as a state leader in the field. With the right combination of planning, investment, education, and encouragement, our communities might be able to help Georgia buck perceptions of being slow to embrace walking, bicycling, and transit use. Note: The Northeast Georgia recently updated the “Northeast Georgia Plan for Biking and Walking.” The plan will be considered for adoption at the Regional Commission’s August Council meeting.
Upcoming Events
August 25-27 September 13-17 September 23-24 September 29 - October 1 October 4-5 October 25-26 |
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