Quality Growth Assistance Directory

Georgia Quality Growth Partnership

www.georgiaqualitygrowth.com

Toolkit

Practical advice to local governments on quality growth tools with step-by-step guides for implementation, considerations about costs, administrative requirements, and example ordinances.

Resource Teams

Local technical assistance visits, staffed by volunteers from the partnership, the state university system, and public or private sector participants from the design or development fields who help communities develop comprehensive strategies for implementing quality growth practices.

Georgia Examples

Web site of mini-case studies about quality growth projects taking place within Georgia, including contact information to help facilitate peer-to-peer sharing among local governments.

Quality Growth Advisory Clinic

A panel of experts, made available at major in-state conferences for one-on-one consultation and advice about local quality growth projects.

Alliance for Quality Growth

http://aqg.ecology.uga.edu

• Technical Assistance on Quality Growth Planning; Incentives for Smart Growth; and Smart Growth Regulation

• Technical Assistance on greenspace/farmland protection; planning strategies, economies of growth management, zoning and regulatory issues.

• Library of technical reports and policy papers.

• Speakers’ bureau and public presentations.

Atlanta Regional Commission

www.atlantaregional.com

Livable Centers Initiative (LCI)

Provides seed money to communities in ARC region working to enhance livability and mobility for their residents.

Community Planning Academy (CPA)

Provides targeted education in community planning and its many challenges, including training for planning officials and citizens.

Community Choices Toolkit

Offers communities customized solutions for their very different needs. Each tool incorporates best practices at work both locally and nationally and molds them into strategies that make sense for the Atlanta Region.

Developments of Excellence Awards Program

To showcase truly innovative projects.

Data Training

Provides information about data-rich web sites so communities can find demographic and socio-economic data to help in grant writing and public presentations.

Census Data Maps

(http://atlantacensus2000.gsu.edu) A collaborative website between Georgia State University Fiscal Research Program and ARC, allowing access and display of population, age, gender, ethnicity, income and household information for the entire United States or for an area as small as a neighborhood of your choice.

Atlanta Regional Consortium for Higher Education

www.atlantahighered.org

Higher Education Resources for Quality Growth Directory

Identifies a wide range of technical assistance, research, and informational resources available through the various Atlanta area colleges and universities to support local quality growth initiatives.

The Georgia Conservancy

www.georgiaconservancy.org

Works in partnerships such as the Alliance for Quality Growth, and the Georgia Quality Growth Partnership to provide incentives and technical assistance for quality growth efforts.

Blueprints for Successful Communities

Technical assistance and education to help communities chart their future in ways that can protect and enhance social, cultural and environmental assets.

Georgia Cool Communities

www.coolcommunities.org

• Technical assistance on sustainable development to help mitigate Urban Heat Islands and improve air and water quality using vegetative cover and tree canopy, reflective roofing materials, and lighter colored or pervious paving alternatives.

• Resource materials and links to scientific studies and reports, practical applications of Urban Heat Island mitigation strategies and information about projects in various communities.

• Seminar and conference presentations, lunch & learn sessions, quarterly information forums.

Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA)

www.dca.state.ga.us

Better Hometown and Georgia Main Street Programs

www.betterhometown.org

• Self-help community development programs for small and large cities designed to improve a community’s quality of life through sound planning and implementation.

• Downtown Resource Guide identifies all DCA resources and programs that are available to assist in the revitalization of Georgia’s downtowns.

Model Code: Alternatives to Conventional Zoning

www.dca.state.ga.us/development/PlanningQualityGrowth/programs/modelcode.asp

Provides viable legal alternatives to conventional zoning for smaller local governments with limited technical and administrative capacity, such as sign ordinances, manufactured housing, and subdivision regulations, as well as more innovative tools such as performance standards, design review, and clustering rural development.

Special Issue Retreats

Intensive one-or-two-day gatherings of key local officials for hands-on work with a recognized expert in a particular quality growth approach (e.g., innovative site plan review, sign regulations, mixed use zoning).

Quality Growth Facilitator’s Bureau

Professional facilitators, trained in quality growth principles, made available to facilitate local planning and visioning meetings while also bringing quality growth ideas into the discussion.

Direct Technical Assistance

Hands-on expert assistance, provided upon request to communities seeking to implement particular quality growth approaches.

Regional Offices

www.dca.state.ga.us/regions/index.html

Arrange technical assistance for local governments interested in implementing quality growth initiatives.

Georgia Department of Natural Resources Coastal Resources Division

crd.dnr.state.ga.us

Georgia Coastal Management Program (GCMP)

Provides technical assistance to local governments and other coastal stakeholders in identifying, protecting, and enhancing public access to natural resources, GIS mapping, researching funding for resource related projects; and linking with other regional and state agencies.

Coastal Incentive Grant Program

Provides financial assistance to local regional, and state agencies and research and education institutions for projects that protect or enhance coastal resources.

Georgia Forestry Commission Urban & Community Forestry

www.gfc.state.ga.us/index.cfm

• Financial Assistance Program to help conserve, manage, and enhance community forests.

• Technical Assistance: Tree ordinance development assistance; Community Tree Benefits & Care; Urban/rural interface assistance; and training.

Georgia Greenspace Program

www.state.ga.us/dnr/greenspace

A funding source and framework within which developed and rapidly developing counties and their municipalities can preserve community greenspace to provide for the protection of environmental, historic, and natural resources.

Georgia Institute of Technology

www.gatech.edu

Economic Development Institute

www.edi.gatech.edu

Fiscal Impact Tool for Land Use Planning

• Helps local officials, economic developers, and planners to project the fiscal impact of growth under alternative land use pattern scenarios.

Strategic Opportunities Assessment

• Provides a community with guidelines and recommendations for a five to ten year strategic plan for economic development, compatible with quality growth objectives.

Research Institute

www.gatech.edu/research/

Technical Outreach Services for Communities (TOSC) www.toscprogram.org

• Guidance through the environmental cleanup and site reuse process.

Technical Assistance for Brownfields (TAB) www.toscprogram.org

• Technical assistance to communities and municipalities addressing the environmental issues of Brownfield cleanup and redevelopment.

Sustainable Facilities and Infrastructure Program (SFI) http://maven.gtri.gatech.edu/sfi

• Technical assistance and training to public and private institutions seeking to implement sustainability in their capital facility practices.

College of Architecture

www.coa.gatech.edu/

Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development www.cqgrd.gatech.edu

• Cutting-edge research on sustainable growth, transportation, environmental protection, quality schools, and community involvement.

• Outreach and educational program to promote improved quality of life in regions throughout U.S. and abroad.

City and Regional Planning Program www.coa.gatech.edu/crp

• Research focused on growth management, land use, transportation, economic development, housing, and environmental protection in city and regional settings.

• Accredited master’s degree and studio field-level experiences for local communities in quality growth issues.

Architecture Program www.coa.gatech.edu/arch

• Research and studio education in urban design, suburban retrofitting, and pedestrian/walkable environments.

• The Georgia Land Trust Service Center works to increase the effectiveness of land trusts and helps land owners protect conservation lands in Georgia and the Southeast.

• The Georgia Wetlands Trust Fund provides an alternative strategy for meeting wetlands mitigation requirements under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.

Regional Development Centers

www.dca.state.ga.us/development/PlanningQualityGrowth/programs/regdev.asp

Planning Divisions provide assistance with the development of local and regional comprehensive plans, preparation of land management ordinances, codification of ordinances, mapping, and review of Developments of Regional Impact.

University of Georgia

www.uga.edu

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

www.cviog.uga.edu

Balanced Growth Initiative

• Development of tools to determine efficiency, social productivity, and environmental sustainability of growth and growth management options.

• Comprehensive database of growth management case studies.

• Publication: “Drivers of Growth — Literature Review.”

• Decision support model and pilot program for local government use.

• “Quality Growth University” for local elected officials.

College of Environment and Design Public Service and Outreach Programs

Institute of Ecology

ecology.uga.edu/outreach.htm

Undertakes research and policy assistance focused on land-use, biodiversity, water and air quality.

School of Environmental Design

www.sed.uga.edu

Provides landscape Architecture, Historic Preservation and Community Design Services, including:

• Community Design Charrettes

• Corridor Studies

• Downtown Revitalization

• Landscape Planning

• Historic Resource Surveys and Preservation Plans

• Historic District Design Guidelines

Urban Land Institute Atlanta District Council

www.atlanta.uli.org

Atlanta’s Advisory Services Committee provides professional and technical services to Atlanta region projects and processes through the involvement of local ULI members, including creating local advisory panels and review of local public development and planning initiatives.