Report: Sprawl slowing to a crawl, citizens love them some greenspace
November 27, 2007 at 12:42 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsFor the moment at least, the age-old image of Atlanta as a maelstrom of sprawl appears to be changing.
The Atlanta Regional Commission released a report that says conversion of forested and agricultural land in the 13-county metro area has slowed by 70 percent in the last two years. In addition, the ARC was able to identify nearly 170,000 acres of protected greenspace in the 20-county metro area. That’s roughly the size of DeKalb County, the report says.
The ARC attributes the reduction of forested- and agricultural-land development to the recent housing-market slump and, to a lesser extent, the growing popularity of living intown and mixed-use developments. Instead of cutting down trees and building in a new area, developers will convert or build on previously developed property.
According to the report, voters are also in favor of preserving greenspace — no special ballot measure geared toward greenspace acquisition or protection has been voted against in the 20-county metro region since 2003. Paulding County has the most protected greenspace in the region, at 16 percent, with Rockdale, Bartow, Cherokee and DeKalb following at 8.9, 7.8, 6.5 and 6.2 percent, respectively. An interesting fact judging that a couple of those counties, notably Cherokee and Bartow, are often considered some of the biggest examples of sprawl in the region.
To view the report, click here.
November 27th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
This city has already bulldozed over so much land, that it’s less of a behemoth than a cancer. The biggest problem with this city is that there’s already miles and miles of green space between each and every resident. That’s not a problem that can be fixed in two years–except, to a degree, by increasing the population of the central city.