"Keep it rural": the politics of planning for smart growth in South Fulton County, Georgia

Abstract

<p>The politics and practice of planning exurban areas in the United States has been a major focus of debate since the 1950s. Urban growth management and more recently smart growth have arisen in response to the sprawling forms of development that are characteristic of most North American cities. While these movements represent the development of a broad set of tools for directing growth and preserving agriculturally and biologically important land, political and institutional barriers to their implementation remain strong. A more robust understanding of the political environment in which plans with strong growth management are enacted and implemented is necessary if we are to find solutions to the problems that dominant growth patters have caused.</p> <p>This paper examines the history of a series of attempts to pass and implement growth management in South Fulton County from the mid 1990s through the incorporation of the City of Chattahoochee Hills in 2007. Despite being in a prime location for new low-density suburbs, over the past two decades, various groups have worked enacted strict land use controls mandating cluster development and preserving up to 80% of its total land area in agricultural and nature preserves. This paper uses a mixed-method approach based on archival research as well as oral history. Understanding how this community succeeded will contribute to the understanding of how alternative development is possible.</p>