the etowah initiative: fall 2001
upper etowah regional greenspace plan for bartow, cherokee, cobb, forsyth and fulton counties

Brannon Hancock, Marcie Diaz, Jeffrey Boring, Raysun Goergen, Clif Henry.

Press Release: Students Win National Design Competition, May 9, 2002

National Design Competition Entry

Upper Etowah & Lake Allatoona Regional Greenspace Initiative, Fall 2001, Jeffrey Boring, Marcie Diaz, Raysun Goergen, Brannon Hancock, Clif Henry. (PDF file.)
Report links greenspace plans from Upper Etowah counties and proposes regional implementation strategies such as PDR and TDR programs.

Slide Show: Upper Etowah & Lake Allatoona Regional Greenspace Initiative,
Fall 2001, Jeffrey Boring, Marcie Diaz, Raysun Goergen, Brannon Hancock, Clif Henry.
(3.5 MB PPT file)

Problem Identification

Georgia is experiencing unprecedented population growth. The loss of greenspace and the subsequent increase in impervious surface levels may disrupt important functions of natural systems, resulting in degradation of water quality and loss of wildlife as well as increase in urban air temperature and air pollution levels. The Governor and the Georgia General Assemble are attempting to rectify this problem by encouraging local governments to develop and implement plans for permanently protecting at least 20% of their land base as greenspace. Currently, local governments are working independently to develop and implement their greenspace plans and there is no attempt to regionalize these greenspace plans in order to maximize water quality and wildlife habitat benefits.
Primary stakeholders include local government (elected officials and planning staff), and upper Etowah watershed agencies dealing with land and water resources including Lake Allatoona Preservation Authority (LAPA), Upper Etowah River Alliance (UERA), Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the Georgia Conservancy. Anticipated changes include an increase in multi-agency and cross-governmental communication, an increase in cooperation and information sharing between the five counties, local government recognition that a regional greenspace plan is essential for management of shared resources, and a recognition of the mutual benefits of working together to manage these resources.

This project is part of an eight-county upper Etowah Regional Greenspace Plan that will be completed by the University of Georgia, Institute of Ecology for the Georgia Forestry Commission. This project will focus on the 5 counties which currently have a Greenspace Plan approved by DNR. The results from this project may also be used as part of the Habitat Conservation Plan, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Implementation Plan, and an Alternative Watershed Build-Out Analysis for the Upper Etowah Watershed.

Goal

The overarching goal for this project is to achieve local government support for regional planning of greenspace within the upper Etowah watershed. Circumstances that will make this difficult are that the counties have already independently developed their own countywide greenspace plans and comprehensive land use plans. Federal environmental law, including the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, already require these counties to meet water quality and habitat standards. Thus, a regional Greenspace Plan offers a voluntary vehicle for the counties to meet the standards that will be required in the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) of the Endangered Species Act and the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) thresholds of the Clean Water Act.

Objectives

The objectives of this phase of the Regional Greenspace Plan include:

Promotion of planning for greenspace on a regional scale

Completion of a draft regional greenspace plan for the five county-select upper Etowah watershed

Workplan (Adobe PDF)

National Design Competition Entry (click on image to view larger version)

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