Athens has seen its share of ups and downs lately. Leaders lobbied hard to land the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) to enhance its growth in the life sciences sector last year; but a combination of community opposition and…
More stimulus money is flowing into Georgia, this time to finance water and sewer improvements; $40.5 million of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is part of $91.5 million approved by the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) for upgrades…
Known for years as the Carpet Capital of the World, Dalton has seen its fortunes affected by both the national decline in homebuilding brought about by the recession and the gradual consolidation of an industry that has shrunk from 400…
Georgia Trend’s first GreenRoom Summit, covered in the July issue, produced some revelations, especially information from the energy companies that residents, not big companies, use the most power and water. That means the onus is on residential developers and citizens…
Augusta is known worldwide as the home of one of golf’s greatest tournaments, the Masters. However, there’s far more to this city, located some two hours east of Atlanta, than green fairways and green jackets. Augusta also is home to…
Four Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs) have backed out of a plan to build a coal-fired plant in Washington County, citing concerns over new carbon emissions standards that may roll out from the Obama administration. Jackson and GreyStone Power, which had…
Seemingly, green is mainstream. Conservation, sustainability and environmental responsibility are part of the daily dialogue, as individuals, businesses and communities come to grips with some new realities and line up for funding from the Obama stimulus package. In Georgia, the…
Georgia’s knight in shining armor this spring proved to be none other than the Atlanta Regional Commission, which saved thousands of commuters one day a week of driving by giving MARTA $25 million to continue full-week operations. The legislature not…
There’s a swarm of activity in west central Georgia. The hum of automated manufacturing lines, heavy machinery and futuristic processing systems is heating up the climate, in anticipation of some 30,000 newcomers converging on two gigantic developments: the opening of…
The Georgia Department of Trans-portation has officially recommended that Amtrak abandon plans to use the Atlanta Beltline’s Decatur Belt for commuter and high speed rail service, a reversal that should end much recent ill will among the beleaguered agencies, and…
Lately, navigating Georgia’s transportation mess is like skiing in an avalanche. In a way, the situation mirrors that of the national economy – no one is sure how we got here or how to get out. But there is hope…
Georgia Power can build two new nuclear reactors in Georgia free from fiscal worry now that the legislature passed Senate Bill 31, allowing the utility to begin charging customers before the reactors are built. The Public Service Commission subsequently approved…
As expected, the nearly $1 billion Kia plant in West Point has gone a long way toward helping insulate west central Georgia from the national economic nastiness. The plant is not only set to open on schedule this fall, but…
Augusta is continuing to grow as an anchor for the east central region. “Honestly, activity has remained steady – we continue to see not only manufacturing prospects taking a look but expansions of existing industries,” says Development Author-ity of Richmond…
Georgia needs both high-speed passenger rail and the Atlanta Beltline (a 22-mile ring of light rail and parks) to remain a viable economic player in the 21st century, but these two trains are currently on a collision course: Amtrak wants…
Columbus State University is reaping the benefits of millions of dollars in investment and feeding off the excitement of a region poised to explode with new jobs and residents. Nearby Fort Benning is growing by 25,000 and West Point’s new…
Atlanta Beltline Inc. has dissolved NE Corridor Partners, a joint venture it created with Barry Real Estate Cos. in 2007 to buy and develop some five miles of the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and trains city leaders are hoping…
Jackson County is like no other county in Georgia. With four cities straddling county borders, and one city in four different counties, it also happens to be next in line for exurban growth coming from two cities – Atlanta to…
Cobb County voted to spend $40 million on new parklands in the November election. The county has proven a good land steward, investing $37 million in about 400 acres over the last year, and voters approved the new bond two-to-one.…
Lumpkin County was blindsided this spring by the announcement that Mohawk, a carpeting manufacturer, was closing its Dahlonega carpet fiber plant, where some 366 were employed – two for more than 50 years. “They were our largest private employer,” says…
• Hiking on Cumberland Island – miles away from civilization and the auto traffic that haunts the rest of the state – is an experience critical to many a Georgian’s appreciation of our natural resources. Now a tradition that has…
Perched on Georgia’s western border, Haralson County is taking a slow, measured approach to bedroom growth seeping its way from both Atlanta and Birmingham. With an eye toward maintaining what County Commission Chair Allen Poole calls its “rural integrity,” this…
• Boat propellers are believed to have killed four endangered manatees that washed up on the coast of Savannah near Talmadge Bridge in September. A U.S. Geological Survey found that boat collisions are the top long-term threat to manatees; boats…
When he was first elected in 2002, Gov. Sonny Perdue set out to bring business practices and principles to state government – with a little help from his friends. The result was The Commission For A New Georgia (CNG), formed…
• Some of Georgia’s parks and public golf courses are at risk of closing as a result of a $1.6 billion budget gap, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which has been ordered to cut six to 10…
Many Georgia cities can vie for relevance to music history. Savannah has Johnny Mercer; Augusta, James Brown; Albany, Ray Charles; Macon, Otis Redding and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Atlanta is the world’s black entertainment Mecca. But Athens has…
• Georgia’s Board of Natural Resources plans to buy 1,564 acres linking two state-owned natural areas, Zahnd Natural Area and Crockford-Pigeon Mountain Wild-life Management Area, near Look-out Mountain in Walker County. The state’s Land Conservation Pro-gram helped pay the $8.3…
Gwinnett County was the fastest growing county in the country during a transitional period, when the strip centers of the 1970s and shopping malls of the 1980s were beginning to lose their luster and the roads connecting them, increasingly clogged…
Georgia’s entertainment industry has come a long way since the big-screen Deliverance and small-screen The Dukes of Hazard, which more or less book-ended the 1970s and put Georgia on the minds of millions of fans. In fact, the state has…
Could a cloud of summer smog have a silver lining? Something in the air has Georgia leaders doing right by the GreenRoom. • Fulton Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt-Cummings announced a landmark decision invalidating a permit granted by the State…
With few state mechanisms for enforcing environmental regulations in place in Georgia, the courts have long been the domain for fighting industries and entities that pollute rivers and raze forests, impact air and water quality or compromise private lands –…
Taking place, as it does each year, in early spring, the annual Heart and Soul Bus Tour, sponsored by the Georgia Cities Foundation – a subsidiary of the Georgia Municipal Association – offers an unparalleled opportunity to see the seeds…
Gov. Sonny Perdue has launched a new “Conserve Georgia” campaign to promote better use of the state’s natural resources. A website, ConserveGeorgia.org, provides conservation tips and a list of state agencies intended to help the average Georgian reduce his or…
• Linger Longer Communities, which is redeveloping Jekyll Island in partnership with the Jekyll Island Authority, revamped its plans in order to place a park and environmental conservation center on a site formerly planned for hotels and condominiums. Since the…
* The Georgia Supreme Court seems to have dealt a billion-dollar blow to the Atlanta Beltline, ruling that education taxes can’t be used for infrastructure projects (traditionally school systems can opt in or out of Tax Allocation District funding as…
• Voters in Forsyth County approved a $100 million bond for greenspace, parks and recreation on Super Tuesday. Cumming Mayor H. Ford Gravitt had opposed both the greenspace bond and the continuation of a one-cent SPLOST tax for road improvements,…
Recent times have been good for Georgia arts – and the arts in general. Both Atlanta’s High Museum of Art and Savannah’s Telfair Museum have completed massive expansions to broaden audiences and improve programming. A new Atlanta Symphony Hall is…
• “Stop I-3,” a civic group opposing a proposed highway through the North Georgia Mountains, has suggested letting the interstate be built after all – through South Carolina. The Savannah Morning News reports that Interstate 3, named in honor of…
Click on the following link for extra information http://home.earthlink.net/~oldagolda/georgiatrendextra/ The Georgia Municipal Association is paying a lot of attention these days to the proposal to eliminate local property taxes and replace them with sales taxes – a measure that would…
• Georgia’s access to Lake Lanier for drinking water has been challenged by Alabama and Florida; nearly a quarter of the federal reservoir that has been permitted to Georgia is at stake. A 2003 decision ruled in favor of shifting…
• Georgia, Florida and Alabama agreed in November to work out a unilateral water plan by mid-February. The states’ fight over water resources has been given plenty of ink in Georgia Trend over its 17-year history, but it was the…
• In another step forward for the Atlanta Beltline, the city will spend $30 million for a new park near City Hall East, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The funds will secure land for a stormwater pond system that could eventually…
• The city of Atlanta announced intentions to purchase a small block adjacent to Oakland Cemetery to preserve as greenspace. Atlanta City Council members Carla Smith, Natalyn Archibong and Kwanza Hall sponsored the legislation; the purchase price, which could be…
Long centered on the University of Georgia, Athens-Clarke County’s economy may be tilting seismically toward life sciences in the near future. None of the announcements are firm but they are close enough to set tongues wagging: Medical College of Georgia…
• Athens’ W.H. “Dink” NeSmith, president of Community Newspapers Inc., has donated a 1,010-acre conservation easement located along the banks of the Altamaha River in Wayne County to The Nature Conservancy of Georgia. A conservation easement is a legally binding…
Atlanta’s long suffering transportation community was not spared the humiliation of the 2007 General Assembly, much to the insult of residents anxious for real solutions to traffic problems that are to be compounded by the repaving of Inter-states 75 and…
Winding down west Georgia roads at speeds of up to 85 mph, the Seventh Annual Heart and Soul of Georgia Bus Tour was an exhilarating whirl of country charm, progressive ideas and Southern-style civic pride that rambled from Douglasville to…
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