Disturbing Trend in Composition of Board of Natural Resources?

Recently the Georgia Board of Natural Resources has lost some of its most effective pro-environmental voices, including Sara Clark, Ralph Callaway and Sally Bethea. The board, which consists of 18 members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Georgia Senate for seven-year terms, has wide-ranging oversight of the many divisions that make up the Department of Natural Resources, including Environmental Protection and Coastal Resources.* Among the board’s most critical duties are the adoption and amendment of administrative rules for environmental protection. Current issues being considered by the board include rules regarding marshland buffers, water supply watershed buffers, soil erosion and sedimentation control pertaining to plan reviews conducted by local issuing authorities, and mercury emissions from new coal-fired electric generating units. (For more information about how to comment on these issues, see the links below.)

The most recent board change was the removal of Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Director Sally Bethea. Bethea served on the board for seven years and could be counted on to speak up and speak out on behalf of clean air, clean water and preservation of Georgia’s coast. In the final hours of the legislative session, Chair of the Senate Committee on Assignments and Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), struck Bethea’s name from the list of 300 gubernatorial appointees to various offices being confirmed by the Senate.

To many in the environmental community, Bethea’s removal demonstrates a disturbing trend in the loss of pro-environmental voices on the DNR Board since the removal of former Lieutenant Governor Pierre Howard in 2003. This was followed by Governor Perdue’s failure to reappoint Sara Clark, a community volunteer and long-time League of Women Voters supporter from Alpharetta, and Ralph Callaway, an executive at Callaway Gardens from Pine Mountain, both of whom have supported environmental protections. Clark, Callaway, and Bethea all had opposed new rules for protecting coastal tidal marshes that many in the environmental community felt were not protective enough.

The environmental issues and questions that regularly come before the DNR Board are of vital interest to Georgians statewide and it is critical that there be a true balance of interests represented in the board’s composition.

Deborah Miness, GPA President-Elect
Georgia Conservancy Vice President for Land Programs and Growth Management 

* There is one member from each of the 13 congressional districts of the state, four at-large members, and one additional member representing the coastal counties. For a list of current members and their affiliations and backgrounds, see the May 7, 2007 story “DNR ousters have critics worried” in the Jacksonville Times-Union at
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/050707/geo_168147806.shtml.

Other DNR divisions are the Wildlife Resources Division, the Parks, Recreation and Historic Sites Division, the Historic Preservation Division, and the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division.

For More Information

Coastal Marshlands Protection Rules regarding marshland buffers
http://crd.dnr.state.ga.us/content/displaycontent.asp?txtDocument=1137

Rules for Environmental Planning Criteria pertaining to water supply watershed buffers
http://www.gaepd.org/environet/16/notice.pdf

Rules for Erosion and Sedimentation Control
http://www.gaepd.org/environet/7/notice.pdf

Clean Air Mercury Rule and State Plan for control of mercury emissions from new coal-fired electric generating units
http://www.gaepd.org/environet/1/20070406_Notice_CAMR_111d_Plan.pdf

Urban Georgia Network Symposium – May 15-16, 2007

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Georgia Power and the Atlanta Regional Commission will host the 2nd Annual Urban Georgia Network Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia on May 15-16, 2007. The symposium is entitled Sense of Place Extends Beyond Your Gates and will focus on mixed-use development and will also feature the unveiling of Georgia’s newest downtown development planning tool – the Formed Based Model Code for Cultural & Heritage Tourism Districts. Topics will include Global Trends in Downtown/Intown Lifestyles, Design Concepts for Mixed-Use, Formed Based Codes/Overlay Zones, Affordable Housing, Developing Mixed-Use in Context, Marketing in Mixed-Use Development, etc. Don’t miss the mobile workshops highlighting several of Atlanta successful mixed-use projects, including Atlantic Station.

Download Symposium Agenda and Registration Form

May 23 – 25, 2007
GEDA Spring Workshop, Brasstown Valley
for more info please visit their website at www.geda.org

June 1, 2007
Southface – Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable, Atlanta, GA
for more info please visit their website at www.southface.org

June 6, 2007
Atlanta Regional Housing Forum, “The State of Regional Housing”, Atlanta, GA
For more information please download the pdf registration form HERE

June 12 – 29, 2007
The Georgia Department of Transportation is pleased to offer FREE workshops on the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program in multiple cities.
Register Today at http://www.dot.state.ga.us/srts/

July 10 – 11, 2007
Community Planning Institute Training Program, Dublin, GA
Twelve hours of education in land use, comprehensive planning and legal issues. Course completion provides participants “Certified Planning Commissioner” status granted by the Georgia Planning Association and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Who should attend? Planning Commissioners; Zoning Board of Appeals members; other Citizen Planners and Planning Officials; Government Planning Staff and Elected Officials.
Download Agenda (pdf)

Visit the GPA Calendar of Events website page for a full listing...

District 4 –Preparing for BRAC

submitted by Frederick Gardiner, AICP, District 4 Director

BRAC is coming! Georgia along with many other states across the nation are preparing for the impacts of the Base Realignment and Closure. It is estimated that the State of Georgia will lose 6,4459 military jobs and 3,293 civilian jobs; however, they will be replaced with 15,136 new military jobs and 1,322 civilian jobs and 717 mission contractors for a net gain of 7,423 combined service personnel.

District 4, will be greatly impacted by these planned changes, specifically the Consolidated Government of Columbus and Muscogee County. It has been determined that roughly 9,830 new military jobs will be moving into the area, increasing the demands on housing, schools, public services and infrastructure. The projected population increase for the region over the transition period will rival that of the regions projected population growth for a two to three decades period. Recognizing the impacts of these changes, local and regional planners are planning ahead to facilitate and accommodate the new growth.