Op-Ed in Atlanta Journal-Constitution — January 6, 2003

Abolishing Planning Commissions Won't Solve Urban Growth and Livability Issues

By Paul Farmer, AICP

When the newly elected Habersham County Commission meets January 6, one item of business will decide the fate of the county's future livability. Last month, the old Habersham County Commission attempted to turn back the clock on growth and progress by abolishing the county's planning commission, land-use laws and building inspection program.

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Local governments have long been the principal stewards of land resources through the enforcement of building and land-use laws that both benefit the entire community and protect each individual's property rights from abuse by another. When the lame-duck Habersham County Commissioners voted to throw out those laws, they abdicated their responsibility as elected officials charged with balancing the competing interests of constituents. They gave up.

Never mind that the county is expected to grow by 42 percent between 1990 and 2010. It's growth by choice or growth by chance.

Never mind that one of the mandated requirements to be eligible for water-related infrastructure improvement funds from the North Georgia Water Planning District is to have and enforce a local land-use plan. Good fiscal policy requires good planning.

Never mind that county commissioners elsewhere in the state are adopting smart growth plans so development and urban growth enhances — not diminishes — their future.

Local planning is the process of citizens setting priorities to attain a shared vision of the community's future and then taking the necessary steps to achieve that vision. This requires that planning is thoughtful and involves the public and that regulations are fair and administered intelligently. Allowed to stand, the commission's decision would mean many important aspects of the county's development — including watershed and groundwater protections, floodplain designations, buffer zones from agricultural areas, provision of affordable housing and building safety inspections — would be left to chance.

Ideas about land and property are deeply rooted in American culture and our inherited Anglo legal traditions. Our own laws — of barely 200 years — and those centuries-old traditions have always sought both to balance competing private property interests and the public interest. As with most aspects of democracy, this balancing act admittedly is difficult.

The challenge for municipal governments is to create land management strategies that meet citizen needs and more effectively address the preservation and growth of their communities. Municipal governance requires open decision-making processes that often complicate already complex issues. The politics of land-use and development are played out in public hearings and meetings, interagency panels, committees and legislative bodies. The debate is tedious. Its resolution is hard. Building great American communities always is.

By scrapping the give-and-take of land-use planning and implementation, the 2002 Habersham County Commissioners seem to have lost sight of their responsibility to manage land in ways that promote public values and also balance the often-competing interests of private property owners. For these Commissioners, governance in a democratic society apparently was just too tough.

It is unlikely that this act of political revenge will have any lasting effect. A judicial circuit judge already has ruled that the action was an unauthorized exercise of power, and the county's incoming commissioners are expected to overturn the earlier decision.

This anticipated action would be consistent with the recently expressed desires of the voters in Habersham County who voted to throw out the current commission and elected planned-growth advocates instead. It also would be consistent with the opinions of the residents of Georgia who, in a survey conducted last March, ranked urban sprawl among the top five issues facing the state.

In fact, the results of Georgia's poll are in line with national surveys where three out of four respondents say more needs to be done to plan for new growth and development where they live, and that local government is most responsible for making these critical land-use decisions.

During the last several years, 12 governors from the Republican Party and 12 governors from the Democratic Party have introduced smart growth initiatives in their statehouses so that local governments have better tools. The citizens in Habersham County and throughout Georgia will be the winners if Governor-elect Sonny Perdue sees the situation in Habersham as one reason to strengthen the leadership role of State government in its collaboration with local governments in efforts to plan Georgia's growth.

Georgia's citizens have said that growth is too important to be left to chance.

Paul Farmer, AICP, is Executive Director of the American Planning Association.

Press coverage

The Atlanta Journal-Consitution: "Habersham takes ax to government" (December 23, 2002)

Associated Press: "Judge orders county to enforce zonings" (December 24, 2002)