The Preservation of Community Green Space : Is Georgia Ready to Combat Sprawl with Smart Growth?

Containing the ill effects of urban sprawl has become a cause celebre for many citizens who are experiencing a decline in the quality of life in the country's cities and suburban areas. Armed with smart growth principles, the new urbanists and many environmentalists advocate the return to more compact, mixed use patterns of development with neighborhood centers that are pedestrian oriented. They urge the development of more walkways, bicycle paths, and public transit hoping to decrease dependence upon the automobile. This Article argues that the creation and preservation of permanently protected community green space must be addressed as an integral part of the smart growth movement. The accessibility of green space in areas close to where people live and work for recreational and alternative greenway transportation purposes is a critical element in any strategy to combat urban sprawl by greater density living. The newly created Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) and the Georgia Greenspace Commission, with overlapping jurisdictions, must collaborate to create and maintain community green space. Drawing upon recommendations made by the Community Green Space Advisory Committee in its 1999 Report to the Governor and the General Assembly, this Article identifies and analyzes a number of funding methods that can be implemented under Georgia law to increase the percentage of protected green space in the state. These funding and acquisition techniques, used by many communities in other states, provide a foundation upon which a statewide green space program can be launched. This Article advocates that legal and structural impediments to permanently protected green space creation in Georgia must be identified and removed, a goal already articulated in the recently enacted legislation creating the Georgia Greenspace Commission