Georgia

While many metro areas in the U.S. have undertaken water conservation measures, one rapidly growing metropolis is criticized for its disregard for water conservation and uncontrolled growth.

The states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have come to an agreement that will reduce the flow of river water out of Georgia as droughts have turned the three states against each other in a battle over limited water resources.

Droughts are causing many Georgia municipalities to tightly restrict water use, but just across the border in Alabama is a city that has plenty of water to spare.

Metropolitan Atlanta could feasibly survive on its own if it were to secede from the state of Georgia, writes Otis White. But as he explains, Atlanta would be much better off as part of the state than as its own, if only there were more cooperation.

Traditional public housing complexes are on the way out in Atlanta as the city looks to move all of its low-income residents to a system of renting with Section 8 housing vouchers.

The results of a competitive RFP process to redevelop Georgia's historic Jekyll Island has been deemed unfair by the Jekyll Island Revitalization Group. A formal challenge to the State's decision has been issued and a lawsuit may follow.

County officials in Georgia have once again extended their moratorium on residential rezonings as they weigh whether changes will encourage sprawl. The latest extension will stretch the original 90-day moratorium to nearly a year.

A new study shows that property values have spiked around the proposed parkway, threatening to price lower-income residents out of their homes.

Property taxes along Atlanta's proposed Beltline -- a 22-mile loop of park and trails ringing downtown -- are rising sharply, threatening to displace the poor that live in adjacent areas.

An analysis of Census figures shows that the number of long-distance commuters -- those who spend more than 90 minutes on their average commute -- has increased.

A landowner in suburban Atlanta who had planned to sell his property to Wal-Mart is now suing the city of Duluth over a big-box moratorium that he claims is not in the best interest of the city.

Transportation planners in metropolitan Atlanta have drawn up a preliminary map that outlines what an ambitious 12-county transit system could look like.

Neighbors are so far unsuccessful in their attempts to prevent one homeowner from erecting a 45-foot high windmill turbine generator in his yard.

Four unincorporated communities in Atlanta have become new cities...and outsourced neary all government services to private corporations.

The City of Atlanta and a group of investors have purchased another plot of land for the city's Beltline project -- a loop of open spaces, rail lines, and housing and retail developments. This is the first plot purchased in more than a year.

Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the architecture program at Georgia Tech, thinks architects and planners need to understand suburbia better before they can begin the work of retrofitting our sprawling development patterns towards smart growth.

Planners and environmentalists are hopefully that the use of transfer development rights (TDR) in the Chattahoochee Hill Country south of Atlanta can serve as a model for land conservation efforts nationwide.

An Atlanta city councilwoman is trying to launch an affordable-housing program based on leveraging homes abandoned due to the mortgage-lending crisis.

In Atlanta, one gardening enthusiast has taken on the challenge of improving MARTA stations using his green thumb.

Tax incentives of nearly $10 million have been approved for hotel and condo development on one of Georgia's struggling state parks, but some worry that providing tax breaks leaves little or no money left for park maintenance and improvements.