With the help of forward-thinking officials like Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson (who as Chairman of the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable, was instrumental in getting the TPLOST project list approved), Gwinnett County has quietly become a leader in the sustainability movement in Georgia by pushing its communities toward smarter growth. The county has now been chosen to receive free smart growth technical assistance from Smart Growth America, one of the country's premier think tanks on community-building and sustainability issues. Gwinnett communities were among 15 chosen out of over 90 applicants, so apparently both promise and need were identified. The idea here is to build communities that are not just sustainable in an environmental sense, but also places that are aesthetically pleasing, spur economic development and bring people together in places that are actually enjoyable to live and work- areas many would agree Atlanta's (and indeed, America's) suburbs fall short. Progress!
· 15 communities selected to receive free smart growth technical assistance [Smart Growth America]