Land Use Archives - South Atlantic Bytes

Major Projects Must be Responsibly Controlled: Industrialization is degrading our quality of life, damaging vital ecosystems & bilking taxpayers.

David KylerOctober 11, 2024October 22, 2024Leave a comment

[Pubilshed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 5, 2024]

^{Coastal Georgia is undergoing rapid, unprecedented urbanization, closely tied to the state’s industrial growth and international trade. Just west of Savannah in Bryan County, these trends are being dramatically demonstrated by an enormous Hyundai EV plant, among the world’s largest such facilities, under construction on a ‘mega-site of nearly 3,000 acres near the rural town of Ellabell. A related battery-making facility is also part of the $7.6 billion deal, announced in 2022.}

^{Although those involved in the negotiations to secure the Hyundai project claim they have met ‘due diligence’ requirements, many critical questions remain unanswered, and residents are raising well-founded objections. Similar clashes surround the proliferation of big-box warehousing along the I-16 corridor that is directly linked to the colossal volume of international trade flowing through the Port of Savannah. Georgia Ports Authority documents an increase of nearly 15% over the past year, which gives Savannah its highest ranking ever among U.S. container ports, now comprising 11.2% of the nation’s total.}

^{The Ports Authority describes the Savannah facility as “the fastest-growing container terminal in the nation.” And, unsurprisingly, the Savannah Economic Development Authority portrays their domain as “one of the hottest industrial real-estate markets in the country.” In keeping with these ambitions, the Port of Brunswick registered a whopping increase of 44% in April’s cargo, some 80,600 units of vehicles and heavy equipment, setting a new record.}

^{This frenzy of development activity is celebrated by many, but Georgia’s proudly-promoted yet scantly examined ranking as the nation’s “most business-friendly state” is causing unprecedented, turbulent transformation of Georgia’s coast. It has become a transformation that many residents regret and feel woefully unable to prevent making their lives worse. The region’s conversion for industrial exploitation also blatantly conflicts with long-established coastal tourism interests, based on the allure of natural and historic resources that sustain a rejuvenating escape from urban stresses that are now mounting on the coast.}

^{According to Latrice Williams writing in}^{Savannah Morning News}^,^{through a combination of expenditures in acquiring, reviewing and preparing the site, highway expansions and infrastructure, and workforce education, as well as tax breaks, the ‘incentive package’ supporting the Hyundai operation, paid for by public agencies, is reported to be some $1.8 billion. That means that Georgia taxpayers – including many adversely affected – are subsidizing the project without participating in pivotal decisions that result in these projects being implemented, often without adequate planning, assessment, or regulatory enforcement.}

^{A brief 15-day regional review of the Hyundai project was conducted by the Coastal Regional Commission – in compliance with proforma procedures of the Georgia Planning Act – but comments were advisory, lacking mandatory requirements, and the review evidently occurred after the lengthy incentive negotiations had been well underway and were already deeply vested. While local-government master plans are required by the same state legislation, they may be marginalized or expediently amended to accommodate opportunistic projects that can appear appealing when not insightfully scrutinized.}

^{Aside from often pro-development influences or entrenched unfounded assumptions, due in part to a lack of local expertise or the funds available to hire it, local officials may simply not fully understand the consequences of their decisions. This often results in ambitious projects generating: (1) more costs than benefits, (2) unfair – and unexamined – tally and distribution of those C/Bs and/or (3) deeply conflicting views on the true worth of the alleged benefits.}^{While many development projects are promoted on the basis of job creation, some view that as a thinly-veiled cover for profit-making agendas that are far more financially rewarding for developers than workers. Moreover, many such jobs are taken by new residents, whose arrival drives still more speculative development activities that further degrade quality of life.}

^{These experiences strongly suggest the need for fundamentally revising procedures used in making such decisions. Economic development must be judiciously evaluated, and when impacts are deemed unacceptable through informed, deliberative, and broad participatory review, projects must be accountably restricted or rejected altogether. As thousands of acres of tree-covered land are cleared and paved-over, and intensified commerce generates thousands of trips on local roads and highways, rural residents express despair about the decline in their quality of life, while also voicing concerns about stormwater contamination, river and aquifer protection, public safety, and air quality.}

^{It is clear that decisions made by various local development authorities, the Georgia Ports Authority, and Georgia’s Department of Economic Development, whose only measure of success seems to be rapid and profitable growth, give little credence to different values held by citizens living within the expansive impact areas of these massive mega-projects.}

^{Aggressive state and local development practices must be tempered by deliberative, mandatory review of both environmental factors and quality-of-life issues through a transparent process of participatory decision-making that justly empowers all Georgians. Our citizens must not be forced to endure the offensive consequences of dubious ventures that are unilaterally rationalized as progress, largely driven by the objectives of politically influential absentee investors.}

^{But to help improve these decisions, the public cannot afford to be complacent. Instead of assuming a passive role that is often rationalized by cynical assertions about the impossibility of defending local interests, Georgia citizens and voters must organize and speak out at every opportunity. In particular, unless coastal Georgians insist on actively participating in these decisions, the unique character of the region will be forfeited to profit-obsessed interests, becoming just another “sacrifice zone” exploited through predatory industrialization.}

The Crucial Importance of Limiting Growth

David KylerDecember 14, 2021December 14, 2021

Development on Jekyll Island succumbing to shoreline erosion.

(Center Founder and Co-Director, David Kyler, prepared the following statement for a public hearing convened on December 14 regarding the Jekyll Island Authority's (JIA) Master Plan Update. The JIA commissioned a Capacity and Infrastructure Assessment published in 2018 which concluded Jekyll will reach its functional capacity by 2021 - Now! Yet the Draft Master Plan Update (MPU) under consideration avoids directly confronting the issues of overcrowding and overdevelopment and promotes commercial or residential redevelopment of land that is currently used for recreational purposes. We have joined the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island and 100 Miles in asking the Legislative Oversight Committee to reject the MPU and place a moratorium on development until a detailed, forward-looking Capacity Plan is adopted by the JIA Board.)

Fifty years ago, in the early years of the worldwide environmental movement, the landmark book, Limits to Growth, became central in shaping my core values as a graduate student in environmental planning and policy.

Limits to Growth used innovative computer modeling to predict, with impressive accuracy, some of the most troubling predicaments we’re now facing, as massive human activities damage the world’s natural systems and threaten Earth’s habitability.

I encountered the challenge of environmental limits throughout my life’s work, first in two decades as a regional planner at what is now Georgia’s Coastal Regional Commission, and subsequently over the last 24 years working as an environmental advocate at the Center for a Sustainable Coast.

Limits are particularly significant on a barrier island such as Jekyll, where geographic boundaries impose absolute constraints, limits now being further restricted by rising sea-level caused by climate change.

On the regional planning staff, to control and mitigate growth we commonly advised local governments in zoning methods used to manage development, practices that are conspicuously lacking on Jekyll Island.

What is especially troubling on Jekyll is the absence of accountable controls that prevent threats to the health and sustainability of treasured natural resources that are fundamental to quality of life, and thus the unique value of the island as a state park.

Attempts to protect environmental quality by limiting the portion of land eligible for development have been defeated by the changing use of those developed areas, leading to escalating density – including higher and larger buildings that blatantly conflict with the tranquility for which Jekyll is renowned.

To serve the legislative charter establishing Jekyll Island State Park and honor obligations to the public, the JIA must adopt specific limits on development, which can be – and will be – legally enforced. Without these limits, the master plan update fails to achieve its fundamental purpose.

Why are we Building New Gas Stations? 2

Karen GraineyJuly 27, 2021July 28, 20212 Comments

On July 16, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners voted to change the zoning of a portion of the historic Bethesda Academy’s 635-acre tract of rural land to allow for the construction of a gas station. Despite appreciable opposition from neighboring residents, the vote was unanimous. There was no indication that anyone (other than Enmarket and the Bethesda Academy Board of Governors) wants or needs another gas station in this picturesque corner of Chatham County.

There are many reasons to object to the depressingly routine practice of changing zoning for the sole purpose of accommodating a landowner’s speculative attempt to maximize the financial rewards of land ownership – often by proposing unneeded projects. However, I would like to focus on the folly of defacing a treasured landscape with, of all things, a gas station.

In the not-too-distant future, gas stations will become obsolete, and thousands of abandoned stations will blight the country. As hard as it is to imagine the disappearance of this ubiquitous fixture of American life, the writing is on the wall due to the widely anticipated rapid adoption of electric cars.

General Motors recently announced that by 2035 all their vehicle models will be electric. By 2030, VW expects 50% of US sales to be electric vehicles, and Ford says all their cars sold in Europe will be electric. Be ready for more such announcements as car companies scramble for a share of a burgeoning global market for electric vehicles.

Here in Georgia, the Korean automaker, Kia, which produces 340,000 vehicles a year at their Troup County factory, is investing $25 billion to transition their production to electric cars. Encouraged by this development and the in-state presence of several related businesses, Governor Kemp launched a new initiative to boost the expansion of the industry in Georgia.

“Georgia has a proven track record of investing early in the resources and infrastructure needed to connect it to the world and develop jobs of the future,” Kemp said. “The Electric Mobility and Innovation Alliance will ensure that our state is positioned to continue leading the nation in the rapidly growing electric mobility industry.”

Timely advice to the planning authorities in coastal Georgia

David KylerJune 28, 2021June 28, 2021

Various planning updates are underway on Georgia's coast: the comprehensive plans for Chatham County and its cities, the Coastal Regional Plan, and the Jekyll Island Master Plan. Coastal plans must address the increasingly urgent causes and consequences of climate change to achieve community and regional planning benefits in making critical decisions that influence our future.

Over the past five years, climate disruption's dangerous impacts and causes have stirred well-founded public awareness and concern. Our rapidly growing understanding of the scale and significance of the causes of climate change and their grave consequences will be renowned as the fundamental "paradigm shift" of the 21st century.

Surveys consistently conclude that a majority now recognize that human activities are causing worldwide environmental degradation, which is of such urgency and magnitude that we must soon bring them under control or irreversibly impair the planet's life-support systems. Yet, until now, decades after these perils were well-known within the global scientific community, the plans of coastal Georgia's cities and counties have made little or no mention of climate change.

The only references to climate disruption in Georgia's coastal plans have concerned the rising sea level. These were limited to reactive adaptation, such as flood-control projects and flood-risk rating compliance. They were also all based on historical events, rather than the escalating science-based projections linked to global heating.

The current planning updates for coastal communities must acknowledge the urgency and acceleration of these hazards.

Moreover, planning must prioritize actions that reduce the cause of these accumulating hazards – namely, the emission of greenhouse gases – and protection of critical areas, both developed and natural, to the greatest extent possible. The alarming fact that some 43 percent of coastal Georgia residences are within the 100-year flood plain substantiates concern about escalating flooding.

Overdue recognition of climate-change impacts and causes in local and regional plans will have a critical advantage in an array of decision-making.

Furthermore, incorporating these considerations in planning documents, better positions our region in competition for imminent federal funding to support climate-related projects. Examples include flood-control infrastructure, clean-energy implementation, and power-transmission grid upgrades.