The Greenprints Project: Woodstock, GA
The City of Woodstock, Georgia, in the rapidly growing metro Atlanta area of Cherokee County expects its population to triple by 2030. To accommodate community needs, the City Council implemented a Greenprint Project to identify the green infrastructure in the community. The project not only resulted in an inventory of resources that could be developed into an extensive park, trail and greenway network through the community, but also engendered substantial support and enthusiasm from citizens. A local nonprofit advocacy group, The Greenprints Alliance, was formed to partner with the local government in implementing the plan.
Community members, a steering committee and representatives of the local government worked with a private consulting team to facilitate the Greenprint planning process. At the outset of the process, the stakeholder group determined the benefits and trends of identifying community green infrastructure resources; utilizing a GIS model, they then inventoried and analyzed those resources; next, they established a vision, goals and criteria to assist in the evaluation of those resources, which in turn led to a determination of community needs and priorities. Finally, the stakeholder group developed implementation steps and action items to drive the plan forward.
Greenprinting is a recommended resource for sustainability because it has a systematic methodology that can be relevant and replicated in any community. It identifies the value of conservation lands and green infrastructure to the health and well-being of a community. Though typically facilitated by professional consultants, the process is accessible to government officials, community stakeholders and citizens. It fosters awareness of environmental resources and green infrastructure and helps establish a foundation for advocacy and implementation.
One particular success of the Woodstock Greenprint Project is the creation of the Greenprints Alliance. The planning process resulted in such strong citizen advocacy that a nonprofit entity could be established and sustained. Strong community advocacy allows the government to continue to allocate funding and resources to the development of the plan as a result of citizen support, and it also creates an additional partner in the plan to assist in leveraging funding from other private sources.
