The Southern United States is facing great challenges involving land use and growth management. With rapid economic and population growth have come the challenges of suburbanization and urban sprawl. Rural communities are searching for answers to these challenges such as planning and zoning. At the same time, landowners are worried about their ability to use private property.

Course Objective

To provide state specialists and county agents with awareness of current issues and tools for addressing educational programming for smart growth in the rural South. Emphasis will be on developing a foundation for the navigation of land use issues in communities along with tools to assist communities in the search for a balance between public and private interests.

Course Outline

Participants will have a solid foundation in land use issues including: 1) what is "smart growth," 2) the legal basis for land use planning, 3) multi-modal transportation planning, 4) downtown revitalization concepts, 5) farmland and open space preservation strategies, and 6) local government finances and land use.

Agenda

Tuesday, May 13 Understanding the Context and Principles of Smart Growth
8:00 a.m.	What is "Smart Growth," an Introduction -- Steve Austin
9:00	Legal Basis for Land Use Planning -- Lori Garkovich n Commercial Activities in Agricultural Zones n Evaluating the Costs and Benefits n Property Rights and Agricultural Environmental Concerns
10:00	Break
10:15	Population and Employment Trends in the South: Rural Renaissance or Urban Sprawl -- Mitch Renkow
12:00 p.m.	Lunch
1:00	Costs and Benefits of Urban and Rural Sprawl -- Eric Scorsone
2:00	Physical and Landscape Planning Concepts Related to Smart Growth -- Barry Kew
3:00	Break
3:15	Transportation and Land Use Planning -- Ted Grosshardt
Wednesday, May 14 Smart Growth Implementation: Tools and Analysis
8:00 a.m.	Small City Revitalization -- Tad Long
9:00	Farmland and Open Space Preservation
	n Tools
	q Transferable development rights, purchase of development rights, preferential zoning -- Ron Fleming q Land trusts and conservation easements -- William Park
11:00	Cost of Community Services and Impact Fees -- Jeff Dorfman
12:00 p.m.	Lunch
1:00	Cost of Community Services and Impact Fees (continued)
2:00	Case Studies of Smart Growth in the Rural South -- Lori Garkovich and Eric Scorsone
3:00	Adjourn

Faculty

Steve Austin, Bluegrass Tomorrow

Jeff Dorfman is an economist and professor at The University of Georgia, where he has been since 1989. He teaches classes in economic theory and the economics of the food industry and performs research on productivity measurement, the economics of growth and sprawl, the effect of e-commerce on agribusiness, and Bayesian econometrics. He has been a consultant to a variety of business and foundations including Sprint, the Turner Foundation, the American Farmland Trust, The Georgia Conservancy, Pennington Seed, and Fulton County Schools.

Ron Fleming is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky, where his research program concerns the interaction between production agriculture, environmental quality and environmental policy. His current research topics include manure nutrient management, agricultural land use and precision agriculture.

Lori Garkovich, University of Kentucky

Ted Grosshardt, University of Kentucky

Barry Kew is an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Kentucky. His design focus has been urban program and site design with built works, community design and planning, and site construction detail. He has a practice background of built urban projects throughout the United States and London. He has taught at the University of Arkansas School of Architecture in both landscape architecture and architecture studios and co-taught construction sequences while at Virginia's Graduate School of Architecture. His research areas of interest are community design in both the urban and rural context and the environmental impact these communities have on the region.

Tad Long serves as senior advisor for business development with the NewCities Foundation in Lexington, KY. Previously, he worked as downtown development specialist for the Kentucky League of Cities. In 2002, he received national certification in Professional Downtown Management from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C., and has received certification from the Center for Nonprofit Management at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

William (Bill) Park is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Tennessee, where he also holds an appointment as a faculty associate with the Energy, Environment and Resources Center. In addition to his interest in the role of land trusts in protection of farmland and other open space land, he has done research in the areas of nonpoint pollution control policy and rural solid waste management. The general thrust of his research and teaching centers on examining the role of market-based or economic-incentive mechanisms in resource and environmental policy, along with other aspects of institutional design that can improve the equity and political acceptability of economically efficient policy measures.

Mitch Renkow is an associate professor and Extension specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. Dr. Renkow's research and extension activities focus on community and rural development, rural-urban land use issues and local public finance. He also teaches graduate courses in economic development.

Eric Scorsone is an assistant professor and state Extension specialist in rural economic development at the University of Kentucky. Scorsone previoulsy served as an economist for the Office of State Planning and Budget, State of Colorado, and as senior economist for the City of Aurora, CO. Scorsone's Extension and research work focuses on assisting rural communities in understanding the impact of local, national and international economic trends on economic development options. He has particularly focused on community economic analysis, rural health care, business retention and expansion, local government finances and land use issues. He currently teaches a class in international economic development and has trained and worked on international development projects in Macedonia, Indonesia and Thailand.

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Southern Rural Development Center Box 9656 Mississippi State, MS 39762 Phone: 662-325-3207 Fax: 662-325-8915