The Wolf at
Your Front
Door
(Part 2)
Agenda 21
aka Smart Growth,
Sustainable Development,
Comprehensive Planning,
and Livable Communities
1

Overview
• Official sustainable development policies are
being implemented at every level of government
(national, state, county, and city)
• Pleasant-sounding names camouflage top-down,
centralized, highly-restrictive planning programs
• Public acceptance is baited by touting the
programs as environmentally friendly
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• Discouraging cul-de-sacs Red Flags
• Minimizing private yards
• Promotion of high-density residential
• Discouragement of private autos in
favor of public and pedestrian
transportation
• Prohibiting strip malls
• Promotion of communal facilities
• Use of eminent domain for parks,
bicycle paths, sidewalks and trails
• Mandatory green space
3

Local Govt Implements Smart Growth
• Implementation tactics
– zoning
– ordinances
– permitting
– fees
– park expansions
– transportation corridors
– endangered species
– wetland restrictions
– conservation easements
– access restrictions
– grazing limitations
– hundreds of other central
planning regulations and
schemes
4

City of Marietta
• Cobb County Bike/Pedestrian Improvement Plan
• Cobb County Comprehensive Transportation Plan
• Marietta Comprehensive Plan
• Multi-Use Trails
– trail network will connect various neighborhoods to the
downtown, employment centers, as well as to the Silver
Comet trail
• Kennestone Area Land Use & Transportation Study
• LCI (Livable Centers Initiative)
– Envision Marietta LCI
Delk TOD LCI Study Plan
• Roswell Streetscape Project
• Powder Springs Street Master Plan
Source: http://www.mariettaga.gov/departments/devsvcs/planzone/studies.aspx 5

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Source: http://www.mariettaga.gov/departments/devsvcs/planzone/studies.aspx

Cobb County
• Follows ARC’s Green Communities Program
• Includes zoning ordinances for Redevelopment
Overlay Districts (RODs)
– Targets certain areas for conversion to mixed-used
sustainable communities, and incents developers
using tax abatements to follow regulation minutia
• HWY 41 Corridor
• Austell Rd Corridor
• East Piedmont Corridor
• Old Mableton Area
Source: http://www.cobbcountyga.gov/green/index.htm
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Cobb Parkway – Terrill Mill to Galleria Austell Rd – Brookwood, Mimosa, Hurt, Floyd
Sandy Plains – East Piedmont to Post Oak Tritt Mableton – Vet Mem Hwy, Daniel, Clay, Floyd
8

University of Moscow planners
book: “The Ideal Communist City”
Ideal Smart Growth/ Cobb County
Communist Sustainable 2030 Plan
City Development
Stop urban sprawl √ √ √
Higher density housing √ √ √
Mixed use development √ √ √
Mixed-income housing √ √ √
Transit-oriented development √ √ √
Discourage cul-de-sacs √ √
Discourages auto parking √ √ √
Encourage pedestrianism √ √
Calls suburbs “monotonous” √ √
Minimizes private yards √ √ √
Maximizes common areas √ √ √
Minimizes private interiors √
Height of residential buildings √
Prohibit strip malls √
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Source: http://falmouthcitizens.com/smart-growth/smart-growth-and-the-ideal-city/

Soviet Micro Districts
• Smart growth plans eerily similar to USSR Academy of Building Construction and Architecture
plans in the early 1960’s (From The Soviet Review, A Journal of Translations, Volume 2, Number
4, April, 1961)
• Town zoning where simplest services located on premises of residential houses or groups of houses and
stemming out to public centers designed to service the population of entire districts
• Each district is divided into residential compounds—micro districts--with a population of 6,000 to 10,000
– one school, a kindergarten, a nursery, a food shop, a personal service shops, a cafeteria, club, and
building maintenance office.
• Each micro district will have smaller residential compounds with populations of about 2,000 each
– Delivery services and automatic vending machines for food
– Recreation hall and house workshops
• Types of residential housing
– hotel-type houses for bachelors and families of two, integrated with laundromat and dance club
– Apartment houses of four to five stories for medium-sized families
– Two-story cottages for large families
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Source: http://www.freedomadvocates.org/articles/planning_-_smart_growth/smart_growth_parallels_russian_soviet_planning_20051104158

Adopted by City Council: 6/25/09
Prepared by:
Soviet Micro District Ecos Environmental Design
Source: https://secure.suwanee.com/pdfs/2009-06-24-SuwaneeReport-FINAL.pdf 11
http://www.ecosedi.com/

Community Improvement
Districts (CIDs)
• Private/public partnership: a unit of government with power
to provide governmental services and facilities, tax power
– Provided for in Article 9, Section VII of the Georgia Constitution, amendment providing for CIDs was approved by the voters in 1984
• Town Center CID
– 1997 - established to promote infrastructure improvements
– 2000 - expanded purposes to include parks, recreation, land use planning
– 2004 - Livable Center study, called Supurb
– Supporting TSPLOST and light rail
• Cumberland CID
– Road construction, curbs, sidewalks, street lights, and traffic flow devices
– Parks and recreational areas and facilities
– Storm water and sewage collection and disposal systems
– Development, storage, treatment, purification and distribution of water
– Public transportation, bicycle and pedestrian facilities
– Livable Centers Initiative
– Supporting TSPLOST and light rail
Source: http://www.thelocalzoom.com/, http://www.cumberlandcid.org/ 12

Town Center CID
SuPurb LCI Initiative
High density
residential
Green space;
Trail to mall
More high-density
residential
Town Center Mall
13

NGOs and PPPs
• Accomplices: Non-government organizations and
public/private partnerships
• ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
– Instrumental in creating Agenda 21
– Hundreds of cities using tax dollars to pay ICLEI to
implement and enforce Sustainable Development
– Promotes development management of virtually
everything:
• natural resources, energy, construction, food sources,
and even employment, education, health, and social
equity
– Socialist organization Center for American Progress is
prominently featured in ICLEI’s STAR Community
IndexTM brochure.
Source: http://www.icleiusa.org/library/documents/STAR_Sustainability_Goals.pdf 14

• Operates under the GA Dept. of Community Affairs
• Green Communities Certification Program
– Inspection program to enforce energy codes, outdoor lighting ordinances
– Green space (20 acres per 1000 residents, or 8% total green space, or all residents live within ½ mile of a park
– Community gardens, farmers markets
– Adopt bicycle and pedestrian policies
– Offer incentives for smart growth
– Educate public on green communities program
• Livable Centers Initiative
– pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use developments, greater balance between jobs and housing
• Lifelong communities
– Alternatives to car, pedestrian-friendly
• Promoting TSPLOST
– Projects: Rail, buses, sidewalks, bicycle lanes
Source: http://www.atlantaregional.com/
15

“Fostering Sustainable Development”
• Definition of “quality growth”
– discouragement of cul-de-sacs
– encouragement of pedestrian communities
– reduction of urban sprawl through ¼ acre residential lots
• Starter Code
– zoning ordinances to “prevent land inefficient and poorly
functioning strip-type development”
– require a Land Use Permit to “use or occupy…any building,
structure, land, water or premises.”
Source: http://www.georgiaqualitygrowth.com/whatisqg.asp 16

The Partnership for Sustainable Communities
• Created in 2009, a partnership between three US federal agencies
– Environmental Protection Agency
– Housing and Urban Development
– Transportation
• EPA’s “guiding livability principles”
– public transportation
– energy-efficient buildings
– mixed use development
– local accountability for renewable energy
– walkable neighborhoods
Source: http://www.sustainablecommunities.gov/ 17

President Clinton’s Executive Order
• In 1993, created the President’s
Council on Sustainable
Development
• Council’s recommendations
included
– “population stabilization”
– replacement of technologies “from
the light bulb to the power plant.”
Source: http://clinton2.nara.gov/PCSD/ 18

What is Agenda 21?
• Unveiled at the 1992 Earth Summit (the United
Nations Conference on Environment and
Development or UNCED)
• Called Sustainable Development Agenda 21
• Tenets
– End to national sovereignty (Obj 28.2 – implement “a local Agenda 21”
– Environmental protection
– Elimination of private property rights (Obj 7.28: “communally and collectively owned and managed land”)
– Population growth control – birth control & restricted migration (Section II – national
population carrying capacity)
– Urbanization (Obj 7.18&19 – stop urban sprawl and protect open space)
– Restrictions to mobility (Obj 7.52: Public transportation, bicycle paths and pedestrian
– Propagandize children and build non-governmental partnerships (Section III)
Source: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/ 19

What is Agenda 21?
• Policies have been described as
– “constitution of the New Green World Order”
– environmentalism as its surrogate religion
• Fundamentally a socialist plan to change the way we
"live, eat, learn and communicate" because we must
"save the earth."
• Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the 1992 Earth Summit
– “Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the
affluent middle class – involving high meat intake,
use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work air
conditioning, and suburban housing are not
sustainable.”
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US Adoption of Agenda 21
• More than 178 nations adopted Agenda 21 as official
policy, including the United States
• U.S. policy adoption is “soft law” because it
represents a commitment to a path rather than
binding obligations of a ratified treaty
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10-Year framework reviewed May 2011 at the 19th session of the UN Commission on
Sustainable Development
• Policy actions for sustainable lifestyles
– Setting vision, regulatory, economic and institutional framework
• Urban planning and land-use policies
– Parking lots at city outskirts to encourage carpools to enter cities
– Shifting roadways from cars to bicycles and public transportation
– Construction policies and governmental subsidies for sustainable housing
– Laundromats so people do not have to own washing machines
• Traditional economic instruments
– Taxes and charges
– Government grants for businesses
– “Education, communication and marketing sustainable consumption and lifestyles
is a paramount task”
• “materialism is toxic for happiness”
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Source: http://esa.un.org/marrakechprocess/pdf/Issues_Sus_Lifestyles.pdf

Creep into Farms and
Rural Areas
• The Dept. of Agriculture website
unabashedly refers to UNCED
– Protect farm and forest land from being
converted to other uses
– Restrictions on grazing
– Wildlife protection
– Wetland protection
– Conservation easements
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Source: http://www.usda.gov/oce/sustainable/background.htm

• In June, Obama created the White House Rural Council to
promote, among other things, “expanding opportunities for
conservation…on working lands and public lands.”
– 25 Cabinet Secretaries, chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture
– Work to develop a conservation agenda and
connect people to the outdoors
– Facilitate the protection of habitat (through
restoration and management) and access for
hunting and fishing on public and private lands
– Improve access to green space and supporting
livable communities through urban and
community forestry programs
Source: http://www.ocfo.usda.gov/usdasp/sp2010/sp2010.pdf 24

• Stalin’s Five Year Plan (1932-1933)
– Stripped landowners of property
– Organized citizens into communes
– Centrally controlled agriculture
– Increase industry (steel, iron, electric power)
– Result: Famine death est at 7 million Ukrainians
• Mao Tse Tung’s Great Leap Forward (1959-1961)
– Stripped landowners of property
– Organized citizens into communes
– Centrally controlled agriculture
– Increase industry (steel, iron, massive building projects)
– Result: Famine death est. at 17-40 million people
• Obama’s Rural Council (2011- )
– “Encourage public/private partnerships”
– “Help rural communities connect regionally to collaborate”
– “Expand markets for agriculture”
– Increase renewable energy and conservation
– Result: TBD 25

Infiltration of Education System
• Several Georgia universities offer degree programs in
sustainable development
• The National Association of Scholars
– sustainable development has a “ubiquitous presence in the K-12
curriculum…sustainability is used as a means of promoting to
students a view that capitalism and individualism are
‘unsustainable,’ morally unworthy, and a present danger to the
future of the planet.”
Source: http://www.nas.org/polStatements.cfm?Doc_Id=1936 26

Visible Results
• Millions of dollars spent by governments to acquire private land,
which is then centrally planned and managed
• Assault on private property rights
– Designate land for public use (eminent domain)
– Designate prime farmland, forests and land near water as
"preservation areas" that can't be developed
– Downzone land, then use gov’t money to buy it at cheap prices
• Miles of sidewalks to nowhere with no pedestrians
• Increase in bicycle paths and trails
• Push for incredibly costly and inefficient rail systems
• Gov’t ownership of communical facilities: aquatic centers, performing
arts centers, etc.
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• “Restrictive state and local land-use regulations
are a key factor in escalating housing prices.
Delinquency and foreclosure rates in the areas
with tight land regulations…are among the
highest in the nation.”
Source: http://www.heritage.org/Issues/Housing/Smart-Growth 28

“Aside from the staggering presumption that a
select group of elites in America should be allowed
to decide how and where the rest of the people live,
the reality of SMART growth is that it often fuels
suburban sprawl, pollution, congestion, and a lack
of affordable housing, the very problems it purports
to solve.”
Source: http://www.americansforprosperity.org/smart-growth-economic-wolf-sheeps-clothing-jan-brauner-0
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Summary
• Smart growth is more about economic control
than being responsible stewards of the
environment
• Restricting access to energy, land and
transportation gives unfettered control over
citizens and tramples on our liberty
• As one pundit said, “Smart growth? Smart for
whom?”
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Next Steps
Learn
• What smart growth plans exist
in your city and county?
• What NGOs, PPPs and CIDs
are in play?
• Is ICLEI involved?
• Follow the money
• Who’s in charge?
Attend meetings & town halls
• FIRST – know their strategies
and techniques
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Strengthen GA’s Eminent Domain Law
Abuses Since 2006
Dacula, GA
• City wanted property as part of an urban downtown park/gathering place.
– http://daculaga.gov/forum/civics/eminent-domain/
– http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/localnews/headlines/Dacula_leaders_will_not_exercise_eminent_domain_for_public_park_117379078.html
– http://dacula.patch.com/articles/man-facing-property-condemnation-asks-for-support
Stockbridge, GA
• Florist shop saved by new GA E.D. law trying to protect further attacks by selling part ownership to dozens of individuals
(and also to pay $300K in defense fees)
– http://www.therealestatebloggers.com/housing-general/eminent-domain-stockbridge-georgia/
– http://stockbridgefloristfund.com/index.htm
Atlanta, GA
• Developer planned condos, district wanted a firehouse and used eminent domain to purchase. Then district found
neighborhood didn’t want the firehouse and tried to sell it back to the owner, who didn’t accept the offer. Now the district is
trying to sell the property.
– http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2011/08/10/district-putting-georgia-avenue-property-back-on-the-market/
Brunswick, GA
• County chose site in city that violated city zoning plans;
– http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/101408/geo_343653611.shtml
Canton, GA
• City/County water dept wanted property for wetland mitigation
– http://www.ledgernews.com/news/734-december-1-2010/2777-owners-furious-over-eminent-domain
Sandy Springs, GA
• Instead of just taking property for road, wants balance for parks, trails, sidewalks
– http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/northfulton/stories/2008/04/23/eminent_0424.html
Lawrenceville, GA
• Donor had restrictions on land due to ARC
– http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2010/jul/27/suwanee-accepts-land-donation/ 32

www.regs-gridlock.com
Presentation available online at:
http://www.regs-gridlock.com/#!resources
http://www.slideshare.net/regsgridlock
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