When a project such as a mammoth shopping mall is added to a community, its impact extends far beyond the county or municipality in which it is located. Such projects, which are part of Georgia's current "growth spurt," are monitored by Development of Regional Impact (DRI) regulations. The Georgia Department of Community Affairs recently formed a task force to review the DRI regulations. This task force, which represented business, environmental groups, local governments and regional planning commissions from all parts of Georgia, recommended revising the DRIs to:

1. Incorporate the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) as part of the review process.
2. Set thresholds for the physical size of developments to be regulated by the DRIs, so that more projects would be reviewed for their regional impact.

The Department of Community Affairs approved the task force recommendations in May of 2001. The Georgia Conservancy's Susan Kidd served on the DCA task force that revised the DRI regulations.