The GPA Policy and Advocacy Committee (PAC) is responsible for setting policy and advocacy priorities and educating the GPA membership of topics of interest to the planning profession. PAC follows legislation in the United States Congress and the Georgia General Assembly.

It Takes A Planner

Spotlight on Planning’s Role in Housing Solutions

Leading policymaker voices recently joined GPA President Whitney Shephard for a conversation on Georgia’s current housing trends – and the role of planners in helping solve them.

The virtual APA-sponsored event hosted by Axios explored challenges of housing attainability at the national and state levels, including workforce housing struggles in Georgia.

Watch the full conversation on the Axios website.

Whitney Shephard spoke with Axios and Chris Frates about the job-housing mismatch in Georgia and the critical role community planners’ play in ensuring housing choice and attainability keeps pace with high job growth in the Peach State. Simply put, Georgia is growing jobs faster than housing. 

The Georgia Department of Labor expects the state to attract more than 500,000 new jobs by 2028.  #ItTakesAPlanner – working together with local leaders and partners – to provide workers with diverse and attainable housing through zoning reform.

As Georgia Planning Association (GPA) President, I call on Governor Kemp and the Georgia General Assembly to work with planners, counties, and cities to encourage locally driven change by incentivizing proven workforce housing strategies that we know boost housing supply and choice. GPA looks forward to sharing planners’ expertise, data-driven insights, and understanding of housing policies’ broad community impact with state leaders in the months ahead. 

How Can You Help?

Join PAC’s Work

Now that the 2023 Georgia General Assembly regular session has opened, the PAC weekly update meetings will be held every Friday at 10:00 a.m. while the Georgia legislature is in session. The purpose of these meetings is to coordinate and track bills that could affect the daily practices of Georgia Planners and / or policies adopted and advocated by the Georgia Chapter of APA.

If you are interested in serving on the Policy and Advocacy Committee and/or as the State Legislative Liaison, contact Whitney Shephard for more information.

See GPA Policy Positions

See the GA Legislative Process

Annual PAC Activities

  • Conduct an annual survey of the membership to determine policy and advocacy priorities;
  • Develop and carry out a policy and advocacy program that represents the views of the membership, and that is approved by the Board of Directors;
  • Work with the Vice President for Programs and the Programs Committee in an effort to hold at least one policy and advocacy forum annually as may be appropriate;
  • Recommend to the Board for approval an annual statement of policy and advocacy priorities of the Chapter; such policy and advocacy priorities are educational in nature;
  • Inform the public, and elected and appointed officials, of the policy and advocacy priorities approved by the Board; and
  • Inform the membership of legislative issues, proposed legislation, and results of the legislative process in Congress and the Georgia General Assembly.