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Sustainable Woodstock Living the Vision

In January, the Mayor and City Council of Woodstock held the annual planning retreat, where goals and accomplishments are assessed, and the vision and priorities for the City are decided upon. This year, the Vision Statement for 2020 was reviewed and remained unchanged, stating: Woodstock is a sustainable city with hometown pride. Our City is a community for a lifetime with 1st class neighborhoods, a vibrant downtown and natural and designed beauty. Our residents enjoy convenient living and active lifestyles. “Experience Woodstock. . . Her Heritage. . . Her Vision.”

The cornerstone of the vision statement is sustainability. The word sustainability can mean many things and can be applied to just about any situation, but perhaps the simplest definition is, “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The City of Woodstock is leading the way in sustainability and acting on its vision in many ways. In fact, the City was recently recognized for its efforts through the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Green Communities Program and has achieved the “excellence” standard for local implementation of the Atlanta Region’s regional plan, Plan 2040. The only other jurisdiction in the 10-county region to have achieved this designation is the city of Atlanta.

The City first received certification as a Green Community in 2010, at the Bronze level, and was recertified at the Silver level in 2011. Now in 2015, we are working through the extensive recertification process again. This time, we are hoping to achieve Gold level certification. The City has implemented various initiatives in order to meet its sustainability goals, including ongoing planning and construction of the extensive Greenprints Trail network, ordinances that call for walkable neighborhood features such as wider sidewalks, recycling programs and events, and auditing all government buildings for energy efficiency. The Green Communities Program has led the City to undertake several green demonstration projects as well, such as the 6.3 kW solar array that sits on the roof of the Chambers at City Center. To date, this solar panel has generated 28.119 megawatt-hours of electricity, providing an average of 8% of the energy used by the Chambers and Elm Street Theater complex. Another successful project is the installation of energy retrofits on Fire Station #10 using a grant awarded to the City by the U.S. Department of Energy to install HVAC and lighting retrofits, and solar thermal hot water heaters in 2012. With these improvements, annual greenhouse gas emissions for the building have been cut from 52 tons to 43 tons, and energy costs have been cut by 23.25%, a significant improvement.

There are many other sustainability-related ordinances and policies in place that enhance quality of life for Woodstock citizens. Among them are incentives to developers for building green, a tree ordinance that requires new developments to save or replace trees removed during construction, and traffic signal synchronization which results in fewer vehicle emissions and faster travel times. For more information on these programs and policies, and for updates on plans and initiatives of the city, please go to www.WoodstockGa.gov and follow us on Facebook at

Transportation Funding Options
May 2015

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