ABSTRACT
Building on an excellent railroad and highway network, Atlanta in the previous decades had evolved into the major center of economic and political activity of the southeastern region. The Atlanta region covered five counties, and it was attracting tens of thousands of newcomers, a large number of employment opportunities, and considerable investments and wealth. Sometimes the initiatives of planning and citizen participation are linked, although none as closely as they have become in Atlanta. Efforts elsewhere in Georgia to link planning and citizen participation tend to differ from Atlanta's processes in important ways, especially the following three: Atlanta's comprehensive planning and citizen participation processes were developed in 1975, two years after the Georgia General Assembly give the city a new charter. Today, the planning and participation process has resulted in a generation of Atlanta citizens who have become better informed as to how their government operates and how well.
