Georgia Archives to host symposium on land use in April

Land use through the years will be the focus of a symposium scheduled for April 6 at the Georgia Archives.

The free event, entitled “Land Use in Georgia: Urban Planning and Neighborhood Change in the Peach State,” will be held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and is open to the public. No registration is required.

As part of the symposium:

• Laura Starratt will speak on "Frederick Law Olmsted and the Legacy of his Linear Parks."
• Laurel Bowen, Kevin S. Fleming and William W. Hardesty will discuss "Layered Land Use: History Unearthed."
• Nancy Marie Glasscock will make a student presentation on "Buford Dam, Lake Lanier and the Families Forced to Uproot."

• A panel will be held on "Land Use and Neighborhood Change in Atlanta, 1920s to the Present." Three topics will be encompassed in that discussion — "Healthy Neighborhood Development: Land Use, Transportation and Housing in Atlanta from the 1920s applied to Today," by Eric Kronberg and Elizabeth Ward; "The Georgia Avenue Business District and the Summerhill Neighborhood: From Vibrant Neighborhood to Parking Lots (and Back Again?)," by Marni Davis; and "Regulating Out Mixed-Use: The Origins and Consequences of Atlanta's Nonconforming Use Zoning Regulations, " by Joe Hurley.

• Beth Whitlock and Steven Brown will present the final session, at 2:45, on "The Good, the Bad and the Blueprint: the 1925 Warren Manning Plan for the Development of Athens, Georgia."

For more information, go to georgiaarchives.org, or call 678-364-3710. This is a good series of lectures that will aid in understanding many 20th century changes that forced some of our kinfolk to move. Because of the Buford Dam, my relatives had to endure the removal of family members’ tombstones when cemeteries and home places were flooded.