FEBRUARY 2001

the preparation of the CDP.

NPU-B is made up of 30 voting members; 15 are from the business community and 15 from civic neighborhood associations. They are elected/appointed each November to serve as NPU-B representatives for the following calendar year. Residential representatives must have their main residence, and business representatives must have their main offices within the area they represent. Three people on the business slate of NPU-B for 2001 were recently ruled ineligible by the Bureau of Planning because their offices were not located within NPU-B. Those candidates who were next according to the number of votes they received were called to serve.

Each representative is assigned to work on one of the three standing committees: Human Services, Development /Transportation, Zoning. Attendance is mandatory for all representatives.

NPU-B meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 7 PM in Room 304 at the Cathedral of St. Philip. The Human Services Committee to which I am assigned meets there at 6 PM. Meetings generally last from two to three hours and are open to the public. We work hard for you, and we need your participation. Please come to see us!

By Walda Lavroff

For about a year I have been your NBCA appointed residential representative to NPU-B. "Oh really," I can hear some of you say, "and just what does THAT mean to me?"

A Bit of Background...Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs) emerged in Atlanta in 1973 when a new city charter was approved by the General Assembly.  It required the city to produce an annually revised comprehensive development plan (CDP), which sets forth city goals, objectives, and policies. This charter also requires public hearings and a maximum amount of citizen input. To assure that input an ordinance, which institutionalized neighborhood planning as a part of the CDP process, was adopted by City Council in 1974, creating the NPUs. A total of 185 neighborhoods were clustered into 24 NPUs. The City adopted the NPU boundaries in 1975. The stated purpose of this process is "to provide an opportunity for the citizens of Atlanta to have formal input into the comprehensive plan of the City, and to provide a means by which information concerning the operation of the City government can be communicated to the citizens" (NPU-B Resource Handbook).

The NPU Process… The neighborhood planning process functions roughly as follows: The City Bureau of Planning prepares the City's Comprehensive Development Plan. The Bureau makes available to NPUs through their assigned City Planners basic information on areas of land use, transportation, environment, zoning, housing, parks, human resources, and capital improvement. Our assigned planners currently are Larry Lucas and Angie Moore.  The NPUs serve in an advisory role to the Department of Planning on