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About
the Greenspace Project
The Regional Greenspace Project will
promote a heightened quality of life for citizens and
landowners of the Greater
Birmingham Region. The project fully supports our Region’s
need for physical development as a component of progress
and economic viability while respecting greenspace as a
necessary component in promoting health, recreation, agricultural
production, and natural qualities of the local landscape.
As such, the project will facilitate a framework for balancing
the needs and desires of healthy communities, rural and
urban, with the infrastructure needed to accommodate progressive
economic development.
Parks, greenways, trails, agricultural lands, preserves,
and rural landscapes are powerful amenities that improve
quality of life for both residential and business communities.
Collectively, these amenities build positive desirability
factors and economic progress for a given region. Current
studies quantify the value of defined greenspace as an
enticement attracting major employment groups, residential
growth, and eco-tourism.
Additional motivation for development
of a greenspace framework is found in our Region’s
emerging awareness regarding the negative impacts of
sprawl, including the
loss of air quality (non-attainment), watershed concerns
(stormwater runoff and river basin concerns), loss of view
sheds (Oak Mountain, Red Mountain), and massive commuter
congestion on major highways (Hwy 280, I-65, I-20, I-59).
Left unaddressed, the Greater Birmingham Region is at risk
for developing undesirable urban conditions similar to
that in Atlanta, Houston, or Phoenix.
The project framework will initiate a broad-based awareness
within the six county planning commission region regarding
benefits to be derived from a network of greenspaces. The
overriding goal is to engage citizens, governments, and
business for the purpose of increasing designated greenspace
as a quality of life enhancement that also serves to improve
land values for property owners within the region.
