The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency for the metro Atlanta

Metro Atlanta

The Atlanta metropolitan area or metro Atlanta, officially designated by the US Census Bureau as the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ninth-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States...

, Georgia region, as defined as a 10-county area including Cherokee

Cherokee County, Georgia

As of the census of 2000, there were 141,903 people, 49,495 households, and 39,200 families residing in the county. The population density was 335 people per square mile . There were 51,937 housing units at an average density of 123 per square mile...

, Clayton

Clayton County, Georgia

Clayton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 236,517. The 2008 Census estimate placed the population at 273,718. The county seat is Jonesboro...

, Cobb

Cobb County, Georgia

Cobb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat and largest city is Marietta, which is located in the center of the county. The county was named for Thomas Willis Cobb, who in the early 19th century was a United States representative and senator from Georgia...

, DeKalb

DeKalb County, Georgia

DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population of the county was 691,893 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is the city of Decatur. It is bordered to the west by Fulton County and contains roughly 10% of the city of Atlanta...

, Douglas

Douglas County, Georgia

Douglas County, Georgia has been experiencing numerous natural disasters over the most recent decades. Being located in the South Eastern United States the county experiences strong storms and tornadoes often because of its location in Dixie Alley....

, Fayette

Fayette County, Georgia

Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 91,263. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 106,144. The county seat is Fayetteville....

, Fulton

Fulton County, Georgia

Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...

, Gwinnett

Gwinnett County, Georgia

, Gwinnett County had a population of 805,321. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 53.3% white , 23.6% black , 2.7% Korean, 2.6% Asian Indian, 2.0% Vietnamese, 3.3% other Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 8.8% some other race and 3.1% from two or more races...

, Henry and Rockdale

Rockdale County, Georgia

Rockdale County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 70,111. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 82,052. Two years later, the population was 84,569. The county seat is Conyers.-Geography:...

 counties, including the city of Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

. It also serves as the metropolitan planning organization for those and ten more counties in the Atlanta region, including Barrow

Barrow County, Georgia

Barrow County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 46,144. The 2007 Census Estimate placed the population at 67,139...

, Bartow

Bartow County, Georgia

Bartow County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 100,157. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's July 1, 2009 estimate, the county's explosive growth resulted in a population of 96,217, a 26.5% increase in less than ten years...

, Carroll

Carroll County, Georgia

Carroll County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 87,268. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 111,954...

, Coweta

Coweta County, Georgia

Coweta County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 89,215. The 2009 Census Estimate placed the population at 131,936...

, Forsyth

Forsyth County, Georgia

Forsyth County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The county seat is Cumming, Georgia. Forsyth County is a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...

, Newton

Newton County, Georgia

Newton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 62,001. The 2010 Census showed a population of 99,958. The county seat is Covington....

, Paulding

Paulding County, Georgia

Paulding County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 142,324. The county seat is Dallas....

, Pickens

Pickens County, Georgia

Pickens County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The 2000 Census showed a population of 22,983. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 30,488...

, Spalding

Spalding County, Georgia

Spalding County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created December 20, 1851. As of 2000, the population was 58,417. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 62,826...

, and Walton

Walton County, Georgia

Walton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2009, the population was 87,311. The county seat is Monroe.This county is a part of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area ....

 counties.

ARC and its predecessor agencies have coordinated the planning efforts in the region since 1947, when the first publicly-supported, multi-county planning agency in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 was created. At that time, the Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) served DeKalb and Fulton counties and the city of Atlanta (which is already in both of those counties). Since then, ARC membership has grown to its current size of 10 counties and 63 municipalities.

The ARC is funded through a number of sources: local, state and federal government entities and private funds.

Membership

The Board membership of the commission includes: 1) each county commission chairman in the 10-county region; 2) one mayor from each county (except Fulton County); 3) one mayor from the northern half of Fulton County and one mayor from the southern half of Fulton County; 4) the mayor of the City of Atlanta; 5) one member of the Atlanta City Council; 6) fifteen private citizens, one from each of the 15 multi-jurisdictional districts of roughly equal population, elected by the 23 public officials; and 7) one member appointed by the Board of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

Agency structure and functions

The ARC is divided into numerous departments, covering a broad range of issues, from the region's growing senior population to region-wide transit issues to GIS

Geographic Information System

A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...

 data. The agency's structure and functions can be oulined as follows:

• Office of the Director
• Communications: communications services, community involvement, graphic services, information center, marketing, media relations
  Media relations
  Media relations involves working with various media for the purpose of informing the public of an organization's mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner. Typically, this means coordinating directly with the people responsible for producing the news and features...
  
  , MARC Youth Leadership Program
• Community services: aging services, Georgia Region 3 Advisory Council, governmental services, workforce development
• Comprehensive planning: data research, environmental planning, land-use
  Land use
  Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
  
   planning, transportation demand management
  Transportation Demand Management
  Transportation demand management, traffic demand management or travel demand management is the application of strategies and policies to reduce travel demand , or to redistribute this demand in space or in time.In transport as in any network, managing demand can be a cost-effective alternative to...
  
  , transportation planning
  Transportation planning
  Transportation planning is a field involved with the evaluation, assessment, design and siting of transportation facilities .-Models and Sustainability :...
  
  , GIS
• Support services: accounting, budget, contracts and grants Administration, facilities management, human resources
  Human resources
  Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
  
  , information technology
  Information technology
  Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
  
  , purchasing

Awards

Each fall ARC give awards for noteworthy new projects. The categories are

• Development of Excellence, which usually goes to large projects like a redone town square
• Exceptional Merit for Context Sensitive Neighborhood Infill Design
• Exceptional Merit for Historic Preservation
• Exceptional Merit for Infill Redevelopment
• Livable Centers Initiative Achievement Award