Georgia's Urbanizationand Impact on Local Serv.

• Citation: Vol. 29 No. 4 Pg. 0016
• Publication year: 2024
• Pages: 0016
• Year: 2024

Georgia's Urbanizationand Impact on Local Service Vol. 29 No. 4 Pg. 16 Georgia Bar Journal February 2024

I The Legal

Since World War II, historical events have impacted Georgia's urban development and the corresponding demands of service delivery relationships between cities and counties.

BY JAMES V. BURGESS JR.

This article discusses the impact of certain historical events on Georgia's urban development since World War II. It particularly considers effects on service delivery relationships between cities and counties and the problems confronting local governments in coping with the corresponding demands of urban development.

Historical Perspective

Over the past 80 years, our state has experienced at least two stages of urbanization. A rural-urban shift began in the 1940s war years as people left rural areas for military duty and their families moved to urban and suburban areas for war jobs. By the 1950s, some 28,000 Georgians had left farming and the state had lost 100,000 farms.^[1]Up until this time, demands for municipal and county services were generally static. Local governments were not confronted with the critical physical, social and economic issues that exist in urban areas today, and local governments were handling the service delivery needs of their citizens with limited federal and state assistance.^[2]

The second stage was a metropolitan shift that began after the Korean War, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, when the population started to leave many of Georgia's larger cities in significant numbers, settling in adjoining fringe areas. This move was fueled by the continuing baby boom between 1950 and 1970 when Georgia's population grew by 33%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.^[3] This fringe growth was driven by the formation of new family units in need of housing that was not available in cities. This need was met by suburban developers, building lower priced homes in the urban fringes where land was relatively cheap and came with open acreage that permitted economies of mass construction.^[4]

Municipalities in Georgia were ill-equipped to serve this emerging fringe area population growth. Their annexation authority was limited, and they possessed few extraterritorial powers to provide services in unincorporated suburban fringe areas. Families who had moved to cities from rural areas in the 1940s had grown accustomed to city services, such as paved streets, garbage pickup, and police and fire protection, as well as water and sewer utility services. As a result, Georgia's most populous counties faced pressure from these new residents for the same type of urban or municipal services that they previously enjoyed as city residents.

Amendment 19

County governments also faced a service delivery dilemma with this new unincorporated population growth because of the absence of legal authority to provide urban or municipal services. This problem was eventually solved in 1971 when the General Assembly amended the Constitution to grant counties the same authority as municipalities to provide urban services. This amendment, known as Amendment 19, eliminated the historical distinction between the service delivery roles of municipalities and counties.^[5] In addition to their state-mandated services, counties now possessed constitutional authority to provide the same services as municipalities.

Through counties' authority under Amendment 19 to provide urban services in unincorporated areas, the unincorporated population in Georgia grew more rapidly than its incorporated population. This trend is reflected between the 1970 U.S. Census and 1980 U.S. Census when the unincorporated population began to exceed the incorporated population. In 1970, both populations were approximately the same. In 1980, the unincorporated population was 56% of total as compared with 45% incorporated. By 2000, the unincorporated population had grown to 63% of the total population as compared with 36% incorporated. With the creation of new cities, Georgia's incorporated population in 2020 had increased to 45% of the total as compared with 55% unincorporated.^[6]

Because of the county unit system, the urbanization of Georgia's counties was not reflected in the General Assembly. Under the county unit system, rural counties accounted for only 32% of the state's population yet they controlled 59% of the total unit vote. For example, the three least populous counties—Echols, Glascock and Quitman—had a combined population of 6,980, while Fulton County, the most populous county, had a population of 556,326. As a result, rural counties had disproportional influence over statewide elections.^[7]

Constitutional challenges to this system in the 1960s diminished the rural domination of the legislature. In March 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court considered a Tennessee-based case, Baker v. Carr, and ruled that all votes should have equal weight. Accordingly, the county unit system violated the principle of "one man, one vote."^[8]

Subsequently, in April 1962, the Georgia county unit system used for nomination of governor and other state officers was struck down in Gray v....