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Abstract
Land is an increasingly scarce resource, and all levels of government must make conscientious decisions when planning and adopting zoning ordinances. This thesis looks at land use planning and zoning standards in Georgia counties to see how various plans, standards, and enforcements influence the economic growth at the county level. The motivation for this paper comes from The Georgia Planning Act passed in 1989 requiring all counties to adopt a comprehensive plan in order to receive state funding. The main research question this paper asks is if regional planning has a significant impact on counties economic growth. We examine the broad questions with models that explain economic growth measures as a function of variables describing county zoning, consistency in following long range plans, follow through in implementation, and innovativeness of the plans.