Over the past 20 years, Metro Atlanta has been one of the most successful economies in the world. Growth will continue, with an additional 2.3 million people and 1.7 million jobs projected over the next 25 years, and almost half of this population growth will be from births in the region.

The big issue is not if our region will grow but how we accommodate this growth to protect the region's high quality of life and business environment.

The chamber's Quality Growth Task Force was created by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce as a public-private venture to reach consensus on growth strategies necessary to successfully accommodate the next 2.3 million people; and to identify near-term policies and tools to achieve these strategies. The task force was chaired by Tom Bell, CEO, Cousins Properties, Inc., along with vice-chairs, Samuel Olens, Chairman, Cobb County Commission and Atlanta Regional Commission and Lee Thomas, President & Chief Operating Officer, Georgia-Pacific Corporation.

The Task Force worked from October 2003-May 2004 and reached consensus on the facts, benchmarked Atlanta with other regions, looked at the changing demographics that will impact market demands, modeled alternative growth scenarios and reached unanimous consensus on final recommendations. The next step is the creation of a broad coalition to advance these recommendations. This work is underway with the launch in September 2005 of the Livable Communities Coalition now under the leadership of Larry Gellerstedt with Cousins Properties, Inc.

The Atlanta office of Bain & Company provided generous pro-bono support for the Task Force and its four working groups. The Final Consolidated recommendations are available for download. A Final Report that ran in October, 2004 in the Atlanta Journal Constitution is also available for download.