Here are your questions...explore the topics before you write your letter to the Mayor and City Planner! 

What is Smart Growth?  What is Greenspace?  What is happening to Georgia's growth rate?  Why?

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2630&hl=y
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-763&hl=yhttp://www.epa.gov/dced/pdf/whtissg4v2.pdf
http://www.ganet.org/dnr/greenspace/faq.html

What about pollution and landfills?

http://www.gaepd.org/

What about erosion and flooding?

http://www.epa.gov/dced/pdf/growthwater.pdf

What about crime? 

http://www.gppf.org/pub/Crime/crimeinga.pdf
http://www.state.ga.us/gbi/gbistat1.html  (Compare crime rates year by year...what is the percentage of increase in each area of crime?  Compare Jackson County to the statewide statistics!)

What is a land trust?

http://www.lta.org/aboutlt/faq.shtml

What is historic preservation?  Why is it important to maintain the historic look of buildings?

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-718

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/GovernmentPolitics/Government/LocalGovernment&id=h-1139

How do local taxes work?  How are they collected and used for a city?

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1402&hl=y

Don't forget to try SIRSDiscoverer and Searchasaurus: Middle Search Plus on GALILEO:  http://kids.galileo.usg.edu 
REMEMBER: Use a KEYWORD search--don't type a question!