Southern Georgia Regional Commission based in Valdosta, Georgia has received a 2017 Innovation Award from the National Association of Development Organizations for the Completion of Street Stability in Valdosta and Lowndes County.

“Complete Streets” are those corridors that not only meet the needs of automobiles and other motorized vehicles but also include amenities for cyclists and pedestrians, regardless of ability. Complete Streets Suitability report is the result of a strategy within the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 2040 Transportation Vision Plan that calls for the development of a report in which corridors are analyzed for potential bicycle and pedestrian projects.
 
This project supports not just the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 2040 Transportation Vision Plan, but also a goal outlined in the Greater Lowndes County Common Community Vision which calls for more bicycle and pedestrian projects in order to promote an active and healthy lifestyle. The SGRC served as an integral part of this project, which supports the organization’s mission to develop the region into an area of which its citizens can be proud.
 
NADO is a Washington, DC-based membership association of regional development organizations that promotes programs and policies that strengthen local governments, communities, and economies through regional cooperation, program delivery, and comprehensive strategies.  The association’s Innovation Awards program recognizes regional development organizations and their partners for improving the economic and community competitiveness of our nation’s regions and local communities.  2017 marked NADO’s 50-year anniversary of supporting regional economic development across the country.         
 
“The Innovation Awards program is an opportunity to recognize the important work of regional development organizations that are promoting economic development and improving quality of life for local residents,” said 2016-2017 NADO President Lynne Keller Forbes, Executive Director of the South Eastern Council of Governments, located in Sioux Falls, SD.  “These projects demonstrate the diversity of work that regional development organizations undertake to benefit the communities and regions that they serve.”
 
In addition to this award, Southern Georgia Regional Commission was awarded for other projects within the 18-county region from NADO for the Brooks County Enhancing Citizen Service and Work Efficiency with a Work Order Record Keeping System project as well as the Brantley County Innovative Resource Management through Enhanced Wed-based Mapping Application project.