It was a journey that began as a child growing up in Florida. That journey led to environmental and policy work at University of Georgia and the Georgia Governor’s Office. Now that journey brings Terry DeMeo King to south Fulton County as the Executive Director of Chattahoochee Hills Country Alliance.

Raised in Ft. Lauderdale before Florida exploded with a population in the many millions, DeMeo King said she could directly relate to the wishes of Chattahoochee Hills residents in wishing to maintain the area’s rural charm in the shadow of the Atlanta megalopolis.

“I understand what it’s like to have a passion for a place and see it threatened by change and sometimes lost,” she said.

Though new to Chattahoochee Hills, DeMeo King is not new to the myriad issues that interface with government, the private sector, funding sources and community interests. Leading to her arrival as Executive Director of Chattahoochee Hills Alliance, DeMeo King spent hundreds of hours facilitating decision-making processes and helping groups solve problems.

“I feel I come with a broad background and with experience in areas that will benefit Chattahoochee Hills Alliance,” DeMeo King explained.

DeMeo King assessed the vision and the intent of Chattahoochee Hills residents in recent years as they responded to the changing political and development landscape. That vision includes maintaining the area’s rural character, maximizing property values and shepherding quality development in the places that make sense, she said.

“I really like the way the area has captured a balanced growth perspective to include conservation, ecological health, water and air quality, passive recreation and open space,” DeMeo said.

In urban areas such as metro Atlanta, most developers and those in government take for granted that development will occur, and often in a way that diminishes the landscape that has existed for centuries. Professionally, DeMeo King said, it is better to find ways to avoid losing the beautiful features and characteristics of an area as development occurs.

DeMeo King served as Gov. Sonny Perdue’s Policy Advisor for Natural Resources, Transportation and Economic Development from August 2004 until April 2006. Major policy initiatives during her tenure at the Governor’s Office included land conservation and open space protection, air quality attainment, water planning and management, community-focused litter prevention, brownfield redevelopment, renewable energy, metro Atlanta transit services, Paving the Way Home local road program and the Fast Forward program to relieve traffic congestion and expand economic development in urban and rural Georgia.

DeMeo King also served as Environmental Policy Program Manager with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. For more than 11 years she conducted environmental policy research and instruction for public and private entities.

DeMeo King is currently working on her PhD. in Environmental Policy. She holds a Master’s in Landscape Planning and a Bachelor’s in Sociology. Her Master’s thesis dealt with greenway and linear path planning and development.

If it is better for an area to define development than for development to define the area, then Chattahoochee Hills should be in good shape with DeMeo King’s arrival to the hill country.

Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance formed in 2001 as a result of major land owners in south Fulton organizing around a common mission and vision supporting the conservation of existing greenspace, land values and sustainable development.

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