Linda Giltz, AICP
Regional Planner
Land-of-Sky Regional Council

Linda has experience in land use, transportation, growth management, and economic development planning at local and regional scales. She has worked at Land-of-Sky Regional Council since 1998 and provides technical assistance to local governments on planning and growth issues and with the development of policies, regulations, and long-range plans. She provides group facilitation services and has experience working with different types of groups and using consensus-based processes. She also writes grant applications and plans workshops and conferences.
Prior to Land-of-Sky, Linda worked for the UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute and Cabarrus County, NC, performing demographic analyses, developing land-use plans, and performing day-to-day staff planning work. She received a Master of Arts degree in Geography from UNC-Charlotte in 1996 to pursue urban and rural planning. Prior to her planning career, she worked as a technical and marketing consultant on banking software for IBM in Charlotte after completing a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Duke University in 1981. She grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, a small town on the outskirts of Cleveland.

Current projects include:

• managing and staffing a project to develop a regional framework for conservation and development (Linking Lands and Communities in the Land-of-Sky Region); and
• implementing high priority projects from Mountain Ridge and Steep Slope Protection Strategies final report (2004).

Past projects include:

• providing economic revitalization and capacity building assistance to the Town of Marshall as part of the Rural Center’s NC STEP program (2005-2009);
• developing a Comprehensive Plan for Madison County and the City of Brevard;
• developing a regional greenways plan and coordinating a regional greenways conference (Blue Ridge Greenways Conference, November 2005);
• managing a project and developing a video to increase awareness and investment in our region’s “sense of place” assets (2004); and
• developing a regional multi-modal transportation plan (2001).

Linda has also been active in the Asheville community, serving on the Asheville Greenway Commission (Chair for seven years), the Haywood Road Corridor committee, and the Asheville 2020 Plan advisory committee. She lives in West Asheville in the Westwood Cohousing community and serves on its Board of Directors, Facilitation Team, and Landscape Team.

Presentation

Green Infrastructure Planning for Sustainability and Resiliency

Learn why it is important to strategically plan for natural resources, wildlife habitat, and working lands and learn about a model process that you can replicate in your area. Land-of-Sky Regional Council recently completed a green infrastructure planning process and developed a series of maps, data, and tools that will help guide decisions regarding land use, conservation, and development. The process is based on using the best available scientific data and applying community values in a collaborative and transparent approach. Design features of the green infrastructure network will help our ecosystems be more resilient in the face of changes such as drought, flooding, development, thus contributing to the sustainability of the region. Find out how we created this green infrastructure network, what we learned in the process, and how the products can be used by a variety of individuals and organizations.