DCA GIS Data
- DCA Map
Atlas PDF maps prepared for various DCA programs and projects.
DCA Interactive Maps Page The interactive maps home page contains several resources useful to communities. Every map is interactive, you can zoom in to any area in Georgia or type in an address then click on the map to obtain more information. In the layers you can veiw and export the attribute table as a CSV file.
Access DCA Rest Services
Opportunity Zones and Job Tax Credits Opportunity Zones, Less Developed Census Tracts, Military Job Tax Credit Tracts, and County Tier rankings.
Multi-Family Affordable Housing Properties Multi-Family Housing Tax Credit Locations
Federal Opportunity Zones A Federal Opportunity Zone is an economically-distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment
CDBG Applicant Concentration Housing Deficiency (Lacking Complete Kitchen or Plumbing), Minority Concentration, and areas of high concentration of Low to Moderate Income households by Block Group for finding areas for Community Development Block Grants
Latest City Boundaries Census incorporated city boundaries from Boundary and Annexation Survey
Poverty by Tract and Poverty by Block Group American Community Survey 5 year summary datasets (Five five year data sets)
Environmental Planning Layers Protected River and Mountain, Groundwater Recharge and Pollution Susceptibility areas, Conserved Land, Priority Ecological Areas
- Coastal Resource Maps
- According to DCA's Minimum Standards and Procedures for Local Comprehensive Planning "Coastal Resources: Include beaches, coastal marshes and estuaries that are vulnerable to the impacts of development." (2009)
Download Costal Shapefiles of Coastal Marshlands, Georgia Shorelines, and Gray's Reef
National Marine Sanctuary.
Rules for Environmental Planning Criteria
Rules (pdf) of Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division Chapter 391-3-16 Rules for Environmental Planning Criteria.
Groundwater Recharge and Pollution Susceptibility Area Map
- The Georgia Planning Act requires that land-use ordinances be made in an attempt to protect ground water, be passed and enforced by local governments having juisdiction over significant groundwater recharge areas. Within significant recharge areas, the relative degree of protection required is further defined on the basis of whether the area has high pollution susceptibility.
Download Groundwater shapefiles or KMZs of statewide groundwater recharge areas and groundwater pollution susceptibility areas from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Digital Environmental Atlas of Georgia (1992). Hydrologic Atlas Methodology pdf
National Wetlands Inventory / Generalized Wetlands
Seamless National Wetlands Inventory maps of Georgia with a cross-index of the Cowardin classification to the 'Generalized Wetlands' codes and descriptions in the 'Environmental Planning Criteria' Georgia Department of Natural Resources Rules Chapter 391-3-16. Maps are available by state region or for the entire state. (2009)
- Southeastern Ecological Framework
- The Southeastern Ecological Framework is landscape ecology based model that identifies primary ecological areas that are protected by some type of conservation or ecosystem management program;
identifies a green infrastructure network that connects these primary ecological areas; and
identifies the important ecological characteristics of the ecological areas and connecting green infrastructure. SEF hub areas provide excellent candidates for Regionally Important Resources and SEF corridors provide excellent connecting green infrastructure linkages between them. Download SEF Shapefiles including Primary Ecological Areas and Significant Ecological Areas. DCA has converted these from the original grid model to vectors and clipped them to the Georgia state boundary for easy use in regional planning applications. Complete documentation of SEF, with Georgia application examples, is available in the EPA Final Report (5-20-2010)
- Protected Mountain Area Map
- Download Protected Mountain Shapefile of protected statewide mountain areas, as required by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources- Environmental Protection Division- Rules for Environmental Planning Criteria 391-3-16-.05. Mountain protection is also a DCA-required natural resources planning element. This is a DCA-compiled map, based on analysis of the 1:24,000-scale National Elevation Dataset. (3-15-2002)
- Protected River Maps
- Download Protected Rivers Shapefiles includes Cities with Protected Rivers and Counties with Protected Rivers. River Corridor Protection Plans are required for designated streams by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Rules for Environmental Planning Criteria 391-3-16-.04 and are also a DCA-required natural resources planning element. This is a DCA-compiled map that differs substantially from the 'Corridor' coverage in the 'Digital Environmental Atlas of Georgia' (Georgia Geologic Survey Publication CD-1). The DNR map (compiled by the USGS) errantly contains river reservoir areas and does not include all of the stream segments downstream to the jurisdiction of the Coastal Marshland
Protection Act area. (1-3-2003) 1991 State of Georgia Protected River Segments map (PDF)
Job Tax Credits
Job Tax Credits Info on Department of Community Affairs website
Job Tax Credits Info on the Department of Economic Development website
The Job Tax Credit Program provides additional benefits to specified census tracts or additionally designated areas which are considered to be less developed or have a higher rate of poverty. The Job Tax Credit Program provides for a statewide job tax credit for any business or headquarters of any such business engaged in manufacturing, warehousing and distribution, processing, telecommunications, tourism, or research and development industries, but does not include retail businesses. If other requirements are met, job tax credits are available to businesses of any nature, including retail businesses in counties recognized and designated as the 40 least developed counties.
Counties and certain census tracts in the state are ranked and placed in economic tiers using the following factors:
- 1. highest unemployment rate
- 2. lowest per capita income
- 3. highest percentage of residents whose incomes are below the poverty level.
- Less Developed Census Tracts (LDCT)
Less Developed Census Tracts are calculated for the whole state, however only Tracts out side of a Teir 1 county are designated. LDCTs inside a Teir 1 county recieve the Teir 1 benefit, which is the same job tax credit benefit as a LDCT.
Census tracts which are located adjacent to a military base and have poverty of at least a 15 percent poverty rate can receive the highest benefit level allowed under the Job Tax Credit Program. It also provides for the credit to be available to any business of any nature, as long as all other program requirements are met. The city or county must apply to be offically designated and recieve the job tax benefits.
- Opportunity Zones
- Opportunity Zones
Local governments which undertake redevelopment and revitalization efforts in certain older commercial and industrial areas can now qualify those areas for the State’s maximum job tax credit of $3,500 per job. The incentive, which is available for new or existing businesses that create two or more jobs, is a Job Tax Credit which can be taken against the business’s Georgia income tax liability and payroll withholding tax. The credit is available for areas designated by DCA as an “Opportunity Zone”. DCA will consider designations for areas that are within or adjacent to a census block group with 15% or greater poverty where an enterprise zone or urban redevelopment plan exists.
View Opportunity Zone Map 2013-2020 Opportunity Zones reference Census 2010 Block Groups. (current as of Dec 2019)
Download GIS files of DCA approved Georgia Tax Credit Opportunity Zones (Open data page).
- View 2012 Opportunity Zone Map 2012 and prior Opportunity Zones reference Census 2000 Block Groups. (current as of July, 2013)
Last updated
January 2018 |
