ATLANTA-Residential development moratoriums, short-term and long-term, are becoming the tool of choice by elected officials in a growing number of metro communities.

DeKalb County is the latest local government to study a proposal by two of its elected officials to halt the demolition of older homes and the construction of new larger townhomes and single-family residences in established neighborhoods. The proposed moratorium would last six months.

DeKalb's moratorium consideration follows a similar avenue followed by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin in January when she issued a temporary halt to infill construction in several neighborhoods, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. The city is updating zoning codes that were last revised in 1982, city staffers tell GlobeSt.com.

DeKalb joins Clayton County in using the moratorium hammer to brake the rush of new residential development in their areas. Clayton's six-month moratorium began Dec. 1, 2005 and will end May 31, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. In Henry County, officials retained Norcross-based Jones & Goulding to advise them on how to improve the county's long-range land-use plan, as GlobeSt.com also previously reported.

Cherokee County, 30 miles north of Downtown Atlanta, successfully used a six-month moratorium in 2004 to slow down residential development rezoning requests. The hot corridor is Interstate 575 near Canton. Cherokee commissioners used the moratorium after noting that prime industrial acreage was being snapped up by multifamily and single-family developers, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.