The idea has attracted supporters including House Democratic leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin), the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and the Home Builders Association of Georgia.

Also backing it are landholders and developers, such as Cousins Properties, Temple-Inland and Oaky Woods Properties. Cousins owns more than 9,000 acres in Paulding County, and Temple-Inland is laying out plans for a 19,000-home mixed-use development in Carroll County. Oaky Woods last year bought more than 20,000 acres in Houston County, south of Macon, which is in or near the districts of Staton, O'Neal and Porter.

Oaky Woods partner Scott Free said his partners, associated with Graham Bros. Construction of Dublin, worked at a Florida improvement district neighborhood called the Villages and thought the idea would be a good one for Georgia to adopt. They pushed it to their legislators and would like to have an improvement district to help develop their land.

"This bill would benefit all the rural areas around Georgia," Free said.

A 2005 study by urban planning professor Tim Chapin of Florida State University disputes that. It showed that the majority of neighborhood improvement districts cluster around urban areas, such as Tampa and Orlando, and that few or none have been built in the more rural counties.

"When they work, they work very well," Chapin said. "You get high quality and needed infrastructure, and it is paid for by those who most benefit from the infrastructure."