I have been speaking to citizen groups all over metro Atlanta regarding the cliff we are destined to fall off if regional governance and taxation proposals take hold.
Local Fayette residents found the meeting minutes from the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) meeting where former-Chairman Jack Smith and Fayetteville Mayor Ken Steele voted in favor of the Concept 3 regional mass transit plan that included commuter rail, bus rapid transit and regular bus service in Fayette County.
Both Smith and Steele admitted to voting in favor to the mass transit plan that included Fayette County.
However, both Smith and Steele were quiet as a church mouse regarding their April 21, 2010 regional vote in favor of an official resolution entitled, “Commitment to a regional transit system and governance structure.”
It’s extremely difficult to understand why Smith and Steele want to chain our county to MARTA, GRTA X-Press buses, Cobb County Transit and Gwinnett County Transit. All of those systems are hemorrhaging massive red ink and all are looking for hefty financial bailouts from the other counties in the upcoming Transportation Investment Act (TIA) referendum in July of 2012.
Mayor Steele made it clear in the AJC that he supported the approval of the final project list for the TIA.
Our 10-county region is in for extensive changes to our traditional land use planning practices. Wherever the new regional governance entity (the state legislature is voting on the creation of this entity in January of 2012) decides to run a transit line, they expect to change the land use to ultra-high density development.
Smith was on the region’s Transit Planning Board (TPB) and here is exactly what they said, “We need to work with our local government[s] in making sure that they support land use policies that would support our proposed transit investment,” (Transit Planning Board minutes, Nov. 29, 2007).
The TPB called for “… the development of land use regulations and patterns that support transit uses,” (Transit Planning Board minutes, Oct. 25, 2007). Unfortunately, the problem is a little less than 5 percent of all commuters use mass transit.
This means, if the TIA passes and regional governance is formed, we will be expanding financially insolvent transit systems, building high density developments around it and (if long standing trends continue) only around 5 percent of those high density residents will actually use the mass transit.
Obviously, the key problem is the other 95 percent of the commuters from the high density developments will add to our traffic congestion burden. Can you see where we are heading?
Mayor Steele was a founding Board Member of an organization called the Livable Communities Coalition (LCC). There is no doubt where Steele and the LCC are heading on the mass transit issue.
They loudly proclaim their desire to, “Offer a smart mix of transit serving urban, suburban, and even exurban needs. A regionwide mix of transit will include local bus service, express bus service, bus rapid transit, light rail (such as Atlanta’s BeltLine), heavy rail (MARTA), and commuter rail.” Go look for yourself at www.livablecommunitiescoalition.org/Issues/transportation.cfm.
It is shocking to see they support mass transit even in the “exurban” areas, because it makes no financial sense at all. Exurban includes Tyrone, Senoia, Brooks, Fayetteville, etc., where there is no population density to speak of. However, LCC has development plans for those exurban areas that receive mass transit. They say, “Tie transportation investments to land use. Build dense developments where it makes sense, and then make it a priority to spend transportation dollars to serve such developments.”
At the Fayetteville candidates’ debate, Mayor Steele made it absolutely clear is he committed to keep Fayette County locked into the Atlanta Regional Commission system and would not even consider looking at the Three Rivers region which has more rural land planning and lighter density like our county.
Some in the audience groaned when Steele cited his reasons for our remaining chained to the other metro Atlanta counties as being the quality of the other counties’ school systems, incomes and real estate conditions.
Clearly, Mayor Steele was speaking off the cuff because everyone knows Atlanta Public Schools, Clayton County Schools, DeKalb County Schools and on and on have notorious reputations for abysmal test scores and graduation rates. Our Three Rivers neighbor, Coweta County can top most of them. Moreover, Forsyth County has beaten our county on educational results and they decided to stay out of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
It’s the same story with incomes and real estate conditions.
Some of our local politicians are driving us toward regional mass transit, regional governance that will erode our local “home rule” and regional taxation.
Steve Brown
Fayette Commissioner, Post 4
Peachtree City, Ga.
