It

will probably be at least 2005 before the federal

government releases its hold on new road building

in the Atlanta area including Fayette, an Atlanta

Regional Commission expert said.

"You

should be able to start building

capacity-enhanced roads in 2005," ARC

transportation planner Laura Cruce told the

Fayetteville City Council last week.

Metropolitan

Atlanta, including Fayette, recently was declared

in violation of federal air quality standards,

and federal agencies have halted construction of

local road projects until ARC and the new Greater

Atlanta Transportation Authority can come up with

a long-range plan that satisfies those standards.

And

plans to tighten the standards even further could

bring 10 to 12 more counties into the

"non-attainment" zone, including

neighboring Coweta County.

The

standards are arbitrary, Cruce said. "The

Clean Air Act gives [Environmental Protection

Agency] staff the right to set whatever standards

they want," she said.

"They

[federal agencies] are making an example of

Atlanta whether we like it or not," she said

in response to Councilman Al Hovey-King's

suggestion that holding up funds for road

projects actually harms Atlanta's air rather than

improving it.

"It's

a fact that at idle speeds your pollution

increases exponentially," said Hovey-King.

"We're self-defeating in that respect."

ARC

planners currently are developing a regional

transportation plan designed to meet federal air

quality guidelines, Cruce said. The agency will

probably be ready for public input in September

or October, with plans to have the plan in its

final form between November and January.

More

public input will be accepted in February for

final adjustment of the plan, she said. Adoption

Following

that, the normal gyrations of planning for

road-building probably will take four more years

before the first new roads and widening projects

get underway to help clear up the increasingly

snarled traffic in the area.

The

fact that federal money can't be spent to

increase road capacity doesn't mean that Atlanta

isn't getting its fair share of federal

transportation dollars, though, Cruce said.

"We're getting our money, but we're spending

it elsewhere," she said.

Public

transit, bike paths and other favored projects

are getting the federal dollars that once went to

road projects, she said.

ARC

experts are looking further down the road than

the current crisis, Cruce said. Planners have

recently completed a 25-year map of road

improvements expected to take place in Fayette,

including the long-discussed eastern bypass

around Fayetteville.

The

bypass would run down Corinth Road at its

beginning and loop around the city to reconnect

with Ga. Highway 85 south of town.

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