Fayette

County leaders will sit down with Georgia

Regional Transportation Authority Chairman Joel

Cowan "within the week" to talk about

the growing rift between the county and the

fledgling agency.

County

commissioners Greg Dunn and Harold Bost will meet

with Cowan privately, Dunn told The Citizen.

"Hopefully we can make some progress,"

he said, "though we're probably not going to

solve everything."

Meanwhile,

commissioners Monday fired off three letters in

response to GRTA's recent assertion that it plans

to "activate jurisdiction" over Fayette

County, saying the commissioners "will never

agree" to that.

Cowan,

a Peachtree City resident, heads up the state

agency created last year by the state legislature

and tasked with making sure the Atlanta region

develops transportation plans and land use/zoning

policies that will bring the region into

compliance with federal air quality standards.

Federal

funds for road improvements have been withheld,

using a "carrot and stick" policy to

give local county governments an incentive to go

along with regional air quality goals. Gov. Roy

Barnes and the legislature last year created GRTA

and gave the agency unprecedented authority over

regional planning, stating that the Atlanta

Regional Commission, the area's planning agency,

doesn't have enough authority to get the job

done.

GRTA

and ARC tag-teamed local governments in late May

with letters requesting commitments to pay their

share of a three-year Transportation Improvement

Plan approved in January by ARC and

rubber-stamped last week by GRTA. And GRTA's

letter went a step further, informing local

elected officials that GRTA plans to activate

jurisdiction over the 13 counties that have

failed to meet air quality standards set by the

federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Fayette

will cooperate with the aims of regional

planning, but "will never agree that our

elected governments are under the jurisdiction of

an appointed board," county commissioners

told the authority's director by letter this

week.

similar letter to the Atlanta Regional Commission

states the county's intention to fund its share

of road improvement projects during 2001 and

2002, but stops short of committing to raising

money "by extraordinary means if

necessary" as ARC had requested in its

letter to county governments.

GRTA

and ARC also demanded that the counties agree to

support the agencies' zoning and land use

planning policies and other initiatives that go

hand-in-hand with the transportation plan.

High-density zoning in the corridors of planned

bus and commuter train routes is among the

changes being urged.

Commissioners

bristled, saying on the one hand they intend to

cooperate in funding transportation projects, but

they have no intention of subjecting the

commission to the GRTA's jurisdiction. They

appointed Commissioner Greg Dunn to word letters

of response, and Monday approved final wording.

"We

clearly commit to fund our share of the FY 2001

and FY 2002 [Transportation Improvement Program]

and pledge to continue our record as responsible,

cooperative and effective regional

planners," the commissioners stated.

"However, we will never agree that our

elected governments are under the jurisdiction of

an appointed board. To do so would equate to us

transferring to you the responsibilities and

authorities bestowed upon us by our

citizens."

Dunn

said Monday he hopes it won't come down to a

constitutional battle, but if GRTA and federal

agencies decide to use the "stick"

approach and withhold funds for badly needed

transportation projects here, it may come to

that, he added.

"If

we lose substantial amounts of money, we would

have to challenge the state's authority, but we

don't want to challenge them," he said.

"We're just telling them we are going to

continue to do the land use and zoning here in

Fayette County.

"The

`carrot' they're talking about using is our own

tax money that we're entitled to," Dunn

added. "We feel the tax money belongs to the

taxpayer.

"What

we would like is for them to come back and

address some of the issues they've raised,"

he added. "We've put the ball back in their

court."

The

full text of the commissioners' letters is on

page 6A.

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