ARC rep: Coweta

will double in size by 2030

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You only think

Coweta County is crowded now.

In a presentation

before the Coweta County Commission Tuesday afternoon, Atlanta Regional

Commission chairman Chick Krautler said Coweta County's population is

projected to double by 2030.

That means

that more than 200,000 will call the county home in the next few years,

and they're going to be driving on the county's already crowded highways.

Krautler was

in Coweta Tuesday to suggest the county join ARC's metropolitan planning

organization. He made it clear that he was not asking the county to join

the ARC. Rather, he said the county needs to be a full-fledged participant

in the commission's transportation planning.

"We already

do technical analysis for your transportation projects because you're

in the 13-county non-attainment zone for air quality," he said.

But the 2000

census now qualifies Coweta as an urban Atlanta county. By being part

of the group's transportation planning, the county is eligible for urban

transportation funds.

While Krautler

said the county would gain the use of the ARC staff for transportation

planning, some of the commissioners were not too sure about the benefit

of signing up with the group.

"I'm just

afraid we're going to get left behind the big counties like Fulton and

Gwinnett. We're nothing like them," said Commission Chairman Leigh

Schlumper.

Krautler said

there was no "weighting" of factors for bigger counties and

Coweta County would have a staff person to help them get projects from

the DOT.

The commissioners

decided to mull Krautler's offer and get