GRTA, Fayette
Commission call truce on land use, zoning
jurisdiction issues By DAVE
HAMRICK
dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com
Tensions
between Fayette County's government and the
Georgia Regional Transportation Authority are
eased somewhat following a meeting last week
between two local commissioners and GRTA Chairman
Joel Cowan.
He
understands we're not going to voluntarily give
up the commission's authority over zoning and
land use matters, and he told us GRTA has no
intentions of coming in and taking over those
things, County Commission Chairman Harold
Bost told The Citizen following a 2.5-hour
meeting with Cowan and Commissioner Greg Dunn.
We
will make no effort to come in and try to
individually zone parcels, Cowan confirmed.
Commissioners
expressed concern when GRTA and the Atlanta
Regional Commission asked them to sign form
letters promising to establish land use policies
that would support the 20-year Regional
Transportation Plan and three-year Transportation
Improvement Plan being backed by both agencies,
and to sign form letters promising to provide
local matching funds to complete the
transportation projects.
Instead
of signing the form letters, commissioners worded
their own letters promising to help fund any
local projects, but declaring the county's
autonomy on land use and zoning matters.
GRTA,
established last year by the state legislature to
oversee transportation planning in the area
around Atlanta, was given a mandate to make sure
future transportation improvements help the area
comply with federal air quality standards.
Federal
agencies have been withholding funds for
transportation projects for two years, saying the
region's air quality doesn't meet standards
established by the federal Environmental
Protection Agency.
ARC
last year drafted and earlier this year adopted
new transportation plans calling for a major
shift in funding, away from road projects and
toward mass transit and other alternatives, and
declared that the new plans would bring the area
into air quality compliance.
GRTA
has put its stamp of approval on those plans and
submitted them to federal agencies.
But
similar plans in the past have been ignored, said
Cowan, and local governments have funneled their
efforts into road building instead of developing
alternatives.
Somebody
has to step up and say, `We'll see that the ARC
plan is carried out.' Somehow [in the past] local
governments can't come with the matching funds
for transit projects, but they can come up with
funds for the road projects, Cowan said.
And,
he said, if the federal and state governments are
going to invest billions of dollars building
roads and commuter rail lines, land use in those
transportation corridors must not be allowed to
render the investment useless.
That
doesn't mean GRTA and ARC will get involved in
those decisions, but it does mean that if land
uses are allowed that threaten the viability of
the projects, the projects might not get done, he
added.
Somehow,
he added, local governments got the mistaken idea
that GRTA would be pushing for higher density
development.
Our
focus is protection of the transportation
corridors, not to unduly densify a county that
wants to have a more rural flavor, he said.
If
there is to be a billion dollar expenditure, as
is proposed, putting a rail line up Ga. 400, the
local government could ruin that investment by
zoning the whole area for five-acre lots,
he added. The local government could zone
for five acres, that's their prerogative. But we
couldn't put the billion-dollar investment
there.
But
part of GRTA's function will be to make sure that
money doesn't get sidetracked for roads, Cowan
said. If a transit project fails, that
money won't flow over into a road project. The
breakdown between transit and roads will stay
pretty firm, he said.
Another
GRTA function, he said, will be to work for
resolution of disputes between neighboring
governments where trnasportation is concerned.
A transportation corridor doesn't serve
just one city or county, he said. The
problem comes when the region is adversely
affected by the decisions of one
government.
Much
of the local concern over land use planning has
centered on plans for a commuter rail line from
Hartsfield Airport to Senoia, with stops in
Peachtree City and Tyrone.
But
that discussion may be moot, said commission
Chairman Bost. It's doubtful that, by the
time that thing ever gets built, there would be
anything left to develop in the transportation
corridor, he said.
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