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.