Wednesday, April 4, 2001
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Wednesday, April 4, 2001 |
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ARC kicks off process to refine regional transportation and development plans
Exactly one year after the Atlanta Regional Commission adopted an historic $36 billion Regional Transportation Plan that provides the Atlanta region with more transportation solutions than ever before, last week ARC kicked off a two-year process that will revise that plan along with the Regional Development Plan. More than 100 persons are volunteering their time to play a key role in this update. These efforts will continue and improve upon the hard work thousands of citizens of this region have already done. "Our purpose here is to understand that we have a good, sound and adopted Regional Transportation Plan through the year 2025," explained Tom Weyandt, director of ARC's Comprehensive Planning Department. "This is our starting point. Our charge is to refine that plan and the Regional Development Plan and to think about new policies and strategies to move the region forward." ARC updates the regional transportation and development plans every three years to keep them current with the region's evolving needs and priorities. To do this in the most inclusive way possible, ARC asked over 100 regional citizens and officials to serve on nine planning teams that will review and refine current regional goals and develop recommendations for strategies to meet these goals. "What we need is bold, out-of-the-box thinking to develop innovative transportation and land use strategies for this region," said Weyandt. "It is a good feeling to know that those serving on these planning teams are enthusiastic and ready to go." The RDP was adopted in May of 1999 and reflects a vision for how the region should grow over the next 25 years. Like the RTP, policies in the RDP are updated every three years to reflect evolving attitudes on the best way to accommodate the staggering growth the Atlanta region is experiencing. An RDP/Land Use planning team has been assembled specifically for this task. The current RTP and the Transportation Improvement Program, which puts into motion priority RTP projects for a three-year period, represent a dramatic shift in how transportation planning is done in this region. After falling out of attainment with federal air quality standards, an innovative plan had to be developed that achieved attainment so the region could again receive federal transportation money and met the region's needs for improved mobility. Such a plan is now in place, and even though only a year has transpired since adoption, it is time to begin the process anew. "We are involved in a continuous process with these plans. Some elements have begun to be implemented, some other strategies are now being studied, and there is still a lot to be done," said Weyandt. "We are at the beginning of that process of identifying what else can be done, and what things we can do better."
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