Friday, July 29, 2005

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Group wants more rail info

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Will commuter rail be a good fit for Peachtree City’s future?

That’s one of the hot-button issues facing a committee of citizens that is helping compile the city’s next 20-year plan. At its meeting Monday night, the group decided to seek more information on the issue, particularly looking for studies that correlate public transportation with crime, as that is one of the common “fears” of public transportation.

Elizabeth Keysar said the general misconception is that public transit attracts crime, when in actuality crime is more tied to poverty levels.

Phyllis Aguayo said her concern about a rail station doesn’t have to do with crime but rather the increased density such projects typically bring.

“It’s about whether or not we’re becoming a more metropolitan community than we envisioned,” Aguayo said.

Aguayo added that Atlanta lacks the appropriate pedestrian network to handle commuters.

“I don’t see it as alleviating traffic as much as people think,” said committee member Marty Mullin.

Peachtree City Director of Developmental Services Clyde Stricklin noted that commuter rail isn’t in the state’s plans for quite some time.

“I think the state plan for light rail is 2040,” Stricklin said. He also said a rail station didn’t need to be set in an urban area but could instead be located in a rural area.

Other group members acknowledged it will be tough to convince city residents to give up their cars when commuting to Atlanta.

Matt Houser of QK4, the city’s consulting engineering firm, said commuter rail is a “possibility.”

“It’s your community. You need to make these decisions so it can be incorporated into the plan,” Houser said.

City Engineer David Borkowski said that millions of dollars will be spent in coming years on road improvements, but in many cases they won’t dramatically improve traffic congestion.

Another possible facet of public transportation the committee mentioned briefly is creating an in-city network that can help seniors get to necessary destinations.

Committee member Pat Murphy said he lives and works in Peachtree City, and he’d rather the city spend money on other crucial projects instead of working to cut his commute by three to five minutes.

Mullin suggested that state officials should be convinced to create another highway into Atlanta to serve the area. The problem is, Borkowski said, land alongside any new road would eventually be developed to the point where it would slow down traffic.

In other business, the committee heard a presentation from City Planner David Rast on the city’s future population projections. By 2020, the population may surge past 40,000, as some residential development still hasn’t occurred, Rast said.

For example, there are 144 senior apartments unbuilt on the south side of the city, another 120-150 lots left to build in the Smokerise subdivision to the east and additional land to build on in the Centennial neighborhood in west Peachtree City, Rast said.

The city’s current population is estimated at 35,842, but the projected population figures do not take into account any possible annexation, Rast noted.