Always a favorite topic here: MARTA’s plans for the future!
And in this case, the plans are very large according to a Sunday piece on the AJC. Here’s the gist of it…
The future of metro Atlanta could become startlingly linear — a single file of major economic development up and down what is now Georgia 400, built along a rail line that would link Alpharetta with downtown Atlanta and its airport beyond.
The biggest public works package in decades would have other elements as well. In DeKalb County, there would be a rail link to Emory University and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, plus another line shooting eastward along I-20. Within the city of Atlanta, the Beltline awaits.
Wow, that’s a big project.
The AJC describes that northern expansion as a rail line “thrust between Cobb and Gwinnett counties”, who we know have resisted MARTA since it’s inception.
So that’s the basic plan. How will we pay for it?
Basically, MARTA is trying to tweak the 1/2 cent sales tax that County’s could levy for transportation projects that was approved during the last legislative session. They just need the legislature to remove the five-set sunset currently attached to the sales tax bill and the additional $175-$200 million in new revenue could translate into $4 billion in loans.
And if you’re still a MARTA doubter, this quote in the article from MARTA’s Chairman of the Board, Robert Ashe, is perhaps worth considering…
“Corporations are increasingly demanding immediate proximity to transit stations. State Farm did it when they came here. Mercedes did it. Worldpay did it when it relocated. Kaiser is going to be located two blocks from here because of the Arts Center Station,” Ashe said. The trend will only continue.
Tweak? Suppose your bank said, we just want to “tweak” your mortgage to remove that 30 year sunset thing.
Plenty of corporations have “tweaked” their promised pensions and medical plans long after it was too late for retired employees to do anything about it, some even too old to work.
Not sure what that has to do with anything. Point is — Marta’s proposal is not a tweak, but a very major change that will will not only gobble up 50% of the tax revenue, but make the tax very long-lived, if not permanent.
It just meant that things change, even when there’s official paperwork and signatures and all that. Even a legal promise can be broken. Seems wrong to me but I guess that’s why there’s lawyers and courts.
🙂
It’s got my vote.
Speaking of transportation…I wonder if City of Decatur will offer free alignments to all of those who’ve had to drive on this crappy, unpaved Church Street daily.
I’m assuming this will happen when Atlanta does the same for Dekalb Ave.
An unpaved Dekalb might actually be an improvement.
Hopefully the Alpharetta folks won’t put up the roadblock on Marta. I can hear the “It will bring too much crime!” cries now.
I don’t think this deal will come to fruition. We will see though.
I heard MARTA did a survey of Gwinnett voters and a majority support paying a penny sales tax to bring MARTA into the county. One of the Commissioners was quoted saying it will never be put to a vote. Seems like a disconnect between the people and their elected officials. Imagine that.
“Seems like a disconnect between the people and their elected officials. Imagine that.”
I agree, Smith, but there is much less of a disconnect between the elected officials and the people who actually turn out to vote.
Anecdotal, but I can tell you my wife’s firm, which is a large national one, is looking for new digs for next year, and they will not consider any building that isn’t within walking distance of a MARTA station.
Have they looked at the Callaway Building?
Like most big professional firms in Atlanta, they probably wouldn’t consider going outside the Midtown or Buckhead area. Having a Peachtree address has a certain cache, for one thing. Decatur isn’t a class A office space kind of place anyway.
The Callaway Building, thank goodness, will be demolished when the County leaves. The entire block will be developed into something, but until a developer get the property and prepares a plan, we don’t know what that will be there.
I believe the city/DDA has a developer – Cousins. They are just waiting for the county to vacate.
You mean you didn’t hear about the super secret, signed-in-blood deal to bring Trader Joe’s to that development?