Can DeKalb Decide Where It Wants to Spend TIA Funding?

Decatur Metro | September 30, 2011 | 11:20 am

The AJC reports that there are a heck of a lot of opinions out there in DeKalb County about how to get more funding for the I-20 rail line from the Transportation Investment Act.   Based on the executive committee’s sliced and diced draft list, the project has a $225 million allocation, but many DeKalb politicos – and a good number of the 250 residents who attended a Wednesday community meeting in Decatur – want the project fully funded to the tune of $522 million.

According to the AJC, CEO Burrell Ellis wants to pull the extra money from a “popular” north Fulton road project (upgrading Ga. 400).  One DeKalb commissioner wants to take the money from the central DeKalb Clifton Corridor project.

As for Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd, who was a member of the exec. team who came up with the draft list, neither of those solutions is optimal.  However, according to the news org…

…he also said he was open to viewing the two rail proposals as one massive project.

The Clifton segment, which calls for linking MARTA’s Lindbergh station to the one in Avondale Estates, could easily flow into the eventual extension of that line, which now ends at Indian Creek.

What will DeKalb decide?  They’ve got until Oct. 15th to figure it out.

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5 Responses to “Can DeKalb Decide Where It Wants to Spend TIA Funding?”

  1. Bobby says:
    September 30, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    Sorry… politics aside, Mayor Floyd’s suggestion is the worst.

    As Cobb’s rep said they felt they could deliver the first phase of LRT to Cobb with a smaller allocation, that transit capital should move to the Clifton transit project. Instead the rep wants to trade those transit dollars for more road dollars in Cobb.

  2. Brianc says:
    September 30, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    Someone at the meeting made a pretty good case for the S.DeKalb line running from 5 Points to Candler, not from Indian Creek.

    • Brianc says:
      September 30, 2011 at 3:48 pm

      Candler Road, that is.

    • Bobby says:
      September 30, 2011 at 5:29 pm

      That’s MARTA’s earlier I-20 East plan, which was unlikely to be more than BRT. The submitted project included a short HRT stub line.

      In any case, rails on highway ROWs will only deliver part of the desired outcome. Neither plan appeals to me.

      • Jack says:
        October 7, 2011 at 6:23 pm

        I’m pretty sure that “someone at the meeting” was me.

        That was not an “earlier” I-20 East plan; it’s one of the other alignments currently under consideration by MARTA. And all modes, including both light and heavy rail, are on the table, not just BRT.

        Also, all current alignment alternatives that go straight downtown are the same mode all the way from Five Points to Stonecrest; there are no “stubs.”