While many in the Emory area are jazzed that the Clifton Corridor MARTA line was one of the second largest recipiant of transit funds allocated by the Atlanta Transportation Exec Committee, “E” points out in a comment that two smaller projects, which made the list apply specifically to the City of Decatur.

The first: “Decatur to Clifton Corridor ‐ Transit Connectivity and Safety Improvements” would receive $5 million – instead of the $10 million requested.  Here are a few deets from the project submission…

Commerce Drive, Clairemont Avenue and Church Street will be redesigned to provide safe bicycle and pedestrian facilities like sidewalks, bicycle lanes and streetscaping. The intersections of Church/Commerce and Clairemont/Commerce will be reconfigured to reduce vehicular congestion and increase pedestrian safety through the use of roundabouts, narrowed pedestrian crossings and/or improved signal timing. The design of improvements for Church Street and the two intersections at Commerce Avenue will be complete by summer of 2012.

The second: “US 278 (College Avenue) from Adair Street to North Clarendon Avenue ‐ Corridor Improvements“, which spans Decatur, DeKalb and Avondale, would also receive $5 million – instead of the $8,281,000 requested.  A few details that project submission…

The project consists of adding bike lanes, sidewalk, crossings to transit and businesses, infrastructure improvements to shoulders and pavement, as well as enhancements such as street lighting, landscaping. This project will be consistent with all design recommendations in the LCI’s of Avondale and Decatur. The project will also include the realignment of the intersection of Adair at the CSX RR crossing on the west end of the project. The intersecton improvement of College/Covington @ Clarendon will be included on the east end of the project. Improving traffic signal/ITS for the corridor and side streets.

Of course, these projects have to survive tinkering (or complete revision) by the full 21 member roundtable and still pass the 2012 public referendum before they have a chance to be built, but at this stage, it’s better to still be on the list than off!

Thanks to Ken Edelstein of Green Building Chronicle for helping me locate these projects this morning.  He’s got a great synopsis of the transit “winners” and “losers” in the transportation penny sales tax game over on his site.  (Spoiler Alert: The Clifton Corridor is a “winner”, though it will still have to figure out how to bridge a $400 million shortfall if approved)

Green Building Chronicle reports that the 5 member Atlanta Transportation Roundtable (which I like to call “Floyd & Co.”) allocated 58% of funding from the potential 1-cent sales tax to transit at this morning’s meeting.

However, the current project list is still $445 million over its $6.1 billion target, so some projects – be it road or rail – will need to be cut.  They plan to make those final cuts Monday at 1pm, according to the Chronicle.

Still on the list with a $700 million allocation is the Clifton Corridor line, which would mostly like have the largest potential impact on Decatur area residents, linking the Emory area to Lindbergh MARTA station with either light rail, heavy rail or a bus line.  Another new DeKalb project JUST added to the list is a $250 million down-payment to extend the MARTA blue line east past Indian Creek Station out I-20.

Here’s a PDF of the current project list, courtesy of the ARC.

In related news, Green Building Chronicle also reported yesterday from a Clifton Corridor public workshop last night and came back with a bunch of really interesting tidbits about the project, including which questions are still unanswered and which hurdles it still must be overcome.  Here’s a great little blurb…

The new line would break away from MARTA’s heavy rail line south of Lindbergh Station at the Armour Yard maintenance facility and follow an existing CSX right-of-way across I-85, Cheshire Bridge Road and Briarcliff Road, then on past the CDC, Emory and the VA Medical Center.

A key remaining decision is which technology to use: Heavy-rail would allow MARTA trains to be routed toward Emory on a spur, without requiring transfers. But heavy rail is more expensive and technically difficult, so it would have to stop at North Decatur and Clairmont roads. Most of a heavy rail line would likely be underground.

Light rail or bus-rapid transit would carry fewer passengers and would require MARTA rail riders to transfer at Lindbergh Station. But those two options would allow for more stops and could continue along Scott Boulevard toward the DeKalb Medical Center before hooking down to the Avondale Station. Most of light-rail or bus-rapid-transit line would likely be at grade.

The thorniest issue that came up at last night’s workshop revolved around the residential area between Cheshire Bridge Avenue and Briarcliff Road. Neighborhood organizations there actually favor the project — so long as it ends up being light-rail line, which would do more to serve the residents, rather than heavy rail, which would simply go under the neighborhoods and have fewer stops.

Also of note to those that have expressed concern that the project isn’t currently fully funded by the tax: the Chronicle notes that it’s not that farfetched to think that Emory and other big area employers might pick up part of the tab to have the line built.

Ken Edelstein’s Green Building Chronicle has provided some of the best, in-depth coverage of the Atlanta transportation sales tax process to-date.

Just two days ago, Edelstein did a rather extensive analysis that showed that even though transit requests made up over 65% of the original project requests from local governments, all three proposed scenarios from the Atlanta Regional Commission – even the transit-heavy one – gave transit less than 50% of the total $6.1 billion available funding.  And a bit closer to home, none of the proposed scenarios funded the $1 billion+ Clifton Corridor MARTA line with more than $50 million.

However, today there are signs that the roundtable wants to dedicate more money – at least 50% – to transit, and big transit projects at that.  Ken reports that these were the seven transit projects that were “approved” – though approval apparently means nothing – at today’s roundtable…

• • $825 million for a rail line from Midtown to the Cumberland area that eventually would be extended to Town Center Mall,
• • $700 million for a Clifton Corridor rail line, connecting the Lindbergh MARTA station to Emory University,
• • $600 million for to go toward rail lines proposed by the Atlanta Beltline,
• • $500 million to keep MARTA in a “State of Good Repair,”
• • $185 million to replace the state’s share of operating funds for Georgia Regional Transit Authority bus service,
• • $100 million to restore Clayton County’s recently shuttered bus service, and
• • $100 million to plan and begin implementation of light rail northeast up I-85

According to Edelstein, one definite hurdle with this allocation brought up by GDOT’s Todd Long at the meeting is that none of these projects are fully funded at these levels, so it’s unclear where they would make up the difference in order to be constructed.  However, the fact that large transit projects are back on the table, with the Clifton Corridor receiving the second largest chunk of funding, will certainly be a positive sign for transit advocates dismayed at the backseat that transit had taken in the ARC’s recommendations.

Green Building Chroncile reports that the Atlanta City Council will hold a public hearing tonight at 6pm on permitting rainwater harvesting systems designed provide water inside the home.   The city is hoping to come up with a permitting process and establish fees on “potable rainwater catchment systems for residential use.”

“Charge me for harvesting rainwater?!  That’s ridiculous!”, you say.

Well, slow down there Rainy Jane.  This isn’t about the rain barrel you use to water your vegetable garden.  Uncle Sam isn’t interested in getting between you and Mother Nature when it comes to that.  I’ll let Mr. Edelstien explain…

What the ordinance would do is set up a permitting system to treat rainwater and to use it inside the house. The potentially controversial part regards what happens next: Household water must then be disposed of through the sewers and treated as wastewater, which means there’s a public cost.

In Atlanta, as well as other municipalities in Georgia, potable rainwater systems currently live in a sort of purgatory: They’re not illegal to install, but there’s no permitting system that allows them to be operated.

If approved, Edelstein says that Atlanta’s ordinance could become a model for the rest of the country.

Photo ripped from Creative Loafing since I can’t find the “City of Atlanta” source file.