OK.  So, I was totally off-base with the impetus of this whole I-20 resolution before the Decatur City Commission this evening.

After listening to the conversation at tonight’s meeting, it became clear that the real issue at hand in bringing up a resolution wasn’t about financial support for an I-20 transit option, as I had previously thought, it was about taking a public stand regarding the transit options still on MARTA’s table to build a rail line out I-20.  Though there’s nothing suggesting this on MARTA’s I-20 East alternatives website (the map above is their most recently posted “option 2″ from May 2011), according to a lively discussion at city hall last night, heavy rail option #2 would leave East Lake Station and tunnel under Oakhurst on its way to I-20.

Now, as the Mayor pointed out during the conversation, heavy rail option #3, which runs from Indian Creek Station to Wesley Chapel Road, is the one on the Transportation Investment Act draft project list to the tune of $225 million.  Heavy rail option #2, which would run under Oakhurst and wouldn’t even stop inside the city limits by the sounds of it, has not seen that kind of financial support and according to a comment from Mayor Pro-Tem Baskett, MARTA acknowledged in their presentation to the Commission two weeks ago that they knew Decatur residents would be opposed to that.

However, both south-side commissioners expressed a desire to pass the resolution officially supporting heavy-rail option #3 from Indian Creek to Wesley Chapel, publicly stating Decatur’s opposition to option #2.  This comment from Commission Kecia Cunningham sums up the sentiment…

“And to think that we will be silent about what may be happening in Oakhurst, I mean just the whole notion that [tunneling under Oakhurst is] being batted around, and MARTA not come to Oakhurst, MARTA not come to the commissioners who represent that part of the city, tells me that we’re not really part of their thought process…I don’t know about you guys, but when they talked to us last month that was the first that I was told specifically that Oakhurst was involved.  And just the notion of that makes me very concerned and I think it’s important for us to…say, there is an option out there that doesn’t have such an awful impact on the city of Decatur, on Oakhurst.”

In the end, the resolution was passed unanimously by the commission, stating support for heavy rail option #3.

But this has only just begun.  First off, we need to see a dang map of the revised/new (?) option #2.  I’ll see if I can get a scan.