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.

The Transportation Executive Committee met yesterday in their first attempt to finalize the project list that will be put before voters next year when they go to the polls and decide whether they want to pay another penny in sales tax for transportation projects around the 12-county metro region.

As Mayor Bill Floyd said according to the AJC, “We’ve gotten to the crunch point.”

At yesterday’s meeting, the Atlanta Regional Commission provided the 6-member, 5-voting Transportation Roundtable Executive Committee with three sets of recommendations for the 2012 vote – one with an emphasis on roads(pdf), one with an emphasis on transit (pdf)and one that was “balanced” (pdf).  While no final decisions were made yesterday – one sticking point according to Green Building Chronicle has to do with how transit operating expenses are being calculated – there’s already a definite “direction” being taken by the Exec Committee in whittling down the list.  The AJC article on the subject says it best…

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