Atlanta has been named a Federal Transit Administration grant designee, a distinction that allows the city to apply directly for federal dollars to help realize an ambitious future streetcar expansion.
Until now, city officials have relied on MARTA — already a grant designee — or other entities to receive federal funds for transportation endeavors such as the city’s $98 million streetcar project. While the first phase is already fully funded, the city can now directly compete for federal dollars as it eyes a much larger goal — expanding the streetcar system and building out the transit elements of the Atlanta Beltline.
“There’s no question that not only could this help, but that’s exactly our expectation,” said Tom Weyandt, senior transportation policy adviser to Mayor Kasim Reed.
The Atlanta Beltline is an ambitious project that aims to transform blighted land into a 22-mile network of parks, trails and transit. The city’s planned streetcar project intersects with portions of the Beltline.
Earlier this year, city officials expanded the role of Atlanta Beltline Inc., the nonprofit overseeing the enterprise, to play a key role in building out the city’s Connect Atlanta comprehensive plan, an aspirational list of street, transit and bicycle projects.
Being named a federal grant designee gives the city “the ability to act on our own, develop our own projects, seek our own funding and compete with other projects in the region. It gives us some independence,” Weyandt said.
The Federal Transit Authority’s primary grant program, New Starts, was created to fund new major transit initiatives — including rapid rail, light rail, bus-rapid transit, commuter rail and ferries.
The FTA also distributes money through Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grants, as part of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan. The city was awarded a $47.6 million TIGER grant in 2010 for the first phase of the streetcar project and an additional $18 million grant this year for the Beltline’s Westside Trail.
Weyandt said Atlanta may ultimately compete against other entities or governments in the region for federal funding, but he noted that any project will have to be incorporated into the entire Atlanta region’s long-term transportation plan.
MARTA expansions in the past have relied heavily on federal funding.
Asked if this could set up a competition for FTA funds in the future between Atlanta projects and MARTA projects in other parts of Fulton and DeKalb County, MARTA spokesman Lyle Harris said the authority’s expansion projects are so early in development that it would be premature to speculate.
MARTA has served as a pass-through for federal funds to Atlanta to build out the first phase of the streetcar.
Harris said MARTA supported and helped the city in its effort to become a grantee.
The distinction also allows city officials to apply to the FTA for Federal Highway Administration funds in what Weyandt described as a far easier process. The city can use FHWA dollars for pedestrian-oriented projects such as bicycle lanes, he said.
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