The Atlanta Braves hope the atmosphere inside SunTrust Park will be electric when it opens in 2017, and Cobb County hopes to make trams running outside the ballpark electric as well.
Commissioners on Tuesday approved a $40,000 study of the feasibility of using electric trams to shuttle people to the ballpark and around the hotels, offices and restaurants in the Cumberland area outside the new stadium.
The county is already well underway with its study of a circulator bus route around the so-called Cumberland Community Improvement District. The county hopes to have the route established before the first pitch of 2017 in the Braves new stadium.
But the county’s Department of Transportation says federal grants may be available next year that would help communities buy low-emission electric vehicles to help improve air quality. The study might help put the county in better position to win a grant when new applications are accepted this fall.
“This is expanding the existing study to see if electric vehicles are feasible,” said commissioner Bob Ott, who represents the Cumberland area. “The feds require detailed information before you can even apply for the grant.”
A memo about the study says that doing it now would give Cobb a competitive advantage when applying for the grant. It said past grants favored applicants that had completed the study and had named a bus manufacturer.
“To ensure that Cobb Community Transit is well-positioned to submit a competitive proposal … the department recommends that CCT complete all analysis required to identify a bus manufacturer” before the Federal Transit Administration begins accepting applications, the memo says. It calls the potential for all-electric transit buses “a unique opportunity” for the county.
The study will include cost estimated for operations, list manufacturers providing the electric bus technology, and a list of communities currently operating those systems.
The circulator and a bridge crossing Interstate 285 — which would carry it and pedestrians — are two unknown costs that taxpayers will bear in relation to the new Braves stadium.
Combined, county taxpayers are spending more than $1 million on the circulator study and the bridge engineering. County officials want the bridge construction to be completed before the stadium opening.
In other county business Tuesday:
- The county approved hiring a deputy medical examiner and spending about $67,000 in equipment for that office.
- Commissioners held the first of two public hearings on proposed procedural changes to how private parks are permitted. County staff would like all private parks to go through a hearing process.
- Commissioners approved negotiations between the county and the South Cobb Redevelopment Authority for the issuance of bonds that would be backed by a special tax levied on businesses in the Six Flags area. The bond revenue would be used to fund redevelopment and infrastructure improvements.
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