If metro Atlanta voters approve a 1 percent sales tax for transportation projects in six weeks, it could yield more no-strings-attached cash for transportation projects than some local jurisdictions have ever seen.
The proposed tax would set aside 15 percent of the more than $7 billion total, a projected $1 billion over a decade, for small, local transportation projects. Cities and counties are free to decide how to spend their share.
If current plans hold up, the discretionary cash could repave dinged-up neighborhoods in Fayette County, extend turn lanes in Gwinnett County, lay pedestrian crossings in Little Five Points and install more than 180 miles of sidewalks in DeKalb County. Across 10 counties of metro Atlanta, leaders are trying to figure out how they would divvy up the money.
Huge chunks of cash could be spent on repaving: as much as $58.5 million over 10 years in Gwinnett County alone, for example. Cherokee County could spend $9 million just fixing intersections. The budgets for sidewalks in Cobb County could balloon more than $20 million. And that’s just a fraction of what each of those counties would get to spend.
In some cases, plans have not been hashed out. Jurisdictions that have formulated to-do lists could change the project line-ups before the tax ends.
But where planning has been done, it is already clear that the small-scale tax projects, coupled with bigger ones, could touch millions of people on a daily basis. Atlanta, for example, estimates that 92 percent of city residents would live within a half-mile of a project to be funded by the tax.
A proposed new sidewalk in Wyatt Gordon’s neighborhood is one such project. Gordon, who lives in the Underwood Hills neighborhood in west Atlanta, said building a new sidewalk near a park and playground around the corner from his house would help keep kids and parents safe from cut-through traffic and speeders on Harper Street. That item landed on Atlanta’s list of small projects.
“That was our highest priority,” Gordon said. “It’s a heavily pedestrian area — moms and dads with strollers, bicycles, people walking to and from the park.”
It’s not all about speed
If voters approve the tax, 85 percent of the money raised would go toward regional transportation projects that have already been approved by a regional roundtable. Much of that $6.14 billion would be aimed at moving cars and trucks more rapidly through the region.
Some of the remaining 15 percent would also do that — fixing intersections, filling potholes, improving safety. By contrast, some of that money could be spent on slowing cars down, or at least making drivers more aware of pedestrians and bicycle riders.
Cobb County, for example, plans to install high-tech “HAWK” crossings, complete with lights, in the south Cobb community near Six Flags Park so pedestrians can get around safely. “Very much needed,” said Faye DiMassimo, the county’s transportation director.
A sample of the proposed projects around the metro region:
● About $7.5 million over 10 years for vouchers covering CCT Paratransit in Cobb County, a service to help seniors and disabled residents get to work or doctors’ appointments.
● Atlanta plans to use part of its $9 million per year for discretionary projects to install new midblock crossing for pedestrians, complete with a pedestrian-actuated flashing beacon or traffic signal, on Moreland Avenue in Little Five Points. The crossing near the Junkman’s Daughter, Stratosphere Skateboards and Vortex Bar & Grill would encourage drivers to stop for pedestrians within the crosswalk. “That would be great,” said Dr. Richard Shapiro, former president of the Little Five Points Business Association. “I don’t think there’s a place in the city with so many pedestrians coming through.”
● Intersection improvements and turn lanes on Lawrenceville Highway’s intersection with Sugarloaf Parkway and Lawrenceville Suwanee Road in Gwinnett County, where morning and afternoon traffic is known to back up. Gwinnett also has plans for similar projects on parts of Cruse Road and Ga. 124, as well as widening and turn lanes on stretches of Ga. 324.
● The Princeton Chase subdivision in Fayette County near Ga. 314 is a likely candidate for resurfacing, county officials said.
● Bicycle advocates say bike lanes along DeKalb Avenue from the Inman Park-Reynoldstown MARTA station out to Atlanta’s border with Decatur would help maker riders safer. “DeKalb [Avenue] is the perfect street for biking, except that it’s currently terrible,” said Rebecca Serna of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. “It’s dangerous. You have such high speeds.”
The smaller projects are not immune to the general controversy over whether the 10-year tax is a good idea.
Lawrenceville retiree David Jones, who drives often into Midtown Atlanta to volunteer at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, said he was disappointed that so much money would go to repaving roads across Gwinnett.
“Not that it’s not needed, but that doesn’t get me anywhere quicker,” Jones said. “I would have preferred to see additional lanes. I would like to see more flow improvements than paving projects.”
A patchwork of priorities
Several metro Atlanta jurisdictions have compiled lists of projects to be paid for by the discretionary cash, while others say they don’t plan on creating lists before the July 31 vote. That step is not required by law.
“We’ve always indicated that we think having a list funded by the 15 percent is important for voters to know,” said Paul Bennecke, a strategist for the pro-tax campaign. “I think that’s a very good thing — knowing the full scope of what this referendum will do.”
Some opponents of the tax say they fear the 15 percent discretionary funds would be ill spent. Clint Stamps of DeKalb County, who owns a business that operates on Riverview Road in Cobb County, said tax projects on the road near the Chattahoochee River should be paid for by developers, not taxpayers.
“I think it’s going to be pure chaos,” Stamps said of the discretionary funds. “There are things on this list that should probably be done. There are other things that would be slaps in the taxpayers’ faces.”
Cities and counties all over the region hope to spend major chunks of their discretionary money on paving local roads. Fayette County, for example, says it plans to use up to 20 percent of its money paving. Like many jurisdictions, it hasn’t listed the exact roads.
DeKalb County grades its roads every year and should be resurfacing about 100 miles of streets to stay on top of that list. The county, though, can afford to pave only about 40 miles of roadways annually.
The $12 million that DeKalb would get annually if the tax passes would bump that figure up to 80 miles a year. It also would help it build 185 miles of sidewalks to fill in gaps where existing sidewalks don’t connect, said county spokesman Burke Brennan.
“The most critical roads will get milling, resurfacing, curbs and other work,” Brennan said. “But for the lion’s share, it will mean we remove the bad parts and resurface more roads.”
As Atlanta and other jurisdictions assembled their list of local projects, few petitioners got everything they wanted. Ed McBrayer, executive director of the PATH Foundation, said most of the items on his group’s original wish list — including an extension of the Silver Comet Trail all the way into downtown Atlanta — were shot down. But he’s still a supporter of the referendum.
“We had some really good projects on the list that didn’t make the cut,” McBrayer said. “At the same time, I think there’s enough meat on these bones to make it worthwhile and a ‘yes’ vote.”
With their share of the money, many smaller cities would have a steady stream to use as the 20 percent match on federal grants. That means new money for lingering projects, such as building more sidewalks and bike trails connecting MARTA stations to neighborhoods in Chamblee and Doraville. Those plans have been on the books for years, but neither city has enough money to buy right of way, plant trees and resurface streets.
“We have to stick to our vision parcel by parcel, block by block, year by year,” Chamblee Mayor Eric Clarkson said of the 12-year-old plan to link both sides of a city bisected by busy Peachtree Boulevard, using bike and walking paths.
The transportation tax money would accelerate plans like those, as well as kick-start the $27.8 million wish list that Decatur created but has no other money to tackle. The city could plow through at least half of its project list, even though it would get just $3.6 million over the decade, if it wins grants for that work.
A plan to square off Decatur’s Atlanta Avenue railroad crossing, for example, is expected to cost as much as $4 million, almost a quarter of the city’s $18 annual budget. But Decatur could use $400,000 of its transportation tax cash if it secures a grant, as expected, toward the $2 million first phase, said Amanda Thompson, Decatur’s planning director.
That work would help drivers through the intersection and also ease bike and pedestrian traffic on the nearby PATH trail, which students use every day to get to schools on both sides of the tracks.
“Everybody will benefit from that project,” Thompson said. “In the past, the city would take that money out of the general fund, and that meant no other roads were being paved, no other playground equipment was being replaced. This way, it’s for everybody.”
Staff writers Ariel Hart and Paige Cornwell contributed to this article.
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What it means
The $1 billion that the transportation tax could raise for small, local projects over the next decade could go toward a range of projects, including sidewalk repairs, safer pedestrian crossings, repaving and upgraded intersections. Some of the key projects:
Cobb County: CCT Paratransit driver Ronald Manacchio helps passenger Retha Taylor alight at one of her stops. The county has marked the program for more funds.
Atlanta: In Little Five Points, a popular destination with a lot of foot traffic, the city wants to make busy Moreland Avenue a more pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare.
Gwinnett County: One spot that would get priority is the intersection of Lawrenceville Highway and Sugarloaf Parkway, on the outskirts of Lawrenceville.
Fayette County: Officials mention the streets of Princeton Chase subdivision as likely candidates for improvement if the regional tax hike passes. But Fayette, unlike some other counties, still has no official list of local projects it wants to pursue.
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