Transportation Projects To Be Discussed by Phone

Cobb residents will be able to hear Kennesaw Mayor Mark Mathews and county Commission Chairman Tim Lee discuss possible area transportation projects Tuesday night when they receive calls to their personal phones.

One item of discussion: a regional light rail system.

More than 170,000 county residents will be called at random through an automated system to participate in the one-hour forum, which starts at 7:15 p.m., according to a news release from the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Residents who do not receive a call but wish to participate in the town hall meeting are asked to call a toll-free number that will be posted at http://www.atlantaregionalroundtable.com/meetings.html.

Participants who stay on the line will be able to ask questions and share input with Lee and Mathews about their transportation wants and needs and projects that could be funded if a penny sales tax referendum passes next summer.

The regional sales tax——stems from the Georgia Transportation Investment Act of 2010, which enabled 12 regions across the state to collect funding for transportation projects. If passed, the tax is estimated to generate about $10 billion over the next 10 years.

The referendum goes on the ballot in July 2012.

“Mayor Mathews and I look forward to speaking with potentially thousands of our friends and neighbors at one time,” Lee says in the release. “Our goal is to learn what regional and local projects will help Cobb residents most.”

Mathews, who represents Cobb County mayors on the 21-person Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable, discussed the possibility of a light rail system during a  last month.

“It’s a very complicated and big issue,” he said. “There are all kinds of penalties in place if we turn it down, but the state’s saying ‘let the voters decide,’ and I agree with that. I think the voters need to decide, but I think the hardest task is going to be educating the voters to make sure they know what they’re voting for.”

Business and government leaders at the Cobb Galleria Centre to discuss the proposed Metro Atlanta Northern Crescent Transit, which would connect existing MARTA rail lines and extend into Cobb, north Fulton and Gwinnett counties.

A 2008 survey conducted by McKinsey & Company found that by investing $26 to $46 billion in transportation infrastructure, Georgia could increase its gross domestic product by $114 billion and create 230,000 jobs over the next 20 years.

“As (Atlanta Mayor) Kasim Reed said, this is the biggest public works project we have ever considered in the state of Georgia,” Tad Leithead, chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission, said at Wednesday's meeting. “The Olympics was $1.8 billion in economic impact. This is three times that at least.”

Tuesday's call with Cobb residents is part of a series of telephone meetings that will reach out to more than one million residents across the 10-county Atlanta region over the course of six days.