Newspaper Page Text
What’s in It for Us?
ACC Hopes for Control
If T-SPLOST Is Approved
Athens-Clarke county "fared really well"
in the projects list that will be built if voters
pass the T-SPLOST regional one-cent transpor
tation tax, commissioners were told last week.
Athens would get a "balanced* list of projects,
ranging from "transit to airport to bikes,"
Transportation and Public Works Director David
Clark told commissioners—yet most money
will go for road projects, including two new
exits onto the Loop 10 bypass. Commissioners
haven't voted to endorse the tax (which must
pass overall in our 12-county region, not
county-by-county), but may decide to do so.
Commissioner Alice Kinman, who served
on the regional "roundtable" that picked the
projects, noted that the Clarke County projects
were not new; all had already been planned
for eventual construction. "We didn't make
up any projects for this," she said, and she
pointed out that ACC is in a good position to
put the tax money to good use, having been
proactive in transportation planning. Kinman
praised one of the projects—$15 million
worth of road-widening between the quarry
and the Loop on Winterville Road, which Clark
said is intended to provide d more direct
route" for asphalt trucks. Kinman described
the plan for the road as "kind of beautiful,"
with medians and bike lanes.
If the tax passes, bike lanes will be added
to Prince Avenue, North Avenue (inside the
Bypass) and Lexington Road (outside the
Bypass). So far, the project that has gener
ated the most public interest is Prince, Clark
said. Bike lanes would be added for its entire
length (widening the street where necessary),
and he's heard "a lot of concern, a lot of worry
about exactly how those bike lanes will be put
on that corridor."
Clarke said he hopes ACC staffers—and not
the Georgia Department of Transportation-
will be allowed to design the local projects.
He is optimistic that they will, because he
said GDOT is not equipped to manage all the
new projects that could be funded under
the new tax, if it passes in the 12-county
Northeast Georgia region or other regions of
the state on July 31.
In ACC, a new Loop 10 interchange will
be built halfway between Tallassee Road and
Atlanta Highway to alleviate Atlanta Highway
congestion, and a new four-lane Jennings Mill
Parkway would connect Commerce Boulevard
to Jennings Mill Road, creating another new
Loop interchange. Congested Mars Hill Road
in Oconee county would be widened, so would
Simonton Bridge Road in that county. Similar
projects would be built in other regional
counties.
The new one-cent tax would raise ACC
sales taxes to 8 percent. The T-SPLOST tax has
been endorsed by the Athens Area Chamber of
Commerce and BikeAthens, but it is opposed
statewide by the Sierra Club, which says the
plan gives "sprawl-inducing" road projects pri
ority over transit alternatives.
Legislators also included a cut in funds to
the counties in regions that don't pass the
new tax: matching-money requirements for
local roads would jump to 30 percent, instead
of 10 percent."”
"If voters here decide not to pass it, we're
getting punished," commissioner Ed Robinson
said. "The state doesn't want to collect any
taxes. They don't want to be responsible, *
essentially, to do anything. So, they're trying
to force local people to vote for taxes."
. John Huie
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