Category: David Pendered

Denver, a role model for metro Atlanta’s proposed transportation sales tax, is running into some problems with its own transit construction program.

A funding shortfall prompted Denver’s transit leaders to privatize almost a third of the region’s planned 122-mile transit system, plus work on 15 stations including the hub – Denver Union Station. National media stories in recent weeks have addressed current funding woes and construction delays.

These sorts of issues are just part of the territory when it comes to building one of the nation’s most ambitious transportation projects, a spokeswoman for Denver’s FasTracks said Monday. But they do bear attention as metro Atlanta voters consider creating a 1 percent sales tax to pay for road and transit improvements.

Congress and the Obama administration have made it clear that Georgians will vote July 31 on the proposed transportation sales tax with no clue as to how much money the federal government may pay to support the projects.

This news is significant in metro Atlanta. The 10-county region is counting on the federal government to pay nearly 12 percent of the total $7.1 billion cost (in today’s dollars) of the road and transit projects to be built if voters approve a 1 percent sales tax for transportation.

Without the federal funding, it seems unlikely that all projects will be completed. Neither a contingency plan, nor a priority list of projects, was part of the recommendation from the Atlanta Regional Roundtable, the group of 21 elected officials that created the construction list.

Methane gas captured in a landfill in DeKalb County will be transformed into fuel for vehicles at a futuristic facility where the ceremonial ribbon was cut Monday.

This example of renewable bio-fuel is just the sort of technology that was hoped for by participants of the first Earth Day, in 1970. Sunday marks the 42nd celebration of an event that now involves millions of people in at least 192 countries.

DeKalb’s new facility, which will create compressed natural gas from the methane gas, joins another methane recovery operation at the county’s Seminole Road Landfill. The first recovery facility captures methane for use by Georgia Power, which burns it to drive turbines that create electricity.

MARTA has raised the stakes for passage of the proposed transportation sales tax in DeKalb County.

MARTA’s board of directors did what the Atlanta Regional Roundtable could not muster the votes to do – approve a plan that would create a unified rail system in south DeKalb that would include enhanced bus service along I-20, but more importantly extend heavy rail service from Indian Creek Station to the Mall at Stonecrest.

Talk about a political imbroglio for voters in south DeKalb.

The proposed deepening of the Savannah Harbor received a major boost today in the form of documents released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The studies released today show the cost would be about $652 million to deepen the Savannah River shipping channel by five feet, to 47 feet. The economic impact of the expected increase in trade would amount to $174 million a year, nationwide.

In a related development, the South Carolina Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a dispute over a state water quality permit that would allow the dredging of the shipping channel, according to a report by the Associated Press. The court’s decision to take the case will fast track a final ruling in a matter that would have been appealed up from lower courts.

Last year, more than 4,800 pre-owned medical devices such as wheelchairs and hospital beds were provided at little to no cost to the disabled by a non-profit organization that works from a warehouse near Stone Mountain.

Like many non-profits, FODAC does its work out of the public limelight. But to those in the reuse industry, including Bill Bolling, the founder and CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, FODAC is well known and serves a need that is likely to grow as government service is reduced.

“As we look at less government and less government support, we in turn have got to say, ‘What does the private sector response look like?’,” Bolling said. “FODAC is an example of the creativity, and ingenuity, and commitment where we can really make a difference through the private sector.”

MARTA’s board of directors took the first formal step Monday toward applying for federal funding for two new rail lines and enhanced bus service along I-20 from downtown Atlanta into central DeKalb County.

The board designated the three routes as “locally preferred alternatives.” The designation allows MARTA to submit funding requests to the Federal Transit Administration.

The realpolitiks of MARTA’s action are unclear. For starters, Congress hasn’t been able to agree on transportation funding since 2009, when it last passed a transportation bill. In addition, DeKalb County Commissioner Lee May said the action doesn’t satisfy concerns of constituents who want rail service extended into south DeKalb – and have vowed to vote “No” on the transportation sales tax referendum on July 31 because it provides only enhanced bus service in their region.

One big question that arose last autumn was who would be the face of the campaign for the 1 percent sales tax for transportation that will be on the July 31 ballot in the 10-county metro Atlanta region.

The answer, so far, is: No one.

Two TV ads have been released and neither shows a living creature. Both are comprised solely of computer-generated graphics.

There’s no snippet of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on the stump, as he was for the recent successful campaign to extend a sales tax for the city’s sewer upgrades. No comments from Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson, whose skill in presiding over the Atlanta Regional Roundtable resulted in its unanimous vote to create the $6.14 billion list of projects to be paid for with the sales tax.

There’s not even an avatar of anyone involved with the campaign.

The Atlanta BeltLine is evolving quickly into a name-brand transit system that could serve thousands of streetcar riders and untold numbers of cyclists and pedestrians by the end of this decade.

That’s partly because the name “BeltLine” has become shorthand for four proposed streetcar projects to be paid for through the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation. Just half of the 10-plus mile streetcar system would be built in the BeltLine corridor, but its linkage to the BeltLine has earned it a BeltLine tagline.

The way several BeltLine officials explain it, this evolving view of the BeltLine results from its central role in Atlanta’s ongoing efforts to improve mobility in the region’s urban core.

“We are pursuing an aggressive, integrated strategy to build out the transit network in the City of Atlanta over the next 10 years,” said Ethan Davidson, spokesman for the BeltLine.

It’s now clear that the vote in metro Atlanta on the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation will occur with few clues from the federal government about its intention to pay for 12 percent of the work.

Federal funding now is in the region’s budget to pay for almost $847 million of the projects that are to be completed if voters approve the 10-year sales tax, which is to raise $6.14 billion in local dollars. The federal money appears throughout the region’s construction list.

But Congress did not pass a federal transportation bill last week, in advance of the March 31 expiration of the previous continuation funding bill. President Obama on Friday signed a 90-day continuation bill, which had been approved by the House and Senate, to forestall a shutdown of federally funded highway and transit projects.

The Atlanta Regional Commission on Wednesday took a formal step toward determining if it can create a transit governance system to serve the region until the Legislature creates one of its liking.

The ARC board voted unanimously Wednesday to seek proposals from law firms to determine the boundaries of the ARC’s authority to oversee regional transit. Legislation on the issue that was proposed by Gov. Nathan Deal’s Transit Governance Task Force failed in the 2012 session.

The ARC’s vote affirms a request for action from its Regional Transit Committee, which the ARC describes as a policy committee focused on transit planning, funding and governance.

A baker’s dozen of community leaders serve on the boards of two campaigns to promote passage of this summer’s vote on a proposed 1 percent sales tax that is to raise $6.14 billion to build roads and transit.

The two campaigns are run by two distinct organizations. Both MAVEN and Citizens for Transportation Mobility, Inc. are set up with the Secretary of State as non-profit corporations, and one is registered as a fund-raising committee with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.

The campaign strategy is for MAVEN to educate voters through April. CTM then will start a persuasion campaign to convince voters to actually go to the polls during the July 31 primary election and support the referendum.

The Georgia sheriff who cracked the case of the stolen statue of Brer Rabbit has come out with a last ditch effort against a proposal pending in the Legislature that is strongly supported by Gov. Nathan Deal and ranking lawmakers.

Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills says the alternative sentencing bill that’s due for a vote Monday in the state Senate is soft on crime and will shift the cost of lawbreakers from the state to counties. The House unanimously approved the bill.

To fight the bill, Sills has distributed an email filled with the sort of rousing language he deployed in August. At that time, the sheriff vowed to throw the law book at thieves who stole a statue of Brer Rabbit from the front yard of the Uncle Remus Museum, in Eatonton.

A $2.8 million renovation project approved Monday for the Brunswick port could help Caterpillar export machines to overseas markets from its future plant near Athens, which broke ground last week.

The Georgia Ports Authority approved an array of improvements to roads, bridges, staging areas, and rail loading and offloading areas at the Colonel’s Island terminal. The facility is designed to handle autos and machine parts.

Caterpillar’s new plant in Oconee County is the latest step in the company’s long-term strategy to grow its position in Asia’s booming construction industry. Caterpillar intends to focus its plants in Asia on meeting demand in Asia, and use two new plants in the U.S. to service markets in the Americas and Europe.

Environmentalists have won a battle against a coal gasification power plant in Mississippi, but a Southern Co. unit announced plans to continue construction of that plant pending review by the state’s utilities commission.

The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed last week the approval of state permits for a coal gasification plant that’s being built at the headwaters of the Pascagoula River system. The plan is to create a 14,000-acre strip mine to extract lignite, a soft brown coal. The coal would be converted to a synthetic gas used to fuel the power plant being built at the site, according to several reports.

The court ruling in Mississippi follows two recent actions in Georgia on coal-fueled plants. One of them halted construction of a coal-fired plant in Early County. Another proposed plant, this one near Sandersville, may have been hobbled by operational changes being made by one investor.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a two-year federal transportation bill that protects transit and other surface transportation programs, and moves the funding debate to the House, where its future evidently is unclear.

The Senate bill has strong implications for the upcoming transportation sales tax referendum in Georgia. Federal transportation funding has been earmarked to help pay for projects that are on the project lists that voters will face on the July 31 ballot.

The Senate version is significantly different from a proposal in the House that has stalled amidst opposition. Among the critics of the House bill is MARTA’s board of directors, which voted last month to adopt a resolution opposing the bill on grounds that it would jeopardize MARTA’s ability to serve its customers, as well as all transit systems nationwide.

Will Shirley Franklin help with the conversion of Fort McPherson to civilian use?

That was the question posed by a handful of hopeful community leaders right after a development team was selected Tuesday by unanimous vote of the state authority overseeing the fort’s conversion. The team is comprised of two Atlanta-based companies, Cousins Properties and Integral Group, and is being led by Cleveland-based Forest City.

Franklin does have a record of coordinating the community engagement aspect of major developments. She honed those skills while creating the participation programs for women and minorities as a senior policy advisor with the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games.

Fort McPherson’s long waltz toward redevelopment for civilian use may take its pause Tuesday, if the fort’s state oversight authority votes to enter negotiations with a firm to retool the site.

The authority may vote to sign a deal with a joint venture that includes Cousins Properties. That said, the Cousins team got the nod from a review committee earlier this month but the state authority balked, deferring action until at least Tuesday in order to review written responses from the Cousins team and its rival joint venture, which includes Atlanta-based Carter.

One clear winner in the redevelopment process that started in 2005 is a team of Georgia Tech students, community activists and Georgia Stand-Up. This joint venture completed its own Fort McPherson Community Action Plan that has won two awards – one this month from the American Planning Association and one last autumn from APA’s Georgia chapter.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed this morning signed a set of contracts with companies that will provide food and beverages to passengers at Atlanta’s airport, ending this phase of a process that started more than a year ago.

The signing of contracts does not mean the end of controversy over the airport concessions contracts. Companies that did not get a contract may still file a lawsuit contesting the city’s handling of the contracts. Several administrative appeals remain pending at City Hall.

Reed evidently signed the contracts minutes after he told reporters an an unrelated event that a Fulton County judge had denied one or more motions requesting a restraining order to prevent the mayor from signing the contracts.

A Wal-Mart, with a grocery, that’s been long-awaited in Atlanta’s Historic Westside Village is slated to open in January 2013, bringing 200 jobs and relieving a food desert west of the Georgia Dome, Atlanta Councilman Ivory Lee Young, Jr. said Sunday.

The project is viewed as a tremendous boon to the neighborhood, which faces hard times despite its historic legacy. Local leaders are now promoting the adjoining Sunset Avenue Historic District as a tourist destination, with its collection of sites where early Atlantans settled, and where civil rights leaders met.

Meanwhile, in Decatur, plans for a Wal-Mart continue in the face of opposition by some residents. Selig Enterprises intends to build a supercenter with 149,130 square feet that will be flanked by out parcels providing an additional 175,000 square feet of commercial space, according to Selig’s site plan.

At Historic Westside Village, Wal-Mart has acquired all the retail structures and vacant property, Young said. The Wal-Mart will be developed at the site of a former Publix grocery. An affiliate of H.R. Russell and Co., which developed condos nearby and once intended to develop the retail sector, is no longer in the retail deal, Young said.