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By David Pendered

The question of how to pay for transit remains a central stumbling block facing metro Atlanta leaders as they assemble a transportation package they can put on a ballot next year.

As the issue now is framed, the question is whether to pay up to $80 million into GRTA bus service by shifting money from the amount earmarked to help pay for other transit programs: MARTA; Atlanta’s BeltLine; and two future transit routes – one to Cumberland Mall and one toward Emory University.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed urged the Atlanta Region Transportation Roundtable to delay any decision. He called on members to deliberate the prospect of getting the state to pay into GRTA.

By David Pendered

Proposals to reduce funding for the Atlanta BeltLine, the Ga. 400/I-285 area, and transit lines to Emory University and Cumberland Mall are up for discussion at Thursday’s meeting of the Atlanta Region Transportation Roundtable.

These reductions are among more than $730 million in amendments proposed to the $6.14 billion draft project list the roundtable adopted last month. Almost $12 out of every $100 dollars in the draft list would be redirected, if the amendments are adopted into the referendum for the 1 percent transportation sales tax.

The proposed commuter rail line from Atlanta toward Macon also is back in play. Clayton County proposes to keep it alive with $20 million that would be trimmed from plans to develop Tara Boulevard into a major roadway.

By David Pendered

Emory University and its environs would benefit from the single largest transit investment that’s planned in the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation.

The route called the “Clifton Road Corridor” is earmarked to receive $700 million in sales tax funding. The new line would stretch 4.3 miles from MARTA’s Lindbergh Station to a proposed station at the junction of two CSX rail lines, near the corner of North Decatur and Clairmont roads.

The route would serve Emory, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a $250 million mixed use development started last summer by Cousins Properties and Gables Residential.

By David Pendered

Metro Atlanta does not have a clear picture of what sort of entity may be created to govern more than $3 billion in proposed transit investments that will be on the ballot in next year’s vote on a 1 percent transportation sales tax.

Cobb County Chairman Tim Lee cited the lack of clarity in governance as a reason Cobb wants to shift some funding from a proposed rail line, which would link MARTA’s Arts Center Station in Midtown with the Cumberland Mall area, to improving Windy Hill Road and establishing bus service from north Cobb to Midtown.

If any clarity is to come, it isn’t likely to arrive before the waning days of the 2012 state legislative session. State lawmakers could well take the entire session, possibly into April, to haggle over and adopt whatever recommendation comes from Gov. Nathan Deal’s Transit Governance Task Force.

By David Pendered

More than 40 homes and businesses across metro Atlanta will open their doors Saturday to display their solar energy devices.

The self-guided tour will provide a rare, up-close glimpse of the technology that is expected to contribute to the nation’s response to providing energy through renewable resources.

The Georgia Solar Energy Association sponsored a preview tour Friday, giving about 25 persons a sneak peak at the technology that ranges from rooftop devices at a downtown residential condo building to the solar powered vehicle chargers at Atlantic Station.

This story has been updated

By David Pendered

The role of local politics in regional transportation planning emerged Wednesday at the Atlanta Regional Roundtable, which is devising a project list that would be paid for with a proposed 1 percent sales tax.

Three major amendments were formally introduced, and each involves transit. A fourth amendment involving Atlanta’s BeltLine would complete an East-West connection through the city, along North Avenue, linking two proposed segments of the BeltLine with a streetcar.

Here are the highlights of proposals involving Atlanta, Clayton, Cobb and DeKalb counties. The roundtable is to consider them at its meeting Oct. 6:

By David Pendered

The final round of planning for Atlanta’s downtown Gulch is to begin in earnest before the end of the year.

The state is moving forward with its effort to redevelop the Gulch, even though a presumed anchor tenant – commuter rail between Atlanta and Macon – is not now earmarked in the draft list of projects for the proposed 1 cent transportation sales tax voters will consider next year. The Atlanta Regional Roundtable is to approve a final list by Oct. 15.

The state’s idea for the Gulch is to have the private sector lead the redevelopment of 119 acres that have defied renewal efforts for decades. A contract with a development team is to be signed as early as the end of this week, said David Spear, a spokesman of the state Department of Transportation.