The Atlanta Regional Roundtable met on October 11th to discuss and vote on the amendments that were tabled at the October 6th meeting. The amendments and the actions the Roundtable took on each are as follows:
Amendment 2 – Add the Atlanta to Griffin complete commuter rail project at $350 million by reducing the scope of all other transit projects by 10%. This amendment was withdrawn by the author, Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell.
Amendment 7 – Increase funding for I-20 East transit by $83 million (updated amount) and reduce amount allocated to SR 400/I-285, the SR 400 collector-distributor lane project and the Clifton Corridor project. The second to this amendment given by Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves was withdrawn, therefore taking this amendment off of the table. No further action will be taken.
Amendment 9 – Preserve existing Xpress bus service by having Cobb, Gwinnett and MARTA pick up routes in their jurisdictons and take the remainder from MARTA state of good repair. This amendment was changed slightly prior to the vote. Essentially, 11 Xpress bus routes will be picked up by Cobb, Gwinnett and MARTA (DeKalb routes), leaving a gap in capital funding of approximately $33 million. A resolution was passed by the Roundtable encouraging ARC to commit up to $33 million in future federal funds through a future TIP/RTP update and the state to contribute funding to close the gap. This amendment passed unanimously. For more details about this amendment click here.
Amendment 10 – Preserve existing Xpress bus service by reducing Operations and Maintenance budgets for the Beltline, Clifton Corridor and Northwest Corridor projects to total $80 million. This amendment was withdrawn by the author, Henry County Commission Chairman BJ Mathis.
The final meeting will take place on October 13th in the ARC Board Room. The final project list including the amendments that have been passed to date will be voted on by the full Roundtable. This list of projects will be up for consideration by voters in the metro region on July 31, 2012.