December 05, 2008
When the Georgia Regional Transportation was created in 1999 by Gov. Roy Barnes it had a daunting mandate – clean up the Atlanta region's air, ease the congestion and have land use work in concert with the first two elements of the mandate -- but no budget and hardly any staff.
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The Al Nash File
• Partner and Executive Vice President of The Columns Group, Inc., one of metro Atlanta's most respected and successful residential and commercial real estate development firms.
• 35 years experience in real estate brokerage, development and marketing.
• Former chairman of the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce
• Chairman-elect of The Council for Quality Growth, a consortium of developers, architects, contractor, bankers and others involved in the development business who want balanced and sustainable growth
• Chairman of the Regional Business Coalition, an organization of 16 Metro Atlanta chambers of commerce.
• Recently appointed to the Board of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority by Gov. Sonny Perdue.
• A native of Atlantan now living in Roswell with his wife Judy |
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Local and state agencies cast a wary eye as well. GRTA was impinging on some serious turf, and brought nothing to the table. Almost nothing. Unlike the Atlanta Regional Commission, GRTA is a planning agency with some teeth. It has the power to withhold state and federal transportation dollars.
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Ga. Regional Transportation Authority
At A Glance
FORMED: 1999 by Gov. Roy Barnes
MISSION: Improve the Atlanta region's mobility, air quality and land use
BOARD MAKEUP: 15 members appointed by the governor representing 13 counties
MISSION: Assist the Governor's Office to create transportation policies while working with other state agencies to prioritize transportation plans and programs. |
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GRTA has yet to bare those teeth, but as it approaches its 10th year as an agency, it has made inroads to improve transportation and mobility.
Real estate developer Al Nash is the newest GRTA appointee (replacing North Fulton Chamber of Commerce President Brandon Beach who was bumped up to the Ga. Department of Transportation Board), but Nash is no novice traveling in these circles. He is chairman-elect for the Council on Quality Growth and is the current chairman of the Regional Business Council, the organization of metro chambers of commerce.
"When GRTA was created there was not a lot of cooperation among the Ga. Department of Transportation, the ARC, MARTA and GTA. But money is short these days, and everybody is talking to each other these days," said Nash.
"We need to maximize the payback on infrastructure investment. It can't be so fragmented the way it was in the past. Today, there is more coordination with the other planning agencies."
State revenues are down, the economy is in retreat and both the government and the people are demanding to see "the need" of projects.
"So there will be more transparency in projects. You're going to see more strategic initiatives with quantifiable measures that will show that the best projects are going forward," Nash said. "The tendency before was to spread the wealth so that everybody got something. We can't afford that approach anymore."
The agencies know this as well, and to get a slice of the shrinking pie, it pays to have fellow agencies in your court. Nash says there will be more of an eye for feasibility, most pie in the sky projects will be put aside with little prospect of ever seeing them move forward in the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, GRTA is focusing on mobility without adding pavement. Its Express buses now connect with the regional bus services of MARTA, Cobb Community Transit, Gwinnett County Transit and Clayton Transit.
Now GRTA has organized these mostly intra-county bus systems so that a rider can buy one ticket and ride say from Lawrenceville to Marietta on that one purchase.
"Ridership on the 60 Xpress buses are up, no doubt a factor of the recent rise in gas prices. But it shows transit is a popular way for commuters to get around," Nash said.
Xpress has 28 routes with 1.8 million passengers carried in fiscal year 2008. In July Xpress averaged 11,000 riders daily. GRTA is also spearheading a 48 van-pool program to provide transit from the bus nodes so that passengers can ride all the way to work.
Ga. 400 and Ga. 141 through Johns Creek are targeted corridors that feed thousands of workers to offices.
Land use is now a featured part of strategic transportation planning. Development drives transportation needs, so it does not make sense to make plans for one without considering the other, yet this was the things were done for years.
To move forward, however, additional funding sources will be needed, Nash said.
"That may mean some kind of additional tax or public-private partnership," he said.
A key element was the passage of the constitutional amendment this November to allow tax allocation districts. This amendment will allow projects like the Atlanta Beltway to forward using taxes collected from the development itself to pay off infrastructure bonds.
Another key element will to develop Atlanta as a key distribution point for and expanding port of Savannah.
"The widening of the Panama Canal will be complete in 2013, and we need to position Atlanta to be a place where more goods come here for distribution of imports across the country," Nash said. "To take advantage of that opportunity, we are going to need bold, strong leadership. Hartsfield [International Airport] is a big economic engine, but so is Savannah."
That means more freight by rail, and Atlanta has a lot of infrastructure to receive those imports, but it needs more.
Nash says there are reasons for optimism. He notes Brandon Beach's appointment to the GA. DOT Board as the 6th District representative is a positive step for the district, and he called MARTA's new manager "a breath of fresh air."
"Brandon is familiar with the needs of the whole region – Cherokee, Cobb, North Fulton and Forsyth. He is a good communicator and will help keep the planning agencies talking," he said.
Meanwhile, local Community Improvement Districts – commercial areas where commercial property owners tax themselves extra to fund infrastructure improvements – are looking at small bus routes to tie into the larger grid.
"The whole submarket needs to coordinate more," Nash said. "I've already been talking with local transportation directors along those lines.
"I'm excited about the opportunities that are out there. And now is the time to plan for the future – the future of Georgia and that of our grandchildren."
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