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Time:
1:30 PM until 3:30 PM
Location:
The Griffin Regional Welcome Center
ATTENDEES:
See Attachment 1
1. Introductions
Steve Roberts opened the meeting.
He welcomed attendees and informed the participants that he is the
Project Manager for Georgia Rail Consultant (GRC), explaining that GRC is the
Program Manager under contract to the three state agencies responsible for
implementing the Georgia Rail Passenger Program (GRPP).
The agencies are the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), Georgia
Rail Passenger Authority (GRPA), and Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA). He introduced Hal Wilson, Administrator Intermodal Programs
for Georgia Department of Transportation and Doug Alexander, Rail Manager of
Georgia Rail Passenger Authority.
Mr. Wilson welcomed all participants.
He indicated it was the first meeting for the Macon Corridor Local
Advisor Committee (MACLAC). He reiterated that the Georgia Rail Passenger Program is
represented by three state agencies, Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT),
Georgia Rail Passenger Authority (GRPA) and Georgia Regional Transportation
Authority (GRTA). He also stated
that Georgia Rail Consultants (GRC) is the Program Manager for all three
agencies.
Doug Alexander welcomed the attendees and
stated that the three agencies are here to help them so, they can in turn help
the three agencies make the program a reality.
Mr. Roberts requested the attendees to
introduce themselves and the organization they represented. He referenced the handout material and asked that each
participant fill out the meeting comment card that was provided inside the
material. He informed the
participants that each comment card would be addressed with a response.
2.
MACLAC Role and Operation
Steve Roberts
referenced the hand out material adopted by the Program Management Team (PMT)
describing the role and operation of the Macon Corridor Local Advisor Committee
(MACLAC).
3.
Update
of Georgia Rail Passenger Program
Steve Roberts
continued the presentation by reviewing the Georgia Rail Passenger Program
Update slides, starting with formal organization of GRPP, through a description
of the Path to the Present – 1 slide, that shows how and when the
Georgia Rail
Passenger Program was formed and then following with specific reference to the
selected Locally Preferred Alternative of Rail Passenger Service on the S-Line
and Express Buses on I-75, the locations of the enroute stations on the Macon
Line, as well as the outlook for cooperation with localities in station area
development, a corridor plan for enhanced grade crossing safety and ending with
a discussion of the adopted concept for the Multi-Modal Passenger Terminal
adjacent to MARTA’s Five Points Station,.
4.
Review of Station Site Acquisition and
Development Guidelines
Steve Roberts
referenced the presentation by reviewing the Draft GRPP Station Policy – 1:
·
State responsible for location and
environmental clearance of stations
·
Funding for acquisition, design &
construction of basic station facilities
·
State will plan and consult with affected
localities to maximize community input
·
Basic design includes:
o
ADA compliant platform and signage
o
Canopy or shelter
o
Fare, Communications, related equipment
o
Parking sufficient for rail and bus patronage
Steve continued the
presentation with the Station design guidelines slide:
·
Draft being prepared for circulation to the
Local Advisory Committee
·
Will cover the specifics of basic station
requirements and invite local funded amenities.
He continued by
showing slides that showed different Station designs and continuation of the
guidelines:
·
State will coordinate with planned development
around station sites
·
State will work with localities to locate
platforms to minimize conflict with at-grade highway crossings
·
State will favorably consider added design
expense and development around / connecting to station if locality arranges for
added funding
·
Land or other in-kind donations by localities
or private parties can count towards cost of added facilities
5.
Short-term implementation activities
Steve referenced the PowerPoint
presentation slide and the handout of the PMT-adopted Macon Local Advisory
Committee “charter” to discuss these near-term activities: First, looking
toward an agenda and schedule of meetings that will be responsive to local
needs; Second, consider action of the Assessment of Stations at – risk to the
pressures of development: and, Third, an examination of the comprehensive plan
for each community to locate the station and to ensure that local plans achieve
the most leverage from the investment in rail passenger service.
6.
Participants’ Comments
Steve reiterated to the attendees the
importance of communicating with the program managers on what each community
would expect the MACLAC process to achieve.
He encouraged everyone to hand in the comment cards before they left the
meeting. Steve thanked all
attendees and opened the meeting to answer any questions.
7.
Public Comments
The following questions/comments were
raised:
Bob White, Executive
Director Henry County Development Authority:
·
What are the options on the stations
for local communities and what level of participation is expected?
The planned bond issues are intended to provide funding to
acquire each station site. Each community needs to address those sites in their
comprehensive plan. There is
TEA-21 High Priority Project (HPP) funding that will be available to fund the
station sites. It is very critical
for each city / county to know where the proposed site is located so that it can
be put into their comprehensive plan to preserve the sites from development.
The state is still working on the guidelines but it will be responsible
for putting in a platform and providing shelter.
Anything beyond that the city/county would be responsible for building.
Parking facilities will also be the responsibility of the state.
The Parking facilities are important because they should be maintained so
that everyone will be able to park at the facility, not just local residents.
The station sites are identified in the approved Environmental Analysis
and can be made available to anyone that would like to review the document.
It is available on the GRPP web site – www.garail.com
--- or agency or consultant staff can be contacted for the information.
Gary Freedman, Commissioner of Henry County:
·
How can funding be tapped into so, that
a developer cannot come in and buy the property from the private landowner?
Bond funds are not yet available for the program.
Therefore, each city/ county should strongly consider purchasing an
“endangered” station site. The
state could then acquire the property when funding is available.
Bob White, Executive
Director Henry County Development Authority:
·
Henry County has meet with GDOT and
GRTA about the station site but they are not sure how funding will be acquired
for an exit to the site. The
Georgia Department of Transportation has reviewed and addressed the issue and
will meet with Henry County to discuss this issue.
Paul Jossey, Mayor
City of Forsyth:
·
Has anything been done to close the
crossings? There
is an action plan being developed to address this issue.
There are 159 grade crossings; the action plan will identify how each
crossing will be addressed. The
next step will be to meet with the communities and discuss plans for each
crossing.
Martha McDaniel, Spalding County Commission:
·
Will the state fund the separations and
closings of the grade crossings? Yes,
The state is reviewing how to fund closing and/or separating the identified
grade crossings.
Emory Brock, Executive Director Clayton County Development
Authority:
·
Have the number of parking spaces been
determined at each site?
Yes, it was based on
ridership, with room for expansion. There
are no stations that have not been identified other than the Griffin station.
B. Frank Harris, Spalding County Planning Commission:
·
If the Grade crossings have been
identified, would it not be important to give the information to the city/county
so that it cannot be developed? Yes,
in the next steps, each community will be contacted to arrange a meeting to
identify the grade crossings and how the action plan will be implemented to
address enhanced safety at crossings.
·
Is there going to be a charge to park
in the parking facilities? No,
the current financial plan for operating the rail passenger service does not
anticipate a charge for commuter parking.
·
Is the parking facility going to be
secure? Overall design
criteria include an emphasis on safety and security. Each site will have
to be reviewed to see what kind of security, if any, will be necessary.
Steve Roberts
reintroduced Phil Carroll, Deputy MARTA Deputy General Manager for
Operations to discuss the introduction of new fare collection technology:
Mr. Carroll addressed MARTA’s fare
collection. MARTA will be
implementing a system that will use a Smart Card.
The card will allow for flexibility and transfer without having to pay a
second fare to transfer – seamless fare collection.
Angela Saxton,
Middle Georgia RDC:
·
Are there plans to shorten commute time
from Macon to Atlanta? Yes,
if express service is implemented it would bring the travel time down.
·
Is MARTA planning to expand its MARTA
lines into other metro areas? Yes,
MARTA is looking at three corridors. They
are West of Fulton Industrial Blvd, Georgia 400 on Windward Pkwy and South
Dekalb toward Interstate –20.
Doug
Alexander stated that the travel time on trains between Atlanta and Macon will
be valuable and can be used to catch up on sleep, relax or work. The cars may have wireless Internet access.
We need to recognize that traffic between Atlanta to Macon is only likely
to become more congested and slower.
Steve Kuni, COMAR/New
Town Macon:
Addressed the
questions of the commute time from Atlanta to Macon.
He stated that through research two issues were found.
One was the pricing of reasonable fares from Macon to Atlanta. The other
issue was the labor flow both into and out of Atlanta.
Its overall economic impact of the route rather than speed of travel.
Bob White, Executive Director Henry County Development
Authority:
·
Will there be any plans for reverse
commuting over time as need demands or will there be plans for it early in the
program? There
are no plans to provide reverse commuting options early in the program.
However, this option could be pursued once service is in place.
Jim O’Neal, Director of Henry County DOT:
·
Are the 2002 mandated routes on House
Bill 1348 federally funded? The
List of lines that were originally included in the GRPP are not federally
funded. The program itself is the
road map to the service. Intercity
lines are not presently eligible for federal funds.
Doug Alexander
referenced the Georgia Rail Passenger Program, Planned Intercity routes handout.
He discussed the five intercity lines and when they might come on-line as
the program advances.
8.
Communications and Meeting Schedule
·
Each city / county with rail station or grade
crossing involvement invited to appoint member and alternates
·
MACLAC designed to
o
Present the community views in the development
of the system and service
o
Facilitate the coordination and inclusion of
station sites and layover yards in local land use planning
o
Review grade crossing safety planning
·
MACLAC is advisory, but meetings are public
with opportunity for public comment, and formal minutes
In
closing the meeting, Hal Wilson reiterated the importance to the state agencies
and to the consultant to
fill-out the comment card.
There will be
a bi-monthly meeting established.