The ARC asked the city to update its list of future road projects so the ARC may plug those projects into a model to ensure that traffic conforms with federal air quality guidelines. If the city expects to apply for federal funding for any future road projects, it must meet federal air quality regulations.
Council voted 5-2 to strike the Powder Springs Connector and the Gresham Road Connector from the ARC list, with council members Annette Lewis and Van Pearlberg voting against.
The Gresham Road Connector is a $46 million project that would link the Gresham Road area by the Mansour Center to the Allgood Road and West Oak Parkway intersection, a distance of about 2.5 miles.
The Powder Springs Connector is a $15 million project meant to alleviate traffic on Powder Springs Street by linking that road just south of Chestnut Hill to South Cobb Drive near Chattahoochee Technical College.
Mayor Steve Tumlin favored cutting the projects because he feared a connector would contribute to cut-through traffic in area neighborhoods.
"I'm a neighborhood guy," Tumlin said.
"I think getting people from Point A to Point B is good, but we've always got to be conscience of the impact on neighborhoods, and the Powder Springs Connector would impact Whitlock Heights and Charlton Forge adversely," he said.
Former Mayor Bill Dunaway urged the council on Monday not to strike the Powder Springs Connector from the ARC list, saying voters approved the connector when they passed the 2005 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Councilman Van Pearlberg sided with Dunaway.
"As I understand it that's what the voters approved," Pearlberg said.
"That's what they believed they were getting when they voted for it. I don't think we should take away from the voters their request," Pearlberg said.
The city earmarked $1.8 million for the Powder Springs Connector in its 2005 SPLOST. County commissioners also set aside $1.8 million for it. Other funding from the state and federal government was being counted on, but never arrived. And construction on the connector wasn't going to begin until 2021, according to a press release the city issued in 2006.
So last summer, council voted to transfer the $1.8 million earmarked for the project to street improvements in front of the Hilton Marietta Conference Center, leaving $1,000 in funding for the connector, since city attorney Doug Haynie said the line item could not be removed from the SPLOST list, but could be defunded.
As for traffic on Powder Springs Street, former Cobb Board of Commissioners Chairman Sam Olens believes it will be relieved by a four-lane county highway under construction called the Windy Hill/Macland Road Connector, which is intended to provide west Cobb motorists a more direct route to Interstate 75 by connecting Macland Road at Powder Springs to Windy Hill Road at Austell Road.
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Does anyone have any anwsers???