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The Connect Atlanta Plan, the city’s first-ever comprehensive transportation plan launched by Mayor Shirley Franklin late last year, will begin its third round of public hearings on June 16 in Buckhead.
Click here to read my summary of one of the plan’s early meetings.
Details for upcoming meeting locations follows after the jump.
Mayor Shirley Franklin and other officials took a much-need step Tuesday in announcing that over the next 13 months they’ll assemble a comprehensive transportation plan for the city. With a heavy investment in citizen involvement in formulating the plan, it should have more durability than many such pie-in-the-sky schemes. Even when Franklin finishes her tenure, the next mayor won’t scrap something that is the product of mass citizen input and visionary planning.
Beyond that, however, is the growing realization that state officials aren’t going to help, and likely will impede progress in Atlanta. City Councilwoman Clair Muller, chairwoman of the council’s transportation committee, declared: “It’s time to focus on just ourselves.”
Bravo.
She’s not the only one. A recent cover story in CL urged (with a slight bit of tongue in cheek) that Atlanta dump the rest of the state and go it alone.
Mayor Shirley Franklin rolled out the red carpet for the public yesterday and announced Connect Atlanta, the city’s first comprehensive transportation plan. Officials say the city-specific project will employ a wide range of options — public transit, roads and transit alternatives — to improve the transportation crunch for which the city has long been notorious. Funding in part is provided by a grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission.
The plan kicks off with a 13-month study geared toward including the public, a move that city officials hope will endear it to the community and solidify its importance with Franklin’s political successors. We’re looking at you, Clark Howard.
To apply to become a stakeholder in the plan for your community, visit the Connect Atlanta website. Public meetings start in December. The site just launched and is littered with a bunch of “coming soon” messages, but bookmark it and keep tabs as we’ll be doing the same. For a timetable of the study, click here.
