With Crayolas, magic markers and a wide variety of maps as their canvas, citizens are getting a chance to state their preferences for how they’d like to get around the county, and elsewhere, as part of Cobb’s transportation future.
For Stephen Ake of East Cobb, his issues are on several levels, and in multiple places. He took part in a public meeting at the East Cobb Library, and they continue this week and into May.
The project is called Cobb Forward, and the more formal designation is the Cobb Transportation Plan, which is updated every five years.
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Citizen input is part of the process, but not just for getting around by car. The CTP takes in transit as well as bike and pedestrian concerns.
“I spend most of my time in Cobb County,” said Ake, a software engineer who lives in the Sandy Plains/Piedmont Road area, works off Delk Road near I-75 and enjoys taking his child to Noonday Creek Park for a recreational stroll. “What I’m hoping for is the county to take our input for a more short-term list,” Ake said.
That’s the major objective of Cobb Forward, which also will be at the Taste of East Cobb festival Saturday (10-5, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church), and will hold another town hall in East Cobb next Tuesday, May 7, from 7-9 p.m. at the East Cobb Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road).
“This is for the county to get an idea of what you want,” Cobb commissioner Bob Ott told the several dozen people at the East Cobb Library event. “We’re all going to get out of this what you put into it.”
Current and future trends
They were treated to a vast array of data about Cobb population growth, home prices, education and employment patterns and future land use projections.
The information was so voluminous that some complained about it not being posted online (that’s supposed to happen soon) for them to view in advance.
All the numbers and analysis will be used to build on the 2040 Cobb Comprehensive Plan, and it’s the first CTP to incorporate a broad base of information, including technology (i.e. autonomous vehicles), land use and other factors besides roads and transit.
While Cobb’s population reached 750,000 last year, that growth is slowing a bit, up just one percent between 2017-18.
Cobb’s minority population continues to rise, in terms of number and percentage, to more than 330,000, or around 42 percent of all Cobb citizens.
How Cobb residents get around matters too, with around 125,000 people who both live and work in the county, with 60 percent of residents leaving to go to work. There are an estimated 300,000 jobs in Cobb.
What’s also playing into the future transportation dynamic are growing desires for walking and biking options.
Wish lists
At a table with several other citizens, Ake placed a green pin at a spot on the map along Delk Road, near his workplace, that he thinks ought to have a raised median for safety reasons. “What they’re doing on Sandy Plains now [near Sprayberry High School] they ought to do it there, too.”
Other citizens told members of the consulting firm staff they liked the idea of more roundabouts (such as one at Lower Roswell and Little Willeo Road) and the diverging diamond on Windy Hill Road over I-75.
Transit in East Cobb is rare, with the only CobbLinc bus route traveling along Powers Ferry Road. Some expressed an interest in high-speed rail along I-75, a possible bus route from Johnson Ferry into Sandy Springs, and transit to the Marietta Square.
As for trails, completing the Noonday Creek Trail is something Ake said he’d like to see (such an option is recommended in the 2018 Cobb DOT Greenways and Trails Master Plan.)
Funding for that possibility, as well as what may come out of the Cobb Forward meetings, is another issue.
For now, the project consultants working for Cobb DOT are simply taking in the feedback, with the pledge that “everything is on the table,” before coming up with a list of feasible projects.
An online survey can be completed here through the end of May. You’ll be asked to list priorities for a number of transportation-related issues, how to allocate transportation funding and mark up maps on your own wish list.
After the town halls, a needs assessment will be conducted later this year, with recommendations made next year and final approval slated for 2021.
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