Cobb commissioners on Tuesday approved spending $23,000 for a consultant to provide ridership projections for proposed projects listed for the county’s transit tax referendum that’s on the November general election ballot.
Along party lines, commissioners voted 3-2 to authorize Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. to do the ridership projections. They also voted to formally submit the project list for the Cobb Mobility SPLOST (Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax) to the Transit Link Authority of metro Atlanta, a prerequisite for the referendum.
The proposed 30-year, one-percent sales tax would collect an estimated $11 billion, primarily for building out a high-capacity bus transit system in the county, and increase other transit operations.
They include restoring a two-pronged bus line between the Marietta Transfer Station and the Roswell Road-Johnson Ferry area, and from there to the Dunwoody MARTA Station.
Another local bus route would connect East Cobb and Roswell, but route specifics haven’t been released.
There also would be an East Cobb Transit Center constructed, but a specific site has not been determined.
Nor were details included in the project sheet (you can read it here) that would designate a Northeast Cobb microtransit zone.
If the referendum is approved, it would restore bus service to East Cobb that was eliminated in county government budget cuts during the recession.
At the time, that route, bus line No. 65, had one of the lowest ridership figures in the Cobb Community Transit system.
Cobb DOT officials haven’t estimated any ridership numbers for the proposed routes.
Earlier this year, the MDJ reported that ridership across the overall Cobb bus system has plummeted from 3.7 million annual trips in 2014 to just under 1 million trips in 2022, and that the decline began well before COVID-19.
A total of $6 billion from the referendum would be used to build out and expand “high capacity” transit, including the East Cobb route.
Most of the projects on the newly released list are in South Cobb and areas of the county along the I-75 corridor, including Marietta and around Town Center and Kennesaw State University, as well as the Cumberland area and Truist Park.
Also on the project list is a proposed shuttle that would run between the Cumberland area and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
During their discussion, Republican commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill said they weren’t clear whether the transit resolutions needed four of five votes from the commission to be approved.
Commissioners adopted new rules in March requiring a four-fifths vote for resolutions, but the county attorney’s office said that any item coming before the vote needs only a simple majority.
Other more formal resolutions need a fourth vote, but Birrell and Gambrill—both of whom oppose a 30-year-transit tax—voted against both measures Tuesday.
Kimley-Horn also is being paid $287,000 by the county to develop an education program for the public ahead of the referendum.
Related:
- Cobb puts indefinite hold on Lower Roswell Road project
- Cobb commissioners set 2024 referendum for transit sales tax
- East Cobb transit center, bus routes on Cobb Mobility SPLOST project list
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