There’s not much public transit in East Cobb, but two locations in the community will be the venues for town hall meetings in March that will focus on transit issues.
They’ve been scheduled by Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce, similar to his budget town hall meetings last year (including above, at the East Cobb Senior Center), and will solicit public feedback about potential transit options in the county.
The upcoming town halls also will include his budget priorities for fiscal year 2020, including a pledge not to repeat last year’s property tax increase.
The meetings start Tuesday, March 5 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road), and will be held at 3 and 7 p.m.
The following day, March 6, meetings also will take place at 3 and 7 p.m. at the East Cobb Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road).
The subject of transit is due to the passage of state legislation last year, HB 930, that established a new metro Atlanta transit authority. The law also gives Cobb the option of creating a special transit tax district or levying a one-cent countywide sales tax for transit expansion, which would have to be approved by Cobb voters in a referendum.
A county transit survey that was released late last year indicated that a majority of Cobb voters would approve of such a tax. That includes East Cobb, where the only CobbLinc bus line runs down Powers Ferry Road.
(Here’s a link to the survey summary.)
There was another bus line, along Roswell Road, that was eliminated during the recession due to Cobb budget cuts.
The HB 930 language indicated that if Cobb chose to hold a referendum, it would have to do so by November of this year. But Boyce has indicated he wants to delay that possibility until 2021 or 2022.
A transit sales tax referendum is slated for Gwinnett in March.
The remainder of Boyce’s town hall schedule next month is as follows, with sessions at 3 and 7 p.m. each day:
- Thursday, March 7 – Cobb Senior Services on Powder Springs Street
- Monday, March 11 – Freeman Poole Senior Center, Smyrna
- Wednesday, March 13 – South Cobb Community Center
- Thursday, March 14 – North Cobb Senior Center
- Tuesday, March 19 – West Cobb Senior Center
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