The discussion of expanding transit in Cobb County has been bubbling under the surface for years. The $830 million, 29.7-mile Northwest Corridor, recently completed, was a major step forward in reducing traffic, but Cobb isn’t done yet.
Next up on the docket is taking the first step towards addressing the future of Cobb transit with the CobbForward Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP).
CobbForward is a multi-year research project meant to identify both the short and long term transportation needs of Cobb residents. As part of the Atlanta Transit Link Authority (The ATL), the region’s new transit authority, CobbForward hopes to put together a project list by 2021. That list would be funded by a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), if passed by residents.
The proposed CobbForward timeline
According to a recent poll from Virginia-based McLaughlin and Associates, Cobb residents are open to the idea. In that survey 59 percent of responders were in favor of of an additional 1 percent sales tax to fund transit, and 48 percent said they’d like to see the county join MARTA compared to just 24 percent opposed.
Last year’s HB 930 gave county commissioners the option of calling for a vote to approve that 1 percent sales tax, so the door is open.
The first round of public meetings are already beginning, with Smyrna, Marietta, and Kennesaw all on the schedule over the next month. Cobb commissioners and other leaders hope to get feedback on what projects are important to the community, and what funding mechanisms they might be amenable to.
With two years of study ahead, nobody is accusing Cobb of moving quickly on the issue, but for transit proponents CobbForward is a big step in the right direction.
