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September 14, 2000 |
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GRTA To Review Large Development Projects When the state Legislature created the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority in 1999, one of the responsibilities placed on GRTA was to review so-called “Developments of Regional Impact” – large commercial or residential projects – and evaluate their impact on traffic and air quality. Now that process is about to begin, after the GRTA Board approved an interim DRI review policy at its September 13 meeting. The Atlanta Regional Commission already reviews proposed developments that meet the definition of a DRI – a project with at least 500,000 square feet of office space, 700,000 square feet of commercial space, or 500 houses. ARC’s decisions on DRI projects are only recommendations, however. The state law that created GRTA charges the authority with deciding whether state and federal transportation funds should be spent to improve highway access to a proposed DRI. If the GRTA board feels that a DRI will have a negative impact on traffic or air quality, it can vote to withhold public money from road improvements associated with the development. Local governments can override a GRTA decision on DRIs by a three-fourths super-majority, however. “We think this is a good balance between local control over development, and the need to address problems like traffic and air quality on a regional basis,” said GRTA Executive Director Catherine Ross. Ross said GRTA’s review of DRIs will look specifically at the impact on traffic and air quality. “This will not be an arbitrary process,” she said. A Sept. 15 editorial in The Atlanta Constitution said GRTA’s review of Developments of Regional Impact will be good for the region. “GRTA can’t tell local governments how to zone a particular piece of property,” read the editorial. “But it does have the right – and the legal responsibility – to make sure that state and federal taxpayers don’t spend big money on developments that make regional problems harder to solve.”
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