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The state seems to be taking their sweet time about the MMPT and their plans for the area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fourthwarden
Yeah they are. GDOT was quite unhappy when those videos of the MMPT renderings were posted last year, demanding they be removed.
I am hoping that, As MARTA builds actual commuter rail in the region, GDOT and the state will feel the pressure to get something of a downtown station built.
One of the major reasons why the State of Georgia might have wanted those video renderings of the MMPT taken down and seems to be taking their time in moving plans on the plans to build the MMPT and revitalize the area is because, from what I understand, the state and its partners (private real estate developers who are partnering with the state to acquire land, design and build the future MMPT) are still very much in the middle of sensitive negotiations with private property owners to acquire the land that will be needed for the MMPT and the surrounding large-scale high-density mixed-use development that will help fund the whole project.
The state and its private partners are very rightfully afraid that broadcasting and being too highly visible with their development plans for the future MMPT project will drive up land prices and make acquiring those properties much more difficult.
One of the major reasons why the State of Georgia might have wanted those video renderings of the MMPT taken down and seems to be taking their time in moving plans on the plans to build the MMPT and revitalize the area is because, from what I understand, the state and its partners (private real estate developers who are partnering with the state to acquire land, design and build the future MMPT) are still very much in the middle of sensitive negotiations with private property owners to acquire the land that will be needed for the MMPT and the surrounding large-scale high-density mixed-use development that will help fund the whole project.
The state and its private partners are very rightfully afraid that broadcasting and being too highly visible with their development plans for the future MMPT project will drive up land prices and make acquiring those properties much more difficult.
Kinda funny, really. There is a mojor transit hub being planned. That is seen as valuable, therfore, the property around the area gains value. That makes aquireing the land financially impossible, and thus the hub is never built.
I guess I can see it, but I wouldn't be too surprised if the MMPT was not a major focus for the state, looking at how little they've done to carry on rail transit in the region. Nothing has been built. Old plans are loosing their viability with age, and others are stepping to take up the job. If I were a cynic, I'd think the state mostly doesn't mind that much, and is more than happy to let MARTA do the work they should hvae been doing this whole time, without state funds.
Kinda funny, really. There is a mojor transit hub being planned. That is seen as valuable, therfore, the property around the area gains value. That makes aquireing the land financially impossible, and thus the hub is never built.
I guess I can see it, but I wouldn't be too surprised if the MMPT was not a major focus for the state, looking at how little they've done to carry on rail transit in the region. Nothing has been built. Old plans are loosing their viability with age, and others are stepping to take up the job. If I were a cynic, I'd think the state mostly doesn't mind that much, and is more than happy to let MARTA do the work they should hvae been doing this whole time, without state funds.
Many state officials (most particularly the Georgia Department of Transportation and presumed 2018 Georgia Governor's race frontrunner Lt. Governor Casey Cagle) actually seem to care quite a bit about upgrading and expanding the passenger rail transit network throughout the Atlanta metro region and North Georgia.
The Georgia Department of Transportation actually deserves much credit for coming a very long way over the past several years in expanding their mindset from just being solely focused on roads to acknowledging the lead role that transit is going to have to play in moving people around in a large major metro region in Atlanta that conceivably could compete with Chicago in population and in a fast-growing state in Georgia that conceivably could overtake more-populous states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois in population within the next 2 decades.
Atlanta's very limited metro/regional road network (which often struggles mightily to handle the vehicular movements generated by the region's current population) just simply is in no position to handle the potentially crushing growth of another 1 million or more new inhabitants in the region....Which is why it is so important that the state (by way of GDOT) has acknowledged (and continues to acknowledge) the critical importance of the future role of transit in the Atlanta region.
Georgia Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, who is one of the most popular politicians in the entire state and who right now appears to be the odds-on favorite to win the 2018 Georgia Governor's race, has also on multiple occasions floated the idea of Georgia state government taking control of MARTA and rebranding it to be more politically and socially appealing to the state's dominant block of conservative suburban and exurban voters so that high-capacity passenger rail transit service can be expanded all over North Georgia.
As far as the state's approach to developing the future MMPT goes, the state is most likely being so quiet about it because the state and its private partners seem to be resorting to tactics such as somewhat quietly buying different properties under numerous multiple different fake corporate names and entities (something that the Walt Disney Corporation did when buying the land for what would eventually become the Disneyland and Disney World theme parks) so as to keep purchasing prices low in an area in and around South Downtown Atlanta where real estate prices are not likely to stay low over the long term because of the development potential of the area.
It's not necessarily going to be a quick and easy process to upgrade and expand high-capacity transit throughout the Atlanta region and assemble the land that will be needed to make the future MMPT in Downtown Atlanta an operational, financial and public relations success.
But it is a process that is moving along (if not very slowly and tediously at times) despite the seemingly current lack of media and PR visibility to the process.
In any case, it is a process that is likely going to take many years and that is likely going to require much patience on the part of transit advocates.
(...NOTE: The process to develop Walt Disney World in the Orlando area took about somewhere upwards of about 15 years and that was in a sparsely developed rural area, so the process of negotiating with land owners and acquiring properties in a very densely developed urban neighborhood with a rising amount of development potential and rising interest from multiple other competing real estate development parties (namely casino developers) may likely take even longer.)
Let's put this in context: NYC's stations were done in the early 1900s and some in the late 1800s. So, yeah, doesn't seem to me to be a big crime to overhaul them.
Let's put this in context: NYC's stations were done in the early 1900s and some in the late 1800s. So, yeah, doesn't seem to me to be a big crime to overhaul them.
The Penn renovation is mostly the "lipstick on a pig" type and doesn't address capacity issues.
Arts Center Stations looks so much better with new LED lighting and pressure washing.
I've always wanted the stations to just be cleaned. The overhead "All Trains" signs and the roof glass at Lenox station have caked on black grime from decades of not being cleaned.
Atlanta would look so much better if everything was cleaned more often.
Can't all of you see that Georgia's citizens are so steadfast in "no new taxes" that they're fine with the crumbling, embarrassing infrastructure (all modes) that are killing the logistics advantages North Georgis held for so long?
We are at the center of 5 or so states with the only major city and the nation's 8th largest population. We should have the best roads, best rail, etc., etc.
Deal's 10 year $10 billion invest infrastructure is a good start, but it should quadruple that amount.
North Carolina already spends about $6 billion a year on transportation and next year will vote to borrow even more to expedite projects.
Planning and building for the future is what we should be doing.
The state and its private partners are very rightfully afraid that broadcasting and being too highly visible with their development plans for the future MMPT project will drive up land prices and make acquiring those properties much more difficult.
Well, that raises the question of whether it is right for the government to be manipulating real estate prices to favor one private owner over another.
For example, let's say you bought a piece of property in this area 25 years ago because you felt like it would someday be more valuable. Everybody told you that was a foolish investment but you decided to be patient and look to the long term. So you've paid off the loan, paid the taxes and kept the property in decent shape.
Now it looks like your patience may be about to pay off. However, you discover that the government has secretly cut a deal with some other private parties and is doing its best to keep your property value down, so that they (and their investment partners) and buy it at a reduced price.
You are zapped, while the government and its undisclosed private partners score big.
Well, that raises the question of whether it is right for the government to be manipulating real estate prices to favor one private owner over another.
For example, let's say you bought a piece of property in this area 25 years ago because you felt like it would someday be more valuable. Everybody told you that was a foolish investment but you decided to be patient and look to the long term. So you've paid off the loan, paid the taxes and kept the property in decent shape.
Now it looks like your patience may be about to pay off. However, you discover that the government has secretly cut a deal with some other private parties and is doing its best to keep your property value down, so that they (and their investment partners) and buy it at a reduced price.
You are zapped, while the government and its undisclosed private partners score big.
Is that right? I don't think so.
Acquiring and accumulating the land that will be needed to build out the future MMPT and accompanying TOD (transit-oriented development) is a case of 'pick your poison'.
Either the state and its private partners do their best to keep the project under wraps so that their land acquisition prices will be kept low for a project that much of the public seems to want...
-OR-
...The state takes the private property that will be needed for the project through Eminent Domain and basically gives most (if not all) of it to other private parties (the private parties that the state is partnering with to develop and construct the project)....A land acquisition action that would likely be despised much more by the public than the current process of negotiating with landowners to buy their properties at substantially higher prices than what the private landowners would get if their properties were taken by the government through Eminent Domain.
I agree with you that the process to acquire the property for the MMPT project is not fair.
But most people in the Atlanta region seem to agree that the MMPT is a project that is critically important to the future of the Atlanta region and the state of Georgia.
Acquiring private land for high-profile public projects of significant impact that benefit the greater good (schools, highways, reservoirs, airports, etc) more often than not is not a process that is pretty or fair.
But the MMPT project cannot proceed forward without the acquisition of privately-owned properties in the area in question, just as other large-scale public works projects (schools, highways, reservoirs, airports, etc) cannot proceed forward without land to build them on.
The future MMPT is recognized by many government, business, economic, transportation and logistical onlookers as a project that not only greatly benefits the public good but also is of critical importance to the future economic well-being (and economic viability) of both the Atlanta region and the state of Georgia.
Seeing as though those property owners possess land that is directly in the footprint of what will most likely be one of the most significant public works projects that this region has seen since public developments like the Atlanta Airport, MARTA, the Interstate system and lakes Lanier and Allatoona, selling their land in a more normalized real estate market is most likely going to be completely out of the question.
It's definitely not pretty and it's definitely not fair, but when we are talking about such a large-scale public works project, a public works project that has the ability to impact the region and the state in a way that will potentially be even more substantial than the Atlanta Airport, it is what it is...
...The choice of keeping market prices lower or taking the land through Eminent Domain is just the reality of the situation when it comes to very large-scale project such as these.
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