Another task force looks on Atlanta sprawl

ATLANTA -- Traffic and sprawl in metro Atlanta need to be fixed. Think smart growth. Think mass transit and mixed-use development. Think live, work and play centers.

Sound familiar?

The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce has set up a growth task force -- a group of politicians, businessmen and environmentalists charged with finding solutions for metro-area sprawl.

And there's also an unspoken charge for the group. Namely, making this task force the one to patch together Atlanta's jumble of planning boards, transportation agencies and local governments.

Organizers say this task force is special, a first to include so many diverse players, from major corporations to the Georgia Department of Transportation, even a few small-town mayors in outlying suburbs.

But the group only has the power to make recommendations.

There are already dozens of government agencies in charge of metro Atlanta planning and traffic -- including the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, two agencies whose roles most metro residents can hardly guess at.

The Chamber of Commerce hopes its task force will be different, more influential.

Atlanta's sprawl problem has gotten so bad, task force members say, that people are ready to change their habits and solve the problems.

Atlanta's metro area now stretches from the Alabama line to Lake Lanier, 50 miles northeast of the city. It is expected to grow by 2.5 million people in the next 25 years, the chamber projects. Atlantans spend 41 percent of their travel in congestion, making Atlanta the third-worst traffic jam city in the country, according to a Texas study released this year.

But the problem can't be fixed until everyone works together as a region, said Samuel Owens, Cobb County commissioner and a vice chairman of the task force. He said the chamber of commerce group may have the best shot yet of curbing sprawl.

"It's very difficult to change these patterns in significant ways," he said. "We have to think, 'What would be required to bring about significant change?' It's a very big mountain to climb."

At its second meeting, the task force voted Thursday on its top priorities.

First, increasing density in congested corridors, such Interstate 85 or Georgia 400. Second, adding more affordable housing so people can afford to live near their jobs. Other priorities were fixing up blighted areas and planning for the most rural, outer suburbs.

The group will meet four more times and make proposals next spring.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said it's too early to tell whether this task force will breathe new life into the smart-growth push.

"Do we have the political and civic will to make a change conceptually, to make the hard choices? I don't know. We'll see that over the coming months," she said.