Remarks of U.S. Senator Max Cleland U.S. Senate Smart Growth Task Force Meeting at Emory University August 25, 1999 It is my pleasure to be with you here today and I wanted to pay a special thanks to President Chace for hosting this event with the Senate Smart Growth Task Force in order to examine smart growth activities at the university level. Our goal for today's event is to highlight Emory as a case study of what universities and other institutions across the country can do to realize smart growth. We hope to garner a better understanding of the tools necessary to achieve community and regional collaboration. In addition, we hope to determine concrete ways in which the federal government can assist local smart growth efforts. In Emory's case, President Chace has stated that federal funding for electric shuttles would be one such example. As we all know, the Metro Atlanta community is looking for transportation alternatives and more pedestrian friendly neighborhoods. Emory is in the forefront of this effort. The University is redefining and restructuring its campus to make it not only more sustainable and accessible, but also to improve the quality of life for the local residents. The efforts here at Emory will play an integral part in Metro Atlanta's ability to meet its air quality and traffic congestion goals. I commend President Chace and Emory for your leadership on this issue. I am also pleased to be holding my first field hearing as a steering member of the Senate Smart Growth Task Force. Established in January 1999, the Senate Smart Growth Task Force is a bipartisan, multi-regional working group intended to explore and promote community-focused development policies. It provides Senators with a forum for discussion, education and coordination of efforts concerning sustainable growth patterns. The overall purpose of the Senate Smart Growth Task Force is to determine ways in which the federal government can assist states and localities address their own growth management issues. I would like to thank the Co-Chairs of the Task Force, Senators Jeffords and Levin, as well as Cameron Taylor, who is the Task Force coordinator and our moderator here today, for their assistance with this event. Growing up in Lithonia, I was always told that hard work, although vital to success, would guarantee nothing in life without a plan or vision. The success of the transportation network in Georgia grew out of such a vision. Obstacles to the movement of people in goods both limited economic growth and played a key role in the siting of Georgia's first cities. River-borne transportation was only possible up to the Fall Line, which just so happens to be where Augusta, Macon and Columbus were located. From there, boats and barges carried their cargo to our seaports, most notably Savannah. Overland transportation was slow and expensive, with even the best road-from Augusta to Savannah-producing typically a three-day trip between the two cities. In the early 1830s, the first rail lines were laid from Augusta and Savannah into the so-called plantation counties, and this was soon followed by the building of the Western & Atlantic railroad. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build a railroad from a point on the Chattahoochee River in DeKalb County to the Tennessee line in order to spur economic development by funneling the products of the North and Midwest through Georgia to the port of Savannah. That "point" on the Chattahoochee, which we now call Atlanta, was the hub of the entire Deep South's rail network by 1860, and became the new state capital by 1870. In the latter half of the 20th Century, by planning for the integration of vital highway and railroad arteries and successfully constructing a state-of-the-art, large capacity airport facility, Metro Atlanta has become the premier transportation hub in the Southeast and an envy of urban areas around the country. Unfortunately, as we end the current millennium, what is now most noted about Georgia's transportation systems is the severe difficulties facing the Metro Atlanta area. A recent survey found that Atlanta had the very worst traffic congestion in the South, and Metro Atlanta drivers have the longest commute-an average of 34 miles per day-in the country. All of this costs our economy $1.5 billion a year in wasted time and fuel. This congestion has been accompanied by significant environmental problems. Green space in the region has dwindled dramatically, and we are all aware that the Metro Area's air pollution problem is rated as "Serious" by the Environmental Protection Agency, and that it is in Non-attainment of national clean air standards. Clearly, this is a serious, serious problem which has been building over many years, and is in large measure a product of the very economic success which has made, year after year, Metro Atlanta one of the fastest growing areas of the country. And until recently, though the State, through the hard work of the Georgia Department of Transportation, has continued to ensure that our roads are maintained in conditions that put other states to shame, there appeared to be a lack of vision of what we want to accomplish for Metro Atlanta as a region and Georgia as a state. We simply have to harness the hard work and dedication that Georgians consistently demonstrate into a broader vision of how to maintain Metro Atlanta as a global leader of commerce, particularly in the transport of goods and services. And, I am pleased to say, the signs are everywhere that the people of the region and the State are now gearing up for this great challenge. In 1998, I was pleased to play a part, as member of the United States Senate, in enacting the surface transportation reauthorization bill which represented the largest investment in transportation in our nation's history, and which incidentally provided Georgia with the third largest increase in share of federal transportation dollars thereby correcting much of the historic inequity of Georgians paying far more into the Highway Trust Fund than we received back in federal transportation investments. This legislation also-and please pardon the pun-paves the way for greater efforts to ease traffic and congestion problems. For example, the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality program, or CMAQ, received a significant boost in spending, and we specifically authorized funding for Atlanta-to-Athens and Atlanta-to-Griffin light rail projects, as well as construction of a multi-modal passenger terminal in Atlanta. 1998 also saw the election of a candidate for governor who pledged to make solving Metro Atlanta's transportation crisis his top priority. And Roy Barnes, with the help of the General Assembly, redeemed that campaign pledge with the enactment of the new Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, or GRTA for short. Governor, please take a well-deserved bow! But 1998 also was the time when the business community stepped forward to take the lead on this issue as well. The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce undertook the Metropolitan Atlanta Transportation Initiative, or MATI, in consultation and cooperation with a broad array of interested parties from government, academia, and the environmental community, as well as the general public. In an extraordinary, pathbreaking display of public leadership, MATI presented the following recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly: - Enhance regional planning and transportation goal-setting efforts; - Extend planning objectives to address projected growth over the next 15 years; - Expand public awareness of the problem and potential solutions; - Create a regional transit authority; - Secure adequate and flexible funding for Metro Atlanta transportation needs; - Empower a regional agency to plan and implement all forms of regional transportation; and Mobilize the support of the public and private sectors for these initiatives. These recommendations were largely incorporated into the legislation which created GRTA. And today we will learn more about how Emory University, in the epicenter of one of the most congested corridors in the whole region, has stepped forward as well. In moving forward on this vision for Metro Atlanta, however, we must be absolutely clear that it must be incorporated and interconnected with the resources, both human and natural, that exist throughout Georgia. We must transcend the notion of two Georgias. In today's global marketplace, we must work together as Georgians and understand that we are not competing among ourselves or even against other states; we are competing internationally. As Georgians, we must embrace and nurture the growth in Metro Atlanta as an engine for growth in the entire state. At the same time, Metro Atlantans must come to see the success of South Georgia agriculture, of the ports of Savannah and Brunswick, of the manufacturing of Middle Georgia, of the textile industries of North and West Georgia as key to their future as well. Metro Atlanta's success has translated, and will continue to translate, into jobs and economic opportunity for the entire state. We can be certain that success in the 21st Century will be decided by who can compete at the global level. Although Metro Atlanta has been and will certainly continue to be the commercial center for our state, only Georgia, as a whole, has the people, natural resources, and transportation capabilities to compete and win in the world market. As part of this vision, I see three items of critical importance. First, we must find a way to solve the traffic congestion and air pollution problems in Metro Atlanta. Through the leadership of Governor Barnes and the Georgia General Assembly, we now have established GRTA to take on this daunting task. I along with other members of the Georgia delegation must do our part to assist GRTA in any way we can. That means securing appropriate federal resources to assist GRTA in accomplishing its mission, and making sure that the new agency is fully integrated into existing planning and coordinating systems. Second, we must work together to provide a transportation network in Metro Atlanta which is thoroughly integrated with the entire state to provide multiple transportation alternatives for both residents and visitors, as well as for goods. Such a network should interconnect seamlessly with each of its components. As but one example, Southwest Georgia farmers need reliable, and speedy, rail and truck transportation to consumers in Metro Atlanta and beyond, as well as to our sea and river ports. Those same farmers, and the local businesses which support them, need high-speed air, or in the future rail, transportation to and from their area in order to market their products in the increasingly global marketplace. We are all in this together, and the sooner we fully realize and act upon that fact, the better off we will be. Third, we must commit ourselves to comprehensive long-range planning in all facets of our growth, from land use and zoning to transportation networks. As a member of the Senate Smart Growth Task Force, I have been fortunate to see demonstrations from cities across the country where they have gathered citizens, business leaders, and state and local government officials to review current growth patterns in their cities and examine growth alternatives for their future-looking out as much as 50 years in some cases. We can and should learn a lot from these examples. I believe that we are, indeed, coming to the realization that we must not only continue to work hard to solve the difficult issues facing Metro Atlanta, but we must re-establish and implement a vision for our future as one Georgia. Emory's efforts here today showcase such a vision. And, through the leadership of our Governor, our state agencies, including GRTA, as well as the valuable input and ideas of Georgia citizens, I am certain that we will be successful. I intend to continue to closely work with Senators on the Smart Growth Task Force to educate them on not only the challenges and positive efforts being pursued in Metro Atlanta, such as the ones here at Emory, but to obtain their support for providing appropriate federal assistance. I also pledge to continue to work with the entire Georgia Congressional delegation, as well as the Governor and the General Assembly, to help Metro Atlanta solve its air quality and transportation problems. I am extremely pleased that the Governor could be with us here today. I believe that Governor Barnes' leadership in bringing Smart Growth issues to the forefront of his public policy agenda has not only been instrumental in educating us all about the challenges facing Metro Atlanta, but has also given us all hope that we may be able to retake our capital city from the traffic congestion and air pollution that are threatening the quality of life and economic prosperity that have made Atlanta the leading international city it is today. It is my pleasure to now introduce the Governor of the great State of Georgia, Roy Barnes. Return to Smart Growth Return to Campus Growth and Development |
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