MARTA referendum: a comprehensive guide for voters

It’s now 2019. That means Gwinnett voters will hit the polls this year to decide if the long-resistant suburban county will join MARTA and greatly expand its mass tran- sit offerings.

The special referendum will be held in March. With that in mind, find below a comprehensive list of key t hings Gw i nnett voters should know about the referendum itself; the coun- ty’s pending contract with MARTA; and the plan that would guide future transit projects should the referendum pass.

■ The date: Election Day is March 19. A specific sched- ule for advance voting has not yet been set. The county budget adopted Jan. 3 allotted $769,000 to run the elec- tion.

■ The question: Voters will see the ballot question phrased this way when they visit the polls: “Gwinnett County has executed a con- tract for the provision of transit services, dated as of August 2, 2018. Shall this contract be approved? YES or NO”

■ What the question means: A “yes” vote would be a vote in support of ratifying Gwinnett’s pending transit service contract with MARTA — and one in favor of enacting a new 1 percent sales tax to pay for transit projects and operations in the county. (Purchases in Gwinnett are currently subject to 6 percent sales tax.)

That new countywide sales tax would remain in effect until 2057 and garner billions of dollars.

■ The basics of the contract: Gwinnett’s Board of Commissioners and MAR- TA’s Board of Directors both approved earlier this year a contract allowing the latter to take over and expand tran- sit offerings in the county. But the contract would only go into effect if the referendum passes. It would dedicate the billions of sales tax dollars collected over nearly four decades to fund transit projects. Twenty-nine percent of the funds collected in the early years of the con- tract would go to fund expan- sion of Gwinnett’s bus system and to cover maintenance and operation of the overall MARTA system. The rest would be remitted to Gwinnett, which would pay MARTA for other projects as needed.

■ The unique, Gwinnett-friendly aspects to the contract: The pending contract would be a distinctive one among those between MARTA and its member counties. In addi- tion to the majority of the sales tax money being sent directly back to Gwinnett to be redistributed at the coun- ty’s discretion, the contract says tax money collected in Gwinnett must be used “for the benefit of Gwinnett.”

The contract also includes a clause preventing MARTA from borrowing money for Gwinnett projects without approval from the county commission. All “fixed asset capital projects” would have to be approved by the com- mission too.

■ The plan that will guide potential projects: Gwinnett adopted its comprehensive transit development plan — the creation of which involved significant public input — in July. The contract between Gwinnett and MARTA identifies the plan as the primary source of projects.

■ The plan includes heavy rail: Under the plan, heavy rail would extend from the existing Doraville MARTA station ( just inside I-285 in DeKalb County) to a new Gwinnett transit hub roughly 4 miles away near I-85 and Jimmy Carter. Gwinnett has already purchased prop- erty targeted for the future transit station. Longer term plans include the possibility of extending rail another 7 miles or so to the Gwinnett Place area.

■ The plan includes a lot of non-rail stuff too: Heavy rail would cost as much as $250 million per mile, making it the plan’s most expensive proposition — but the non-rail recom- mendations are wide-rang- ing. They include more than doubling local bus service and Express routes (includ- ing six new park-and-rides), as well as adding multiple “flex service” areas where riders can summon rides on-demand.

Plans also call for a bus rapid transit (BRT) line between Norcross and the Infinite Energy Center near Duluth. BRT — which makes fewer stops and generally operates in dedicated lanes, making it much faster than local bus service — could also extend east near Ga. 316 and into downtown Lawrenceville. A similar line could also stretch north down Pleasant Hill Road then west through Berkeley Lake and Peachtree Corners. New bus routes down U.S. 78 from the Snell- ville area into DeKalb County could also eventually be con- verted into BRT.

■ Seriously, there’s a lot of non-rail stuff: There’s also the idea of creating an extensive corridor for rapid bus service, which is differ- ent from bus rapid transit in that it doesn’t operate in ded- icated lanes. A possible loop would stretch from Snellville down Ga. 124 to Lawrenceville, then down Ga. 20 to Buford. It would cross I-85 and I-985 near the Mall of Georgia before swinging back around down the I-85 corridor through the Suwanee and Duluth areas. One arm of the route would then swing back south through Lilburn and back to Snellville. The other could run down Ga. 141 through Peachtree Corners — and then north up Holcomb Bridge Road and into Fulton County and the Ga. 400 area.

■ When all of it would actually happen: If the referendum passes on March 19, new sales tax collections would start April 1. MARTA board member Robbie Ashe has said he’d want to get expanded bus service up and rolling as soon as practically possible, perhaps within a few weeks or months. BRT would be expected to be running between Doraville and the future Norcross-area transit hub (a line that would ultimately be replaced with heavy rail) within five years. The same goes for more BRT between Norcross and Gwinnett Place and on up to the Infinite Energy Center. Estimates have varied, but the first rail line could be completed in the first 15 to 20 years. The goal is for everything included in the comprehensive transit plan to be completed within 30 years.