Chatham explores transit expansion

Officials get ideas at transportation forum in Denver.

A regional transportation district in Denver has inspired Chatham Area Transit officials to come up with ideas for growth and development.

Fresh from a recent seminar on public transportation in the Mile High City, CAT board members Howard French and Helen Stone told fellow board members last week that planners in the Denver region have been “forward thinking” in developing their transit system, and they’ve been rewarded with financial stability and system growth.

It would only take some convincing locally, they said, to produce similar results in Chatham County.

The two attended a seminar for transit board members and support staff, sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association from July 18 through 21.

They observed the ins and outs of the Regional Transportation District, which has headquarters in Denver but serves multiple counties and cities with buses and rail, airport shuttles and park n’ rides.

French said the district involves a caucus of dozens of community leaders, all of whom recognize the importance of public transportation. As new stops and stations are constructed, so, too, are lucrative mixed developments of multifamily communities and businesses, he said.

“Unlike Savannah, they understand (public transit) helps the community,” French said. “They do believe in public transportation, and they help to fund it.”

French said the RTD in Denver used funding from a variety of sources — including federal tax credits and public-private partnerships — to fund the system’s development. That has led to profit and growth, he said.

Stone said she was impressed that many of the RTD’s accomplishments were done during an economic downturn. She, too, said community partnerships helped the transit organization’s growth.

“There are a lot of opportunities to be learned from this,” she said. “I would like to educate this community on what we’re missing by not expanding our transit system. I think the key is education. We have not done a good job educating the community on the benefits.”

CAT Board Chairman Pete Liakakis said he plans to host a workshop with leaders from across Chatham County and coastal Georgia. The CAT board will invite Chuck Sisk, a member of the RTD board of directors, to discuss his organization with these community leaders.

Speaking by phone from Colorado, Sisk said that like CAT, RTD encountered its share of resistance when work began to develop the regional transit system. The first attempt failed to get enough voter approval to move forward. But the second time, he said, armed with facts and support from the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, the project was approved.

“It was a resounding victory in people coming together,” Sisk said. “What we were able to do is really go out and find out what was feasible.”

In the time since, Sisk, a former mayor of Louisville, Colo., said he’s learned that transportation is an enormous driver of economic activity in the Denver region.