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Street Lights to Stay On Under Citizen Pressure
originally published August 27, 2008
Do street lights really prevent crime? Or just make people feel safer? Either way, Athens-Clarke County (ACC) Commissioners got earfuls of citizen concern about a cost-saving plan to remove one-fifth of the county’s street lights, and sheepishly backed down on the plan. “I don’t think I’ve gotten more calls on an issue before,” said District 5 Commissioner David Lynn, except for the rental-registration controversy. Citizens expressed “outright fear” at losing some streetlights, he said at the Commission’s Aug. 21 agenda-setting meeting. “We can’t budget by public opinion,” Lynn said, but neither could commissioners ignore “how strongly the public feels about this issue.” The plan would have removed only lights that were closest to other lights, saving the county about $109,000 a year; commissioners differed sharply on whether better lighting actually prevents crime.
Commissioner Kelly Girtz said he’d been unable to find any studies confirming that lighting reduces crime. But “criminals like to work in the dark,” Commissioner George Maxwell (a former policeman) said. Besides, children must get on school buses in the early-morning darkness, citizen Shannon Derrick told commissioners. “Kids have a right to play outside, people have a right to be outside in the community and have the lights on,” she said. Whether citizens’ fears are “grounded in reality” or not, said Commissioner Alice Kinman, “I see the writing on the wall.” Kinman said she will vote with the majority on the issue on Sept. 2, but added “I don’t think it was a bad idea.”
Commissioners must then find $101,000 to cut from somewhere else, having approved only a very small property tax increase for the current year. ACC Manager Alan Reddish said money in a “contingency fund” will be needed for jail costs, so commissioners will be back to a list of proposed cuts that department heads submitted earlier this year (or to new-this-year budget initiatives, like expanded bus service, that they’ve already approved). An already-tight budget will be further squeezed by sales-tax collections that have slowed along with local spending, and Governor Sonny Perdue announced last week the state will cancel a promised supplement to local property taxes. (That could mean local taxpayers will be re-billed for the difference, Reddish said.) Commissioner Lynn implied that - if the government can squeak through this year - he would support a larger property tax increase next year.
Boulevard Rezoning Not a Big Deal To Most
originally published August 27, 2008
Mild confusion has been probably the most common reaction to proposed zoning changes in the Boulevard neighborhood, as opposed to strong feelings in favor or against, says Historic Boulevard Neighborhood Association chair Matt Elliott. That’s logical, given that the on-the-ground impact of the government-initiated zoning proposal will likely be minimal, while the nuts and bolts of it involve increasing the allowed density on many parcels in the eastern half of the Boulevard neighborhood. Most of those parcels, though, are either too small or have too-narrow street frontage to be subdivided under current rules, meaning it’s unlikely that actual density will change. In essence, the proposed zoning changes will tidy up the zoning map and make it more accurately reflect the true lot sizes and housing patterns in the neighborhood. An area of large lots along Barber Street will be zoned to a lower density.
The study behind the proposal had its impetus in the desire of the ACC Mayor and Commission to avoid piecemeal rezoning of the neighborhood, after they were asked to pass judgment on two individual rezone requests (one at the corner of Boulevard and Wynburn Avenue, and one on Hiawassee Avenue). “It’s mostly because we started to see some pressures over there for some development patterns that fit more into the RS-8 zoning, which is really the reality over there,” says Commissioner David Lynn, who represents the neighborhood. Says ACC Planning Department staffer Lara Mathes, “There’s no reason to try to disrupt the development pattern there; there’s reason to try to sustain it.”
There’s been little in the way of criticism of the proposal, though neighborhood resident Carole Holmes has voiced mild concerns. “I don’t have any problem with what their thinking is,” Holmes says, but she wonders if, down the road, slight changes to zoning standards might be approved - things that could make the increased densities problematic. “Things can change, consensus can change - the approach to zoning can change,” Holmes says, though she is “not really concerned right now.”
And while the proposal may turn out to hold little real significance for the Boulevard neighborhood, it’s possible that local planners, Planning Commission members and elected officials will want to look at infill-density issues in other in-town neighborhoods in much the same way, meaning Boulevard may just be first in a trend. The proposal has been approved by the the ACC Planning Commission, and the Mayor and Commission will likely approve it at their October voting meeting.
How to Get The Bus More Money?
originally published August 27, 2008
Rachel Bailey
The ACC government is still mulling over a recommendation to generate more revenue for Athens Transit by slapping ads on the outside of city buses.
County staffers and some ACC Commissioners aren’t eager to turn city buses into moving billboards, although selling ads on the outside of Athens Transit’s 28 buses might earn the bus system up to $150,000 a year. County buses already carry some ads inside the buses, but most advertisers don’t want to reach bus riders so much as the general public, especially in an “SEC town,” Transit Director Butch McDuffie told the Commission’s Government Operations Committee Aug. 19. “It’s purely for the drive-by effect,” he said; advertisers are especially interested in advertising along campus routes, for products like Nike or Hilfiger clothes. (Ads would cost the county to administer, too, he said - perhaps up to half of the money brought in.) But “we don’t allow advertising on the public rights of way,” ACC Manager Alan Reddish told commissioners. Should the county itself do what it won’t let others do? Besides, said Reddish (and some commissioners seemed to agree), the ads would create “visual clutter, for the sake of a dollar.”
Exploring bus ads was one recommendation of a committee on transportation that has been part of the OneAthens anti-poverty effort. Another was for an “active marketing program” (also brought up in a committee working on the county’s comprehensive land-use plan) to encourage the public to use the buses more, as Commissioner Alice Kinman noted. Perhaps the ads could pay for a staff person to do PR for the buses, she suggested. But adding more bus riders might only cost the county more in operating costs, countered Reddish. At peak times, some routes already have buses overflowing, said McDuffie (backup buses are usually provided). It’s “a myth” that city buses run empty, he told Flagpole.
“There are not empty buses,” McDuffie said, but there are peak times (in morning and evening), with slack times between. His department uses smaller buses when feasible. But it’s “a very hard question to answer” whether a busy enough route could cover its own costs, McDuffie said. “It’s kind of a two-sided thing,” he said. On average, fares cover about one-third of bus costs, but some routes do return more revenue than others. Campus routes are often busy, and daytime buses carry more passengers than night buses, for example. “The bottom line is, the more people you get on the bus, the more revenue you generate,” he said. But “public transportation in this nation is not there to make a profit…. The benefit to having the transit system is more than just what it costs to providing the ride to that passenger…. If the bus is not there, you impact people’s lives, you impact air quality, you impact traffic congestion.”
Meanwhile, Commissioner Kelly Girtz reports that ACC staffers have begun to take a look at his proposal to explore a free downtown shuttle bus, perhaps running on a short loop route. Austin, TX has several successful routes, Girtz says, and Memphis, TN runs a shuttle along its riverfront. Commissioners have not yet discussed reviving a late-night bus between downtown and student residential areas, though downtown bar owners expressed high enthusiasm for the idea at a meeting of the downtown “Hospitality Resource Panel” in late July.
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