Will Dacula Road Projects Make TSPLOST List?

Next year, Georgia voters will head to the polls to decide whether or not to fund a list of regional transportation projects with a 1 percent sales tax. If passed, the sales tax, known as the TSPLOST, will remain in effect for 10 years. Officials believe the TSPLOST could generate as much a $7 billion of revenue to fund selected regional transportation projects.

Currently, officials are in the process of determining which projects will make the final list. City and county officials have been asked to submit a “wish list” of transportation projects for consideration. Last week, – a list of 73 projects that will compete with other projects from the 10 county region for inclusion in the final list that will go before the voters in the summer of 2012.

was among the elected officials in attendance at the March 17 meeting. The City of Dacula submitted several projects for consideration on the regional list: replacing/widening the Dacula Road Bridge at Highway 29, widening Harbins Road to four lanes, extending Sugarloaf Parkway from Highway 316 to State Route 20 and building a Winder Highway bike trail from Dacula to Athens.

“Those are all really county projects,” Wilbanks said. “We wanted to be supportive of those projects.”

Though the projects may technically be county ones, that does not mean Dacula officials are any less interested in seeing the projects come to fruition.

“Of course the main one we want is the four-laning of Dacula Road and Harbins Road and fixing the bridge,” Wilbanks said. “That’s something that affects us every day.”

According to Wilbanks, much of the traffic that uses Harbins Road in front of during peak traffic times is out-of-county traffic headed north. Wilbanks said the use of Harbins and Dacula Road as a major cut through makes the project a regional one even if the actual site is in the center of Dacula. Despite the heavy traffic and the clear need to improve the bridge, Wilbanks is not very optimistic about the odds of the project making the final cut.

“I would guess that they’re about zero,” he said.

Wilbanks said given the number of projects proposed by Gwinnett and the nine other counties in the region, only a relatively small number can be funded by the expected $7 billion in TSPLOST proceeds.

“I don’t think a lot of this stuff is going to make it and I think if some of it makes it, it is going to put at hazard the idea that the electorate is going to vote for [the TSPLOST],” he said.

“I think you’re going to hear an awful lot of hue and cry about this as people look at these lists as they get published,” he said. Particularly as it relates to rail projects, Wilbanks said.

“I always thought rail would’ve been good if it had been built right in the first place,” Wilbanks said. “I’ve lived through two referendums on bringing MARTA to Gwinnett and those were really polarizing. And I think that is what is going to pop into people’s minds here in Gwinnett County when you say light rail or heavy rail or both.”

Wilbanks said given MARTA’s reputation in Gwinnett, that does not bode well for those projects despite the fact that some form of rail or regional transit may be what the region needs.

“But, then again, we have a transit system in Gwinnett County and we have absolutely no service here in Dacula. Not one bus route that even thinks about coming out here,” he said.

Though Dacula taxpayers help fund the Gwinnett transit system and would inevitably help fund any regional transit system, the residents may not reap any local benefit from those tax dollars.

“We’re paying for it whether we get any of the service or not,” Wilbanks said.

A regional roundtable is scheduled to review Dacula and Gwinnett’s proposed projects along with the rest of the projects from the region and decide which will be put before the voters. Wilbanks said the final project list is due by Oct. 15.

The problem, as Wilbanks sees it, is that no matter which projects are included on the regional list, voters will be a tough sell.

“The people in the City of Dacula, and its environs, I don’t think really care much about some of these projects just as other people won’t care about Dacula Road and Harbins Road,” he said. “So the bottom line is I think the 15 percent of the money that is collected that comes directly to local governments for local projects is what is going to sell this thing to the electorate.”

Wilbanks expects Dacula would receive approximately $2 million over a 10-year period as a result.

“We’re not going to be able to do whole lot with just $2 million at the local level, but the county’s part would be a whole lot bigger than that for local projects,” he said.

Still Wilbanks has doubts that a tax-weary constituency will look favorably upon what he describes as a “confusing” piece of legislation in terms of project selection and implementation.

In an attempt to help voters understand what is being proposed, Wilbanks has posted an article on the city’s website with a link directing readers to additional information. In a separate voter education effort, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce plans to spend $6 million on a TSPLOST promotional campaign.

Though Wilbanks is pessimistic about the chances of the TSPLOST passing, he is even more pessimistic about the future of transportation in the region if it does not.

“I don’t know how we can pave our way out of this situation we’re in,” he said.