Posted on 02/04/2002 4:33:40 PM PST by FreedomFriend
For more than 30 years, Ed and Eva Gumbert's 230-acre farm on the Etowah River in north Cherokee County has been their sylvan haven.
It was their weekend retreat from the clamor of the workaday world for the first 20 years. Then, after Ed Gumbert retired from his teaching job at Georgia State University in 1993, they sold their Atlanta home and moved permanently into a world of soaring hawks, majestic hardwood trees and unspoiled blue-ridged vistas.
They cannot bear to think what the construction of the Northern Arc will do to it. The 59-mile, limited-access highway will slam four lanes of 65-mph traffic through the virgin forest that surrounds them, taking most of the two miles of Etowah frontage and splitting their treasure neatly in two.
"We will be able to see it, hear it and smell it," said Ed Gumbert, standing on the deck that may eventually lie within a half mile of the highway and waving his hand over the wooded valley below.
The Gumberts find themselves at the nexus of an increasingly volatile public debate facing the Atlanta region. Already the Northern Arc, accelerated by a massive infusion of cash from Gov. Roy Barnes' statewide transportation program, has triggered a swelling protest movement throughout the metro area against a road that would be moving traffic just four years from now if state transportation officials could have their way.
Eva Gumbert's eyes fill with tears when she points to the section of their farm lying in the road's projected path. That's where they scattered the ashes of their son, Brian, an archaeologist who died in 1997.
"The whole horizon would be filled with the Northern Arc," said Eva Gumbert, gesturing toward the scenic mountain panorama just beyond their deck.
But thousands of area commuters, especially in Atlanta's swelling northern suburbs, believe the Arc is the passport out of the dangerous and frustrating gridlock they must endure each day. Many developers and business owners believe the traffic-moving potential of the Arc is essential to unleashing the full economic potential of the region.
Brandy and Dale Keyt live a short drive down Ga. 20 from the Gumberts. As far as Brandy Keyt, is concerned, the Northern Arc can't be built soon enough. She commutes to her job as a hair stylist in the Town Lake area.
She is weary of fighting bumper-to-bumper traffic on the two-lane artery she must take to get anywhere and fearful of the steady stream of tractor-trailer traffic that rumbles across it at full speed all day.
"The accidents and potential accidents on Highway 20 are unbelievable," Keyt said. "It's scary for your kids to pull out on that highway. It's scary for me to pull out on that road."
Dale Keyt operates a mobile auto reupholstering business that takes him throughout the metro area. Brandy Keyt said her husband has to keep a close eye on his watch when he visits the Jimmy Carter Boulevard area to purchase supplies.
"If he doesn't leave by a specific time of day from that area, it's a three-hour commute," Brandy Keyt said.
To the Keyts, the Northern Arc "would be like our own I-285 to connect us from interstate to interstate," she said.
In public and private, in county courthouses and the General Assembly, in corporate suites and over backyard fences, the benefits and drawbacks of building the Northern Arc are being hotly debated. Although the merits of the road have been under scrutiny for more than a decade, the momentum it has gained from Barnes' enthusiastic support and his $8.6 billion transportation program has heated passions on both sides.
"I think this year is going to be the turning point," said Ed Sensenbrenner, a retired Lockheed engineer who lives in Bartow County. "If we don't kill it this year, we've got it."
Sensenbrenner has been fighting the road for more than a decade, since discovering a projected path that would send it "right through my kitchen." A prolific correspondent with state and county officials as well as area newspapers, Sensenbrenner has a carefully catalogued library of information on the Arc dating to 1988, when it was just part of the Outer Perimeter, a 211-mile highway encircling Atlanta.
The Atlanta Regional Commission, which controls access to federal transportation investments in the region, studied the proposed highway in 1994. By 1999, its board was convinced only the Arc showed any promise for addressing existing traffic demand.
The commission board said it would continue planning the road, but with eight conditions. Those included the limitation of interchanges to "freeways" only, use of tolls to fund its construction, acquisition of large "scenic" buffers on each side of the highway and aggressive land-use planning throughout the corridor.
Now, I don't consider the southside to be unattractive. In fact, the terrain on Atlanta's southside is by far more attractive than anything Dallas has to offer. Those frontage roads in Dallas are quite an eyesore.
I suppose the difference between the northside and southside is that on the northside, the hills are more steep, and the foliage is predominately hardwood, interspersed with a few pines. On the other hand, the southside is dominated by smaller hills, and a much greater percentage of pine trees, perhaps a 50-50 ratio of hardwood to pine.
Here in Dallas, most freeways and tollroads were placed over the ROW for the railroads. I think that its that way over most of the country. Every community that is growing is faced with these problems. Remember Simcity?
BTW, I have been told that most development across the US pushes north since that is usually higher elevated land, making water projects easier. That is a project to consider, adding waste water treatment plants up on the north side!
I try hard not to adopt the Colorado method of city zoning (I've moved here, now you stay out!) Gotta admit, now that the D/FW metroplex has 6 million people and is 115 miles east-west and about a 100 miles north-south, it sure seems a lot more reasonable.
I've always considered Conservation a Conservative issue. How is wanting to Conserve nature a liberal idea? It's not. However, I'm all for private property rights. What irks me is the government meddling into the issue so much, and proposing transportation projects where it is not likely needed. They do this because of the added revenues that will come into their hands at the expense of new residents from the new development. As far as the section of the arc from Cumming to the Mall of Georgia, I have no problem with it, though an upgrade of Ga. 20 would be the best bet.
Growth will be stopped naturally when it encroaches on the mountains, where land and development costs will make large-scale residential developments unaffordable to most.
You must not have been around when Lake Lanier was made. THAT really messed things up, but the area survived. The Northern Arc is a flyspeck in comparison.
Are you joining the socialist NIMBY's?
The Gumbels need to wake up and see that the project will make them much wealthier. - They can take their money and run somewhere else.
As our population grows, these things will happen. - If they didn't recognize the possibility of this project they were blind. - Their arguments are emotional, not logical.
Are you joining the socialist NIMBY's?
The Gumbels need to wake up and see that the project will make them much wealthier. - They can take their money and run somewhere else.
As our population grows, these things will happen. - If they didn't recognize the possibility of this project they were blind. - Their arguments are emotional, not logical.
This road has the potential to thrusts Atlanta onto the scale of a Los Angeles or New York. I don't think that's something us Conservatives should cherish. Like I've said, I have no problem with developers developing. My problem is with this unneeded road, at least the part from Cartersville to Cumming. Notice how the western end of the arc takes a northward path. Completely unnecssary, in my opinion, when you consider that traffic on Ga. 20 isn't that bad between Cartersville to Cumming. Furthermore, if it's that bad, they should four land the two lane road. That's the route to take.
Born... Emory Hospital, 1952.
Raised...DeKalb County, near Shallowford Road /I-85 /I-285.
Reside...Duluth
Opinion:
They can't build that sucker soon enough!
How many times though? Seriously I have a proposed by-pass that may in the next 10-15 years be coming within a quarter mile of my secluded home. The second time this has happened BTW. I live in a rural area to purposely stay away from the noise and crowds of the city only to have the city export it's problems such as a landfill in my community. Now they want a by-pass. No I don't live in Georgia but rather north of Knoxville, Tennessee. I'm sick of giving up my rights to my dreams and my peace for the benifit of developers. I'm sure if I bought some land on a mountain top some high dollar friend of a politican would find a way to use it as well. Atlanta could build a by-pass starting in Chatanooga and still complain.
But at the same time Tennessee has yet to even finish I-40 and I-640 the current by-pass through Knoxville. I find it interesting that the frontage property in question for these projects usually get's bought up several years before the government actually settles on a route. In other words money talks and my rights as a property owner come second to the developers money and political influence.
Livin' in the city ain't where it's at,
It's like trying to find gold in a silver mine..."
The one time that Elton was right, he was really right!
But that's what this is really about; the jobs are in the city but nobody in their right mind would live there. - There is no solution to your problem.
That is, they want to pave over everything, so that there is no retreat. Yet, they also hate the small business man and tax him to death till the point that he goes out of business.
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