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Mr. GEORGE. I would like to say that I too want to express my appreciation for the opportunity of visiting with Congressman Stephens. He is one of the most loved and respected Congressmen that we have had from the 10 districts and from the State of Georgia. Mr. BARRETT. May I close by making this remark: He is one of the most loved Members of the Congress here. And I am not saying this for political reasons. I am saying it because of his splendid characteristics.

And while I say this in closing in the session for this morningwe will terminate now, and we will meet again at 2 o'clock-I do want to say to you, Mr. George, we appreciate your coming here, and we are grateful for your testimony.

(Whereupon, the subcommittee meeting recessed, to reconvene at 2 p.m., the same day.)

AFTERNOON SESSION

Present: Representatives Barrett, Mrs. Sullivan, Moorhead, Stephens, Reuss, and Harvey.

Also present: Representative Weltner of the full committee.
Mr. BARRETT. The committee will come to order.

The first witness this afternoon is going to be Mr. Glenn E. Bennett, executive director, Atlanta Region Metropolitan Planning Commission.

Mr. Bennett, will you come forward, please. We are certainly glad to have you here this afternoon. Although you are a stranger to me, I know much of you. You have a very, very good friend on our full Committee on Banking and Currency, and through him we have heard many good things about you. And I am quite sure he would be proud to introduce you to this committee. And it will go in the record and be read by everybody.

Charlie, I would like for you to introduce your good friend, Mr. Bennett.

Mr. WELTNER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It is my pleasure to introduce as the first witness Mr. Glenn Bennett. Mr. Bennett is the director of the Atlanta Region Metropolitan Planning Commission, which is, as the name indicates, a regional commission serving five counties in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Mr. Bennett has served his region very well, and he has served the country well in the interest he has shown in urban problems.

I might recall to some of my colleagues Mr. Bennett's testimony here in 1963 on what was then called the Urban Transportation Act of 1963. He presented to the full Committee on Banking and Currency the plans and projections of a major rapid transit system for the city of Atlanta. I believe that was an impressive presentation. And I am very happy to present him today to give his views, and those of ARMPC on this legislation.

Mr. BARRETT. Thank you, Mr. Weltner.

Mr. Bennett, we want you to feel at home here and just be one of our family. You make your presentation in your own way. If you desire to read your statement in full, you may do so, and at the end we will ask you some questions.

STATEMENT OF GLENN E. BENNETT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ATLANTA REGION METROPOLITAN PLANNING COMMISSION

Mr. BENNETT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much.

I appreciate Congressman Weltner's introduction, and I am very happy to be here before this committee. My name is Glenn Bennett, and I am the executive director of the Atlanta Region Metropolitan Planning Commission, Atlanta, Ga. I also act as secretary to the newly created Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority and secretary of the Metropolitan Atlanta Council of Local Governments, which was organized in 1964.

I am grateful for the opportunity to appear before you in support of H.R. 12946, which provides incentives in the form of grants for properly planned development projects in metropolitan areas. This I am certain is in the public interest. The emphasis is on metropolitanwide comprehensive planning and coordinated programing of public improvements in metropolitan areas. In effect it provides a bonus for coordinated capital improvement programing throughout an area, and it elevates metropolitan planning to a point closer than it has been in most areas, to actual decisionmaking by local governments. It provides encouragement for the translation of metropolitan plans into action, and the grants proposed under this bill could also make it possible for certain projects stalled for lack of funds to go forward. We are all hard pressed for money for open land, sewer facilities, mass transit, and airport facilities. Every Federal aid bonus helps and in this case funds are contingent on sensible planning. I would like to comment briefly on the progess we have made in metropolitan planning in the Atlanta area where we have had a metropolitan planning commission for many years. It was formed by local initiative long before most of the current Federal aid programs were created. Good use of the so-called 701 Federal planning assistance has been made; since 1955 we have received grants totaling approximately $372,669, including those projects now in progress. Other applications are pending which amount to $110,372. We have successfully employed the funds in studies related to rapid transit, open spaces, housing and building codes, economic and social research, comprehensive land use planning generally, and airport planning. I would like to point out that our commission has always had elected officials and heads of governments as a part of its membership. This, I think, is important. We have considered our functions to be (1) regional research; (2) long-range planning; (3) planning assistance for communities; and (4) coordination of local government activity. Our efforts have successfully brought into being a council of local governments, a metropole, which is an area wide organization of lawenforcement officials, and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority to implement rapid transit plans. These are action agencies; they are metropolitanwide and capable of assisting implementation. They can deal with regional problems that flow across jurisdictional boundaries-traffic, urban transportation, pollution, and law enforcement, for example. The degree to which we have been able to influence land use, highway location, and other regional development has varied from time to time but it is safe to say, I believe, that we have been moderately successful over the years.

Implementing regional plans throughout the many jurisdictions is difficult, to say the least. It would appear to me that H.R. 12946 would assist in this respect; it encourages that which some of us have been trying to do all along, and it rewards local governments for comprehensive planning and coordination.

I have long been in favor of some form of regional referral to a metropolitan agency for those capital improvements which have regional significance. This bill provides an incentive and could very well upgrade significantly the decisionmaking processes in a metropolitan area. This is indeed the objective toward which we are all striving.

I am glad to say the Atlanta region has the organizational facilities to make good use of the provisions of this bill. Good foundations have been laid for areawide coordination, and we are experienced in metropolitan planning. Our local governments have supported and used metropolitan planning for a long time without any particular incentives from Washington. This bill could increase its effectiveness.

Mr. Chairman, if I may I should like to make some remarks about title III, "Urban Mass Transportation." Not so long ago, as Congressman Weltner mentioned, I had the honor to appear before several of you and discuss this subject prior to the passage of the Mass Transportation Act of 1964. We now have, as I mentioned earlier, an agency with the legal authority to construct and operate a regional rapid transit system. Plans developed in 1962 with 701 assistance were used as a basis for a recent 702 public facilities loan request in the amount of $1,100,000 for preliminary engineering and further refinement of plans. We are now told that the money is not available to meet this request, although the application is in order and all the earlier planning provides a sound basis for this stage of our transit development. We have been told we have "done our homework well," but that funds under this program are short. I mention this disappointing situation in the hope that you gentlemen may be able to remedy it sometime soon.

Atlanta is starting from scratch to build a new rapid transit system. We are about to start on engineering a 36-mile line that will cost probably $300 million to construct in 1969 or 1970. The mass transit bill as it stands now doesn't help us much, since nowhere near the amount of the funds we need are yet in sight. In spite of this our local governments and the State government are going bravely and confidently ahead with preliminary steps. If some assurance could be given to cities like Atlanta that substantial assistance can be forthcoming over a period of years, our present dilemma would be eased considerably.

The present authorizations and appropriations under the mass transit bill help only the small cities that need buses and the large cities that are extending existing transit systems. For those of us trying to create new systems the funds are totally inadequate; and with traffic congestion rapidly growing worse our plight is dramatized daily. The case for enormous public expenditures for transit grows stronger and our planning forecasts repeatedly turn out to be too low. The same could be said, for that matter, about our air traffic in Atlanta as well, but that is a matter for another day.

Mr. Chairman, the many Federal aid programs affecting urban development represent a huge investment in our metropolitan areas. The quality of the administration and management of these programs at the Federal, regional, and local levels has been improved noticeably, it seems to me, in the past 2 years by those few requirements for coordinated planning which now already exist. This bill goes further and provides what I believe to be workable and appropriate procedures for stimulating a kind of urban development that can be consistent with comprehensive metropolitan planning.

I should like to file copies of this statement with you, together with a publication entitled, "The Atlanta Region Metropolitan Planning Commission-What It Is What It Does."

And I appreciate being here. I shall be glad to reply to any questions.

Mr. BARRETT. That will be placed in the record without objection. (The material referred to by Mr. Bennett follows:)

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