A hearing Tuesday night on Hall County’s proposed 2040 Metropolitan Transportation Plan quickly intersected with another major roads issue — a planned statewide vote in August 2012 on a 1-cent tax for transportation.

Planners were asked what ramifications the tax would have, if any, on the long-range plan, an update of the 2030 plan Hall County has been operating under since its approval in 2007.

Srikanth Yamala, transportation planning manager for the Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization, said the 2040 plan doesn’t factor in the tax because voters haven’t approved it yet, and so the tax could be a boon if it is approved.

Woeful state and federal funding the past few years has forced delays in projects, pushing them further out, as reflected in the 2040 plan, he said.

“If (the tax) passes ... we could see a lot of projects moving from Tier 2 and maybe even Tier 3 into the Tier 1 area,” Yamala said.

The tiers are time frames in which certain aspects of projects can be completed, with Tier 1 representing 2012-2017; Tier 2, 2018-2030; and Tier 3, 2031-2040.

The MPO is developing the 2040 plan to meet federal requirements that state that all metropolitan areas with more than 50,000 residents, such as Gainesville-Hall, develop and maintain such a plan.

The agency must take certain steps toward the August completion of the plan. Tuesday night’s public hearing, which drew about 45 residents and government officials to the Georgia Mountains Center in Gainesville, was one of those steps.

Attendees were given about 30 minutes before the hearing to view maps, which included ones depicting Hall’s traffic congestion levels in 2040 if no road improvements are made.

Yamala and consultant Jeff Carroll of South Carolina-based Wilbur Smith Associates presented information about the plan.

During the hearing, no one protested loudly about proposed projects or suggested new projects.

A few questions were raised about specific interests, such as about bicycle lanes along busy streets and the status of a four-lane road connecting the Sardis Road area to Ga. 60/Thompson Bridge Road.

At one point, Oakwood City Manager Stan Brown raised a concern about passenger rail service.

“If we’re going to have over 500,000 people by 2040, we’re going to have people who are going to need that mode of transportation to get into the Atlanta area and vice versa,” he said, referring to a population projection associated with the plan’s development.

Officials did add one project to the list earlier in the day, at the urging of Dee Taylor of Gainesville traffic engineering and Jody Woodall of Hall County engineering.

Speaking at the MPO’s Policy Committee meeting, the two men requested the extension of Howard Road from Ga. 365 to Old Cornelia Highway in East Hall be added to the list.

No funding sources are available for right-of-way acquisition and construction, although officials have identified $400,000 for preliminary engineering, Yamala said.

At the first public hearing on the 2040 plan, held last year, Lake Lanier Islands officials suggested a four-lane widening of Lanier Islands Parkway from McEver Road to the popular resort. That project has been pegged for the 2018-2030 time frame.

Next up the for the MPO is submitting the project list to the Atlanta Regional Commission by April 4, as Hall is part of the commission’s 20-county nonattainment area concerning federal air quality standards.

A third public hearing could be held in June. Officials are then planning a 30-day comment period covering June and July, Yamala said.

After Tuesday night’s hearing, Graham McKinnon of Tommy Aaron Drive in Gainesville clung to his concerns about bicycle safety.

“Not every road needs to be ‘complete,’ ” he said, referring to a term Carroll had given to describe road construction including sidewalks and bike paths. “It needs to address its use and sometimes the use is cars and bikes and not necessarily sidewalks.”