With a fiscal cliff for the Chicago region’s transit system in the rearview mirror, suburban riders could see a streamlined fare system, more frequent trains and more transit-oriented development, some suburban lawmakers and advocates say, following the recent passage of a $1.5 billion state funding bill for mass transit.

After months of transit talk and failed legislative proposals as the clock ticked to avert an impending fiscal cliff for mass transit in the Chicago region, Illinois lawmakers on Oct. 31 passed a plan that fills the funding gap, adds initiatives meant to bolster safety and prevent planned service cuts and layoffs and overhauls the Chicago region’s mass transit system by creating a new governing body to oversee the CTA, Metra and Pace.

That governing body, the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, or NITA, will replace the current Regional Transportation Authority, or RTA. NITA’s board would have 20 members — five each from the city of Chicago, Cook County government, collar counties and the governor. The CTA, Metra and Pace will continue to have their own boards, too.

The legislation, set to go into effect June 1, was sent to the Governor’s Office on Tuesday to be signed.

Before the $1.5 billion deal, initial proposals in the spring for a transit funding plan took some heat and generated significant discussion, including from representatives from the collar counties.

On Tuesday, however, a handful of suburban legislators and advocates gathered inside a Metra train depot in Geneva to express their support for the mass transit funding bill — and tout what they believe are the benefits suburban residents will see.

“For too long, suburban riders have been treated as an afterthought in a system that is essential to our economy and our way of life,” state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, said. “This legislation changes that by creating a single, coordinated regional authority. We are breaking down the barriers between Metra, Pace and CTA.”

“Music to my ears,” Canty added on Tuesday as a train rolled by at the Geneva station.

State Rep. Matt Hanson, D-Aurora, referenced lawmakers’ failure to pass a funding bill for transit in the spring, but pointed to the future, saying that the “real journey is still ahead.”

“It’s a long-term, not solution, but a promise to the people in our state that we will have a state-of-the-art, world class (transportation) system,” Hanson said.

Advocates are optimistic the transit overhaul and the increased funding that will come with it will lead to more frequent trains and buses — both in and outside of the city of Chicago — and will streamline riders’ experience by integrating fares among the different agencies, explained Audrey Wennink, a senior director for the Metropolitan Planning Council who worked on the legislation.

“All the details aren’t figured out yet,” Wennink said about the plans to make it so riders pay a single fare to go anywhere in the region, “but it’ll just make it easier for people to ride.”

The intention is to streamline the process, she said, thereby making riding the system’s trains and buses easier for users.

“The goal is to move towards regional rail, which means that Metra will work better for people, even traveling between suburbs, you know, to make it frequent enough (that) they could go out to dinner in the next town,” Wennink said. “And it’s a viable option because there’s enough frequency that people aren’t worried about missing a train.”

For Dany Robles of the Illinois Environmental Council, moving to Chicago’s northern suburbs from Mexico put him in “culture shock” when it came to the public transit options. He too emphasized the legislation’s aim of expanding options for the suburbs.

“The more conveniently, efficiently and sustainably we move about this region, the closer we become to and the closer we become for one another,” Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns said at Tuesday’s event.

Canty also pointed out the legislation’s provisions surrounding housing developments near public transportation, saying the bill would make it “easier to build vibrant, walkable communities that attract young families and employers and keep seniors in their communities even longer.”

The funding bill enables transit agencies to develop property near transit options, explained Wennink, but it does not overrule local zoning. The legislation includes a carve-out stating that the provision “does not exempt” those agencies “from complying with land use regulations applicable to the property involved in a transit-supportive development or trail-supportive development.”

Drew Mitchell, representing real estate firm Holladay Properties, also spoke on Tuesday about the portion of the bill generally prohibiting minimum vehicle parking requirements for development projects near public transit, saying that eliminating that requirement would enable more transit-oriented developments as well as increase ridership.

“Let’s reopen these nucleases near our trains,” Mitchell said on Tuesday. “Let’s reactivate our Metra stations throughout Chicago. How exciting is that?”

The portion of the bill related to transit agencies’ ability to develop near transit options was a chief concern for Burns, he explained on Tuesday, suggesting that the original language could have been construed as giving NITA control over those projects. He requested that stakeholders continue to engage local mayors across the region.

And it remains to be seen how the new governing body, NITA, will affect the transit agencies and public transportation in the Chicago region. That was a sticking point in the suburbs when the original legislation was being discussed, including in Kane County.

“The concern was that, with the governor and Cook County and Chicago having so many votes … that the collar counties would not have a fair say,” Kane County Board member Mavis Bates said at Tuesday’s event. Kane County officials previously expressed concern with a possible governance structure overhaul just before the state’s spending plan was passed in the spring.

Wennink, however, said the suburbs have “the same representation” with NITA as they did on the RTA board, in that each collar county gets a representative.

“We argued the governance issue,” Burns told The Beacon-News of the suburbs’ concerns with a changed governing structure, “and we didn’t come out on top in that regard. But we’re still going to keep an eye on things, as this process matures.”

mmorrow@chicagotribune.com