South Central Texas SRPC Holds First Coordination meeting with TXDOT

Marion City Council votes unanimously joins SCSRPC

On Monday November 3, 2008 the Marion City Council voted unanimously to join our efforts on the SCTSRPC. We welcome them to the table and look forward to making sure their concerns are heard. They will most certainly be a valuable addition to our Commission.

Next meeting: December 18, 2008 2pm St Hedwig City Hall Agenda TBD

We had a great initial Coordination meeting with TXDOT on October 29, 2008 which lasted approximately 2 hours in length.

A substantial amount of discussion was had between our Commission and TXDOT relating specifically to the TTC-35 and how it could possibly affect St. Hedwig and our neighbors. Others present at the meeting were representatives from Marion City Council, East Central ISD, St. Hedwig Fire Department, La Vernia City Council and La Vernia ISD.

We will have a second Coordination meeting with TXDOT in January 2009, date TBD, to discuss in more detail the traffic issues that need to be addressed relating to the expansion of 1604, TTC-35, and other issues. The intent of this meeting is for the 391 Commission to come to the table with specific issues and to offer solutions to those issues, thus making TXDOT completely aware of the cause and effect of any new construction of state roads or expansion of existing roads within our area.

We in the St. Hedwig, Wilson County area and our neighbors will no longer be ignored when it comes to federal and state agencies making changes in our area without them first having a true understanding of what those changes mean to our citizens. We appreciate TXDOT coming out to St. Hedwig’s City Hall for our initial as well as follow up meeting, and look forward to working closely with them not only now, but for many years to come.

Now if we could just have our local radio and television stations start referring to us by name (St. Hedwig) instead of East Bexar County….. we are after all 30.1 square miles in size, second only to San Antonio as the largest incorporated City Limits in Bexar County….but one thing at a time I suppose.

Kathy Palmer, President SCTSRPC

Commissioners are as follows:

President	Kathy Palmer	Chairman St. Hedwig Planning and Zoning Commission
Vice President	Mary Jo Dylla	St. Hedwig Mayor
Secretary/Treasurer	Susann Baker	St. Hedwig City Council woman
	Ralph Gerhart	Wilson County Resident
	Larry Wiley	Wilson County Commissioner
	Judge Marvin Quinney	Wilson County Judge

Kathy Palmer has been invited to be part of the Call America 2008 Annual Conference “Coordinating America’s Local Leaders” in Austin, TX Nov. 13-15. She will be a guest speaker as well as participating along with 2 members of other Texas 391 Commissions and Dan Byfield President of the American Land Foundation in a Q&A panel on Friday during the “Bringing Control Home in Texas” session. For more information on the entire seminar click on www.stewards.us.

© 2008 South Central Texas SRPC: www.sctsrpc.blogspot.com

Is Trans-Texas Corridor dead or only undead?

Fred Afflerbach
Temple Daily Telegram
Copyright 2008

Put a fork in it. That’s what two Texas politicians recently said about the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor.

“Everybody in Austin knows it’s dead. Everybody across the state knows it’s dead. It’s just something to be talking about,” House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said at a debate in Midland on Oct. 19, according to a published report.

But folks fighting the corridor here in Central Texas call it election season bluster.

“Yes, they are still planning to do it,” said Mae Smith, Holland mayor. “That’s nothing but political talk. I don’t believe anything Mr. Craddick says, or any politician says prior to election.”

Ms. Smith is also president of the Eastern Central Texas Sub-regional Planning Commission, a group of mayors and school board members who are working to stop the corridor by pushing environmental impact studies. The commission says expansion of Interstate 35 is a viable alternative.

“We’re not denying there is a traffic problem. But keep it in the footprint of I-35 . . . and not destroy our prime farm land, school districts and towns,” Ms. Smith said.

A spokeswoman for Craddick responded Thursday.

“The House overwhelmingly voted to place a moratorium on the Trans-Texas Corridor because of various issues that were raised, such as property rights and toll roads. Currently, the House Transportation Committee, the House Appropriations Committee and the Sunset Advisory Commission, as well as the state auditor, have been investigating these matters. It is clear from what has come back from these committees that the Trans-Texas Corridor will be addressed once and for all in this next session of the Legislature.”

And that worries folks like Ms. Smith. Once the election is over, the Legislature will go back to work pushing the corridor.

Speaking from the Milam County seat of Cameron on Wednesday, State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan - not up for re-election until 2010 - said he agreed with Craddick’s statement.

“I think the speaker had it right the other day when he said, ‘I think everybody knows it’s dead,’” Ogden said.

Rather than a Trans-Texas Corridor for utilities, motor vehicles and trains, Ogden believes efforts will be directed toward developing an interstate-quality highway from South Texas to East Texas parallel to Interstate 35.

Again, Ms. Smith said the commission adamantly opposes any new thoroughfare east of I-35, through the Blackland Prairie.

“They’re still wanting to stick it right on top of us. A smaller version, even more so, should go right in the footprint of 35.”

Another commission member and a small business owner, Ralph Snyder, said Craddick and Ogden supported the corridor from its inception and they weren’t changing direction now.

“It’s just a way to keep the people placated for the present time. It’s election time,” Snyder said. “It’s a done deal. It’s been a done deal for years.”

But Snyder isn’t saying raise the white flag. He says the commission could have some impact how and where the final project is built.

Meanwhile, down at the Texas Department of Transportation, spokesman Chris Lippincott said TxDOT was waiting on the results of an environmental impact study the Federal Highway Administration is conducting.

“It is a big complicated study,” Lippincott said. “It’s a big project.”

After the study is completed in early 2009, Lippincott said TxDOT would open the discussion for public comment. He would not elaborate on Craddick’s statement.

© 2008 Temple Daily Telegram: www.tdtnews.com

Is Trans-Texas Corridor a dead issue?

Craddick's declaration at debate fuels speculation - and a complicated answer.

By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2008

"Everybody in Austin knows it's dead. Everybody across the state knows it's dead. It's just something to be talking about."— Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, Oct. 19, 2008

The "it" in that quote, uttered during a Midland debate last week with the Democratic challenger for Craddick's House seat, Bill Dingus, referred to the Trans-Texas Corridor.

When I heard about this early last week, my first reaction was, "Really? Uh-oh." As in, the Texas Department of Transportation quietly killed the whole effort to build a tollway parallel to Interstate 35 and another tollway from Brownsville to Texarkana called Interstate 69, and the Statesman's transportation reporter missed the whole thing. Big uh-oh.

And I figured that for those farmers and ranchers whose property is along the broadly defined corridors of TTC-35 and I-69, Craddick's words had to be a relief. I could envision them cracking open a cold one to celebrate the news that their grandbabies would still be working the land in 60 years.

Not so fast.

Turns out that accurately interpreting Craddick's words depends on the meaning of "it" and the definition of "dead."

I called Craddick's office and got his spokeswoman, Alexis DeLee, on the phone. So, I asked, are TTC-35 and I-69 dead? Is that what the speaker was saying? Because if so, then TxDOT, which has agency employees, consultants and two private toll road consortiums working on various environmental and engineering plans for both roads, is wasting a lot of money.

"We're not getting into I-69," DeLee said, adding that I-69 wasn't in the Trans-Texas Corridor plan. She didn't want to talk about TTC-35 much either. "The comment he made was about the Trans-Texas Corridor as it relates to its original plan laid out by Ric Williamson. And that is dead."

Actually, that original plan was laid out by Gov. Rick Perry at a Jan. 28, 2002, news conference, not by the late state Transportation Commission chairman (though Williamson tirelessly pushed for it). And the original map for the 4,000 miles of tollways, railways and utilities across the state clearly shows a corridor along I-69's route.

Here's the deal: Rural folks, including those in Craddick's district, hate the Trans-Texas Corridor. So Craddick was selling what people at that debate were raring to buy. And the truth is that in the six years since Perry's announcement, TxDOT hasn't lifted a finger to work on most of the lines on that corridor map. Who needs parallel tollways to roads like I-10 and I-20 with sparse traffic? No one.

And the railroad and utility aspects of the corridor plan have gone nowhere as well.

So, yes, overall, the Perry/Williamson Trans-Texas Corridor is dead.

But two pieces of it — TTC-35 and I-69 — the proposed tollways that have roiled Texas for three or four years, are very much alive. So hold off on sending flowers.

Getting There appears Mondays. For questions, tips or story ideas, contact Getting There at 445-3698 or bwear@statesman.com.

© 2008 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com

EPA In Corrigan To Hear Concerns About I-69 TTC

By Christel Phillips
KTRE-TV
Copyright 2008

CORRIGAN, TX - A draft environmental impact statement prepared by TxDOT is at the heart of the I-69 Trans Texas Corridor debate. Members of the Trinity Neches Sub-Regional Planning Committee want to send TxDOT back to the drawing board.

Bob Dickens, President of the Trinity Neches Sub-Regional Planning Committee says, "We don't think the law and regulations were followed and we do not think TxDOT has taken into consideration the impact of the environment, our wildlife, our water districts, our cities, our school districts, and in essence, our way of life."

That's why the Sub-Regional Planning Committee met with the Environmental Protection Agency. The committee wants the EPA to use thier expertise to persuade TxDOT to do a better job in researching the projected highway building area.

Cathy Gilmore, Chief of the EPA Office Planning and Coordination says, "Our place is really to look at the environmental aspects of the project and whether or not they've addressed our concerns."

Pennington Water District services about 900 customers in East Texas, they told the EPA that the TTC would come straight through their water line causing a serious problems for residents.

Bill Wagner, Represenative for Pennington Water District says, "From what we hear there will be no on and off ramps to access the customers. It will stop service to new customers, it will stop maintenence, it's going to have a major impact on us."

Bottom line, the committee wants to TxDOT to redraft their environmental impact statement and address their concerns in the revision.

"We hope we presented adequate information where they will study it, re-think it and go with the I-59 Corridor," says Wagner.

The planning committee hopes that TxDOT will be able to meet with them next month so they can address today's concerns to them as well.

© 2008 KTRE-TV: www.ktre.com

More on Craddick saying TTC is "dead"

Susan Rigdway Garry
Anti-Corridor/Rail Expansion (ACRE)
Copyright 2008

The ACRE message about the quote from House Speaker Craddick that the Trans-Texas Corridor was “dead” has prompted interesting comments. Some who commented were concerned that people would think because Craddick said the Corridor was “dead” we didn’t have to struggle against it anymore. This is not the case; we do need to continue our efforts.

The quote is significant because Craddick had never said anything like this about the Corridor before. It is significant that so many politicians, including Craddick, in this campaign season think it is necessary for them to oppose the Corridor in order to get elected. This is a big change. When we started fighting against the Corridor, politicians weren’t saying this. This means that we are making progress.

We can’t say that the Corridor is dead until it is officially killed legislatively. So we all need to continue working toward this end, but I think it is encouraging that more and more politicians are coming out against it in their campaigns.

Here are comments from representatives of some of the organizations that have been in the forefront of the fight against the Corridor.

DAN BYFIELD, American Land Foundation:

“Don't believe that the TTC is dead. Politicians will say anything to get re-elected. Mr. Craddick had the opportunity the past two sessions to kill this, but why would he now reveal that it's dead? The Legislature is the only body capable of ‘killing’ the TTC, but they're not in session.

What is very revealing about this statement is his need, like so many other politicians running for office, to say anything about the Trans-Texas Corridor - especially something this negative. He realizes it is a hot button issue with his constituents and fellow House members (who will be voting for him for Speaker), otherwise he would never have mentioned it on the campaign stump.

We are making a difference, but if Mr. Craddick and others who voted for the TTC get back into office, nothing will change and the TTC will live on.”

AGNES VOGES, Blackland Coalition:

“I doubt seriously that Craddick has the truth in this matter. Granted, TTC may have hit a snag or two, but one way or the other, it is still happening. Again, the LAW has to be changed before this thing is dead. If not, then there is nothing that will keep it from being resuscitated at any time they can get their fingers on some money.”

LINDA STALL, Corridor Watch

“The law creating TTC remains and it should be changed . . . and some oversight legislation for PPPs put in place. We are hearing from a few people around the state that their Counties are getting into strangely oversized road projects, and we are concerned that the push will shift to developing ‘County projects’ that then are shifted to TxDOT and linked together . . . TTC under the radar.

“It is nice to hear that Craddick realizes it’s in his interest to say the Corridor is dead. I am always leery when a leadership official says something like that, just in case he's trying to get people to stop speaking out . . . and to undermine his opposition candidate's ability to make political mileage out of the Corridor as an issue.”

TERRI HALL, San Antonio Toll Party and TURF:

“Craddick's comments are no more true than saying the sun won't rise tomorrow. This is an election year, period. NO law has been changed or policies reversed to prove this statement correct. In fact, they've gone underground and are cheating in how they're supplementing the environmental record to make it appear they'll use existing right of way for TTC-69 using clever language rife with get of jail free cards. Also, TTC-35 is barreling forward unabated.

“It's huge he [Craddick] even feels the need to say it to get re-elected!”

© 2008 ACRE: acretexas.blogspot.com

Top leader says Trans-Texas Corridor is dead

Patrick Driscoll
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2008

In a debate last night, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick tried to put a gaping chasm between him and the governor's prized Trans-Texas Corridor and went on to say the project's dead, a television station reported.

"I want to clear this up. I did not vote for the Trans-Texas Corridor and you're welcome to look at the voting records," he said in a broadcast by KXAN in Austin.

Then Craddick, a Republican who was debating his Democratic opponent, Bill Dingus, in Midland, stuck a fork in the Trans-Texas Corridor and declared the ambitious plan done, according to KXAN.

"Everybody in Austin knows it's dead," he said. "Everybody across the state knows it's dead. It's just something to be talking about."

The broad network of toll lanes, rail lines and utility corridors was unveiled by Perry, also Republican, six years ago as the state's 21st Century map for new pathways. A strategy to fund it with private financing was hailed by free marketers nationwide and jeered by a spectrum of naysayers such as farmers and environmentalists.

View the KXAN broadcast: [HERE]

© 2008 The San Antonio Express-News: www.blogs.mysanantonio.com

Groups warn TTC projects still alive

10/16/08

By CLAY COPPEDGE
Country World News
Copyright 2008

Recent reports of the demise of the Trans-Texas Corridor-69 have been greatly exaggerated by the state’s transportation department, according to a sub-regional planning commission formed to take on the massive highway project.
Connie Fogle with the Trinity-Neches Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission said an announcement by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) that recommended upgrading U.S. Highway 59 to an Interstate, rather than build the TTC-69 corridor, was simply a diversionary tactic.

“They wanted to put the people in East Texas minds at ease, but the new corridor alternative is anything but off the table,” Fogle said. “TxDOT is still very much considering the new corridor.”

The commission recently received a letter from Dennis Cooley, TxDOT’s District Engineer from Lufkin, indicating that the new corridor alternative will remain in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) that it will submit to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) for final approval.

The letter from Cooley states that TxDOT will only recommend advancing the TTC-69 project along existing highway facilities where it is practical.
“The key word is ‘practical,’” Fogle said. “That gives them the leeway to decide where it’s practical and where it isn’t. They’re ready to put that into the Final Environmental Impact Statement, but the truth is, they haven’t made a study of the (project’s) impact on the environment. We had a meeting scheduled with EPA about this very matter, but we had to postpone it because of Hurricane Ike. But we’re not going to let it go.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor in 2002 as a series of six-lane highways with separate high-speed rail lines, truck lanes and utility corridors criss-crossing the state. Each corridor could be as wide as 1,200 feet.

The Governor and TxDOT have promoted the TTC as a solution to the state’s transportation problems, but the project has met with formidable opposition, particularly in rural parts of the state where the corridors would have the biggest impact on small towns and agricultural interests.

The first leg of the proposed TTC system is TTC-35, which would run about 600 miles from Gainesville to Laredo, roughly parallel to IH-35.

TTC-69 would run generally southwest to northeast along a 650-mile long route first mapped for IH-69, from the Gulf Coast to Texarkana.

In the past year, several sub-regional planning groups have formed under the authority of Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 391, which requires state agencies “to the greatest extent feasible” to coordinate with local commissions to “ensure effective and orderly implementation of state programs at the regional level.”

An Eastern Central Texas commission was formed in August of 2007 to challenge TTC-35. The Trinity-Neches Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission was formed in February of 2008 in response to TTC-69. There are now nine such planning commissions in the state.

“There is a lot at stake here,” Fogle said. “Once you concrete over that much land, it’s not coming back. You’ve lost all that agricultural land, plus, here in East Texas we have a lot of timber, and hunting is big business here too.”

In a June 11 press release, Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton said public input on I-69 led the commission to recommend using existing infrastructure whenever possible along the I-69 corridor.

“When needs are identified in the I-69 corridor, we will look at existing infrastructure and work with local officials to upgrade that facility to meet transportation needs,” Houghton said. “It just makes sense. As Texans pointed out to us, a facility built on new location may be unnecessary when an existing one can be improved to handle demand.”

Fogle said the Trinity-Neches sub-regional commission is not buying it.

“We believe, based on the way TxDOT has handled this from the first, that they are just saying that so people will think it (the new corridor proposal) is off the table,” she said. “They’re building this around a plan, not a need. We think they’re going to stick with the original plan if everybody eases up on them because they think they’re only going to use upgrade existing facilities.”

© 2008 Country World News: www.countryworldnews.com

TTC-69 “New Corridor” Alternative Not off the table!

Connie Fogle

Press Release
Trinity-Neches Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (TNT SRPC)
Copyright 2008

“Even though TXDOT has said the ‘New Corridor’ alternative will not be chosen for the Trans-Texas Corridor 69, we have proof that it is not off the table and could be chosen in the future,” announced Trinity-Neches Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (TNT) President, Bob Dockens.

TNT recently received a letter from Dennis Cooley, TxDOT’s District Engineer from Lufkin, stating that the new corridor alternative would still be a part of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) when submitted for approval from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA).

Just a few months ago, TXDOT announced in a major publicity campaign that they would not be recommending the “new corridor” alternative, but would recommend upgrading U.S. 59 to Interstate status as their “preferred alternative” when submitting the FEIS.

“That was a masterful slight-of-hand by TXDOT,” commented Commission Associate, Connie Fogle. Although TxDOT’s announcement appeased lawmakers and some local officials, TNT officials found an FHA regulation that allows TXDOT to go back to the “new corridor” alternative after the study has been approved by the FHA.

Cooley’s letter to the Commission confirms that the new corridor is still a real threat to the local area stating; “the effort made to evaluate the new corridors will be captured in the body of the Tire One FEIS report as an option considered; however, TXDOT will be only recommending advancing the I69 project along existing highway facilities where practical (emphasis added).”

Cooley’s statement confirms that the new corridor alternative will still be a part of the final study. TNT found the regulation (23 CFR 771.127 (b)) that allows the agency to change their preferred alternative after a study has been approved as long as that alternative has been studied in the original document.

Should the Federal Highway Administration approve the FEIS with both the “existing facilities” and “new corridor” alternatives in the final report, TNT believes TXDOT will use this legal loophole to build a new TTC 69 rather than use existing highways. TNT also points out that the word “practical” in Cooley’s letter gives TXDOT total discretion as to whether they use existing facilities.

“We will have lost the opportunity to have meaningful input into the impacts this will have corridor on our local area and economy once the final FEIS is approved with both alternatives. That’s unacceptable,” commented Dockens.

Trinity-Neches Texas
Sub-Regional Planning Commission
500 W. Church. Livingston, TX 77351
Bob Dockens, President
936-577-0725


© 2008 Trinity-Neches Texas SRPC:391texas.blogspot.com

TNT Sub-Regional Planning Commission meeting with EPA Rescheduled

KTRE-TV (Lufkin / Nacodoches)
Copyright 2008

The Trinity-Neches Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission's September 16th meeting in Corrigan, with the EPA has canceled due to the hurricane. The meeting will be rescheduled for sometime in October.

© 2008 KTRE: www.ktre.com

South Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission Meets Next Week

Next meeting: September 23, 2008 2pm. St. Hedwig City Hall Agenda 9/23/08

Wilson County and the City of Saint Hedwig have joined together to create the ninth 391 Sub-Regional Planning Commission in the State of Texas, the first in the ACOG Region 18. We had our first meeting on July 31, 2008.

Commissioners are as follows:

President	Kathy Palmer	St. Hedwig Planning and Zoning Commissioner
Vice President	Mary Jo Dylla	St. Hedwig Mayor
Secretary/Treasurer	Susann Baker	St. Hedwig City Council woman
	Ralph Gerhart	Wilson County Resident
	Larry Wiley	Wilson County Commissioner
	Judge Marvin Quinney	Wilson County Judge

SCTRSPC Press Release

TXDOT Coordination Letter

SA Express News Article

Minutes

July 08 Minutes

© 2008 City of St. Hedwig: www.sainthedwigcity.com

Planning committee meeting with EPA about Trans-Texas Corridor

By Mystic Matthews
KTRE-TV (Lufkin / Nacodoches)
Copyright 2008

GROVETON, TX - The Trinity-Neches Texas Sub-Regional Planning Committee, or TNT, is set to meet with the Environmental Protection Agency next week.

TNT says TxDOT has not given enough thought to the environmental impact of the corridor, and they need the EPA to examine the findings they will get from TxDOT about the TTC.

"We're not in opposition to improvement and expansion. We just want to make sure it's done right because once you cover up rural Texas with concrete you can't change it back," says Connie Fogle with TNT.

The Trans-Texas Corridor is expected to use thousands of acres in East Texas if it's built and TNT wants to make sure they realize the impact that it will have on human and animal life.

TNT says TxDOT'S plan is flawed and they want changes made before they will support the plan.

© 2008 WorldNow and KTRE:www.ktre.com

Highway plans spurs formation of group

Elaine Ayo
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2008

St. Hedwig has homes on large lots and a longtime tradition of rural living. And folks there want to keep it that way.

“We want to be able to maintain as best we can the reason we moved out here in the first place,” said Kathy Palmer, the city’s planning and zoning commissioner.

But a new master plan and recently updated zoning maps are no match for a proposed route of Trans-Texas Corridor 35 that would slice straight through the city of about 2,000 people and create headaches for several city departments, officials said.

With neighboring Wilson County, St. Hedwig has created the South Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission , the ninth such commission formed in the state since last year and the first in the San Antonio area.

St. Hedwig officials say the commission is a way to ensure the state hears their concerns about the corridor proposal, which follows FM 1518 and cuts across the western third of the town’s 30 square miles.

An alternate route being considered would follow Interstate 35. None of the routes for the proposed network of statewide toll roads have been finalized.

State law allows the creation of such commissions and requires state agencies to coordinate plans with them “to the greatest extent feasible.” “The term ‘coordination’ is actually very important,” said Dan Byfield, president of the American Land Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting property rights. “It creates a great amount of power for the local unit of government, that (the state must) work with them. They can’t ignore them.”

Byfield and his wife, Margaret Byfield , executive director of another property rights organization called Stewards of the Range, have been helping local governments in the proposed paths of two TTC projects running between Mexico and the Dallas-Fort Worth area and between Mexico and the Texarkana-Shreveport area.

Concerns over the corridor route may have sparked the formation of the commission, but its potential impact is broader, Wilson County Commissioner Larry Wiley said.

“What we’re wanting is to put ourselves on a more level playing field with other government agencies, to represent the health, safety and welfare of the city, of our county,” Wiley said.

The South Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission had its first meeting July 31 and has another scheduled for Sept. 23 at 2 p.m. at the St. Hedwig City Hall at 13065 FM 1346.

Board members want to finish devising the structure of the commission before inviting other area entities to join, Palmer said.

“It’s making folks aware we’re not just a little Podunk city and you can’t run us over,” Palmer said. “We have a plan.”

Portions © 2008 KENS 5 and the San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

TTC plans for U.S. Hwy. 59 may not come to fruition

By ANDREW GOODRIDGE
The Nacodoches Daily Sentinel

The Pineywoods Sub-Regional Planning Commission met Thursday to hear a presentation by the commission's president, Hank Gilbert, who said the plans to move the Trans-Texas Corridor to the current U.S. Hwy. 59 location may not come to fruition.

The Texas Department of Transportation initially planned to build a new highway system, which would have been as large as 1,200-feet wide, that would run through rural areas of East Texas, including Nacogdoches County. However, TxDOT scrapped those plans in June and announced a new proposal to build the TTC along the existing route of U.S. Hwy 59.

But Gilbert, of the anti-corridor activist group TexasTURF, said TxDOT has not provided new documentation detailing the potential effects of building the TTC on the new site, and he also said the current proposal could still allow TxDOT to build the TTC in the original proposed location.

"If TxDOT gets the approval on the (draft environmental impact statement) as is, they can come back and build the highway wherever they want to," he said. "They can come back and say, 'The Federal Highway Administration said we're good to go, but we don't want to use U.S. Hwy. 59 anymore.' And there's nothing we can do about it."

For this reason, Gilbert and the PWSRPC is requesting a supplemental draft environmental impact statement that takes into account the effects of building the TTC along U.S. Hwy. 59. The commission has already requested meetings with Amadeo Saenz, executive director of TxDOT, and Richard Greene, regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Gilbert said there has been no response from either organization.

Gilbert argued that, by law, TxDOT must prepare a new DEIS from scratch, now that plans have changed. Doug Booher, the TxDOT environmental manager, refuted his claim, saying the final environmental impact statement, which will be released for public review at the end of 2008 or early next year, will include the necessary revisions to avoid starting over.

Because the PWSRPC did not have enough voting members in attendance to form a quorum, Gilbert did not receive approval to send new letters to the EPA and TxDOT requesting a meeting. The PWSRPC will meet again at 4p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11, at the county courthouse.

Before the next meeting, Gilbert asked group members to research facts about how the TTC's new location on U.S. Hwy 59 would affect the county.

"What's the loss going to be to the school districts affected, the water districts affected?" he said. "How many acres will be lost in Nacogdoches County? What's the economic impact of the loss of those acres, in hard dollars? What will be the impact on endangered plants and endangered animals in the area?"

Gilbert said he will incorporate this new data into an updated draft of the letter to the EPA and TxDOT.

"This isn't your mom and dad's interstate," Gilbert said. "This is nobody's interstate."

© 2008 Nachdoches Daily Sentinel:www.dailysentinel.com

Piney Woods Sub-Regional Planning Commission Meets

By Mystic Matthews
KTRE (Lufkin)
Copyright 2008

NACOGDOCHES, TX (KTRE) - The Trans-Texas Corridor is coming through Nacogdoches County, but the Piney Woods Sub-Regional Planning Commission wants to make sure it's done right.

In Thursday's meeting, they discussed how the commission can coordinate with the local and federal governments about transportation in the county.

President Hank Gilbert spoke to a packed house Thursday.

He recently submitted a letter to TXDot, on behalf of the commission, that has gone unanswered.

In Thursday's meeting, they decided to send another letter.

Gilbert says the purpose is to let TXDot know they will have to coordinate and answer to the commission for any future plans involving the Trans-Texas Corridor in Nacogdoches County.

"There's a lot of disgruntled people and a lot of concerned people here in Nacogdoches County. They are concerned about their way of life, concerned about what's going to happen to their heritage and their history and their community with this highway. To get actively involved they need to be a part of this organization. Come to our meetings get behind what we're doing."

As a planning commission, they have privileges of a local government, meaning TXDot is required to coordinate with them on a regional level.

The Piney Woods Sub-Regional Planning Commission wants to make sure, even though they are ultimately against it, that I-69 is built on their terms in their county.

© 2008 KTRE-Citizen:www.hcnonline.com

Waller City Council discusses city issues at monthly meeting

Waller County News-Citizen
Copyright 2008

WALLER - Waller City councilman Maurice Hart gave an update to the Waller County Sub-Regional Planning Commission at the council meeting on Monday night, August 18.

The commission was originally set up as a tool to fight the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) proposed Interstate 69. Hart noted that in the last meeting, members elected officers and discussed future plans, beyond the TTC.

"We decided to get other cities within the county to join the commission," Hart said. Some of the cities the commission approached included Pattison, Brookshire, and Katy.

While Pattison and Brookshire have tentatively agreed to join, there is hope that Katy will join as well.

Hart noted there are other issues the commission can discuss besides the TTC, particularly the drainage concern in the area.

"It looks like it [TTC] is going to bypass us, but it still might affect us," Hart explained.

"And we have [drainage] issues in the city, but we need to address those elsewhere," he added. "What can the commission do to help with the downstream water flow? Something has to be done beyond Waller.

"We can open up the drains outside of town, but until we can get the water somewhere, we will flood somebody else out."

© 2008 Waller County News-Citizen:www.hcnonline.com

Grimes County Commissioners Appoint Representative to 391 Commission

BY DAVE LEWIS
The Navasota Examiner
Copyright 2008

Grimes County Commissioners lifted the county-wide burn ban, appointed a representative to their sub-regional planning commission, accepted rights-of-way donations and agreed to administer a $250,000 grant for Wickson Creek Special Utility District in mostly routine business Monday.

John Bertling volunteered to serve as the county’s representative on the Grimes County Chapter 391 sub-regional planning commission, which was officially created at the Aug. 11 commissioners’ court meeting.

© 2008, The Navasota Examiner: www.navasotaexaminer.com

National Geographic recognizes our soil, not the danger to it

8/23/08

Susan Rigdway Garry
Anti-Corridor/Rail Expansion (ACRE)
Copyright 2008

The September issue of National Geographic has an interesting article, “Our Good Earth,” on the soils of the world and the dangers to them.

If you have access to this issue, please see the map on page 92 and notice how TTC-35 and the NAFTA Superhighway will create a path of destruction all along our nation’s most valuable farm land.

Even though National Geographic ranked this soil as one of the “most highly fertile soils in the world,” the article did not mention the imminent threat to it posed by TTC-35, even though it covered threats to some other soils.

The article is online at nationalgeographic.com in the September issue. I can’t find the map online. It is on page 92 in the print edition. [See the scanned image below]



I have sent the letter below to the magazine. Perhaps if more of us write, National Geographic will recognize the importance of this topic.


Blackland Prairie: DARK GREEN
Trans-Texas Corridor Priority corridors: ORANGE

To the Editor of National Geographic:

Regarding “Our Good Earth” in the September 2008 issue, one imminent danger not covered in your article is the Trans-Texas Corridor, which is underway in Texas and forms the first stage of the NAFTA Superhighway. Your map on page 92 illustrates that one of the largest areas of the most highly fertile soils in the world begins at the Texas-Mexico border and runs north to the northern Midwest.

Much of this Blackland Prairie in Texas, from the Mexican border to the Oklahoma border, is slated to be paved over by the Trans-Texas Corridor route called TTC-35—an almost quarter-mile wide swath of 10 vehicular lanes, 6 rail lines, and pipeline and utility zones. It is proposed to proceed north from Texas as the NAFTA Superhighway, covering hundreds of thousands of acres of the world’s best farmland, right through the middle of “the world’s breadbasket.”

Texas farmers, ranchers, and other rural residents have been fighting the Corridor for years, and we would like to alert the rest of the country, indeed the world, that one of the largest areas of “Good Earth” in existence is in extreme danger from an unnecessary project that benefits only those who will profit monetarily from its construction, while permanently depriving the world’s population of this invaluable resource.

It is very easy to send a letter to the editor of National Geographic through ngsforum@nationalgeographic.com

© 2008, ACRE: acretexas.blogspot.com

Groups claiming TxDOT falsified toll project studies

August 21, 2008

By CLAY COPPEDGE
Country World News
Copyright 2008

Members of a Central Texas sub-regional planning commission believe they have found a "smoking gun" that proves the state's transportation department alledgely falsified an environmental study on the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor.

The development comes from a lawsuit filed by Texans United for Reform (TURF) over a Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) proposal to convert part of U.S. Highway 281 into a toll road. TURF members allege that TxDOT emails show that the department "rigged" the environmental work for the 281 project to pre-determine a finding of "No Significant Impact" before the study began.

Members of the Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission, which was formed to make sure the state involves people affected by the TTC in the process, believe the allegations by TURF are significant because it shows that TxDOT has done with the 281 study exactly what the commission has accused TxDOT of doing in relation to the corridor proposal.

"What TURF and the Edwards Aquifer Guardians have uncovered shows that the conclusion was there before the study was even done," commission member Ralph Snyder of Holland said at a meeting of the commission on Aug. 12. "They cherry-picked the information to arrive at the conclusion they want.

"This is the most important thing to happen since the inception of the TTC-35. It makes our case by showing that they (TxDOT) worked all along toward a pre-determined conclusion."

Gov. Rick Perry proposed the TTC in 2002 as a series of six-lane highways with separate high-speed rail lines and utility corridors criss-crossing the state. Each corridor could be as wide as 1,200 feet.

Perry, TxDOT and others have touted the corridors as a solution to the state's transportation problems, but opposition has arisen on several fronts, particularly in the rural parts of the state where the corridors would have the biggest impact.

The sub regional planning commissions are local groups formed in response to the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 391, which requires state agencies "to the greatest extent feasible" to coordinate with local commissions to "ensure effective and orderly implementation of state programs at the regional level."

The Eastern Central Texas commission was formed in August of last year to challenge TTC-35, the first leg of the proposed TTC system, which would run about 600 miles from Gainesville to Laredo, roughly parallel to IH-35. Eight other such groups have formed across the state, most of them in East Texas where another leg of the TTC, TTC-69, has been proposed.

The commission has asked for a supplemental report from TxDOT, which in turn has asked the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) if it has to conduct the supplemental report. The commission received a reply from Janice Weingart Brown, division administrator for the FHA on Aug. 6.

"I can assure you that concerns that you have raised will be addressed in our Final EIS (Environmental Impact Study)," Brown wrote. "FHWA is also independently reviewing and considering the environmental documents being prepared by TxDOT.

"Based on the public involvement meetings that have been conducted and our review and analysis of comments, we firmly believe we are following the prescribed processes and regulations under NEPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the Council on Environmental Quality."

Margaret Byfield with the American Land Foundation, a private property rights group working with the sub-regional planning commissions, noted that the letter is dated one day before the allegations over TURF's 281 lawsuit broke. She added that the letter really doesn't comment on the commission's request for a supplemental report.

"It makes no commitment," she said. "It infers that it will address our concerns in the TIER 2 study, which is too late. TIER 1 approves the building of the highway. TIER 2 is concerned with where the highway will be built."

The commission voted unanimously to forward the letter to Fred Kelly Grant, attorney for the American Land Foundation.

Grant, who lives in Idaho, emailed commission members prior to the August meeting about the TURF 281 lawsuit. "I have already asked for documents from the discovery to include in a proposed augmentation petition for you to send to the federal highway administration," he wrote. "The inference of lack of credibility which is made in your original petition will now be actual, not just an inference."

The commission also received a copy of a May 2006 letter from then state conservationist Larry Butler to engineer Edward Pensock with TxDOT on farmland protection issues related to TTC.

In that letter, Butler said that the TTC project "will constitute the largest conversion of Prime Farmland for a single project in the history of Texas."

The letter also addressed the issue of small dams on private property that are designed to control flooding, noting that more than 260 of those small dams are located in the TTC-35 study area.

"Direct impacts include areas where the TTC-35 might eliminate the structure, causing roads, bridges, towns and houses to flood."

Current state conservationist Don Goihmert addressed the group last month and said the state's NRCS office would conduct a study for the group to further evaluate the impact of the TTC along specific routes identified by TxDOT.

© 2008 Country World News:www.countryworldnews.com

Commissioners officially approve 391 Commission

8/12/08

BY DAVE LEWIS,
The Navasota Examiner
Copyright 2008

Grimes County Commissioners Monday unanimously approved the creation of the Grimes County Sub-Regional Planning Commission, following the City of Iola in becoming the second governing body in the county to do so.

Also called a 391 commission after the chapter of the Texas Local Government Code which authorizes such commissions, the county will be able to participate in interlocal agreements with other cities or counties within Region 13 of the Brazos Valley Council of Governments.

The county is expected to name its representative to the commission this month, and at least one member of the commissioners’ court must be appointed.

Specifically denied to 391 commissions is the power of eminent domain, but such commissions are expected to take an active role in looking out for the general health, safety and welfare of their residents.

The GCSRPC’s goal is to work with other governing bodies with similar concerns in planning for expanding population in the area, and to look after unique needs of the Grimes County region.

The commission is expected to be active in planning of transportation systems, adequate infrastructure, such as streets, sewer and water, agriculture, business and industrial needs, preservation of cultural and historical values, economic use of public funds and the general quality of life for the area’s residents.

The county is not required to fund any of the commission’s operations or distribute any of the commission’s funds. Also, all commission meetings are subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The county may withdraw from the commission at any time by a majority vote of the commissioners’ court.

© 2008 The Navasota Examiner:www.navasotaexaminer.com

South Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission Update

August 12, 2008

Nannette Kilbey-Smith
Wilson County News
Copyright 2008

Mayor Dylla provided an update on the formation of the South Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission. Current members are Wilson County and the city of St. Hedwig. Palmer is the commission's president, Dylla will serve as vice president, and Baker is the secretary.

The commission will allow St. Hedwig and Wilson County commissioners to discuss road improvements, maintenance, and new roads, as well as other issues, on a level footing with the Texas Department of Transportation.

The commission will meet Wednesday, Aug. 27, at 2 p.m. to discuss bylaws. The meeting is open to the public.

© 2008 The Wilson County News:www.wilsoncountynews.com

Anderson city council could get on board with 391 Commission

The Navasota Examiner
Copyright 2008

The Anderson City Council is expected to approve an ordinance establishing a 391 Sub-Regional Planning Commission at its Thursday, Aug. 14 meeting at 7 p.m. at the American Legion Hall in Anderson.

© 2008 The Navasota Examiner:www.navasotaexaminer.com

"Alliance for I-69, Zachry, and Spanish company ACS hit Victoria with their dog & pony show, and they've been in Austin hitting up lawmakers, too."

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TTC-69 lobby group, Alliance for I-69, takes their show on the road

Terri Hall
TURF

Alliance for I-69 is the biggest pro-TTC-69 lobby group in the state. Their chief lobbyist, Gary Bushell, is also the same lobbyist TxDOT illegally hired with our taxpayer money to lobby elected officials in the path of the TTC-69.

Bushell is also a notable campaign contributor to MANY politicians, Bexar County Rep. Frank Corte among them. Today, Alliance for I-69 teamed up with Zachry, who along with Spanish company ACS won the development rights to TTC-69 in June, hit Victoria with their dog and pony show, and they've been in Austin hitting up lawmakers, too.

Their logo on the material they left with lawmakers even has a Canadian, Mexican, and U.S flag morphed together, yet TxDOT denies the Trans Texas Corridor is about NAFTA, international trade, the movement of freight/goods, or the economic integration of the three countries.

Link to article here.


© 2008, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF): www.texasturf.org

"Should we declare victory and ignore the realities? In a word... NO!"

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Have YOU drunk the TxDOT Kool-Aid?

Editorial: Martha Estes
Wharton Journal-Spectator

Numerous citizens along the TTC-69 route are expressing satisfaction about the recent news to the effect that "it’s over, we won". I find that conclusion very disturbing because it is a very dangerous mirage to buy into.

Yes, the Texas Transportation Commissioners and TxDOT bigwigs have ’told us’ that Waller Austin, Grimes, and Walker Counties are no longer being considered as a western TTC-69 loop around Houston. AND they have said that "wherever possible" they will follow the existing footprint and right of way of US 59 for the 600+ mile Trans-Texas Corridor 69 as it is developed from Laredo through East Texas to points on the Arkansas and Louisiana borders.

What they did not remind you of include the following established facts:

• 1. House Bill 3588 remains law with the same design features & intent to auction off our public transportation assets to global consortiums for toll revenues.

• 2. The governor’s appointees on the Texas Transportation Commission remain loyal to his transportation policies which include numerous TTC projects and the intent to assess other state roadways as toll road viable "commodities".

• 3. CDAs or public-private partnerships with 50 year secretive contract terms remain the "financing tool of choice" with the Transportation Commissioners and TxDOT.

• 4. The moratorium that prevents TxDOT from signing CDA contracts expires with the end of the 2009 session.

• 5. The TTC-35 and TTC-69 continue to go forward with a TTC-69 $5 million design contract awarded by TxDOT on Jun 26, 2008 to Zachry & ACS (Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A), Dragados, UBS, SICE, and Steer Davies Gleave.

• 6. The eminent domain realities leave all Texas property owners helpless to control their properties or receive any particular assessed value for them in condemnation.

• 7. No amendment exists to trigger an override session to overturn the governor’s vetoes with veto-proof legislative majorities.

• 8. Reforms of the Texas Transportation Commission & TxDOT and restrictions on Trans-Texas Corridors & state toll roads will only happen if OUR legislators make changes in the laws in the 81st Session of the legislature beginning on January 13, 2009.

Now, does that sound as if we should declare victory and ignore the realities? In a word... NO, unless we want to lose the ground we have worked for. But it does suggest that we ALL have some important work to do to influence our legislators to protect our public transportation assets and shape transportation policy for the people of Texas.

© 2008, Wharton Journal-Spectator: www.journal-spectator.com

New ‘long haul’ transportation technology on the horizon


A slide from the presentation shows the 2,000 mile stretches of guideways connecting Laredo, Corpus Christi, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio with the innovative freight transportation system. The plan is to have the system in place to take advantage of the expansion of the Panama Canal.

By MIKE GEORGE
They Dayton News (Dayton, TX)

Readers recently read about new freight technology in the July 9 edition of Dayton News entitled “Freight shuttles can take the ‘long haul’ out of shipping.” That technology was further explained by senior project manager Gary Kuhn of Zachry American Infrastructure of San Antonio and Stephen S. Roop, Ph.D. and assistant agency director of the Texas Transportation Institute of The Texas A&M University System in College Station.

The two men were addressing the Liberty County Toll Road Authority (LCTRA) Board of Directors as well as an audience of interested persons and invited media. Members present included President Charlotte Warner, Vice President Dwayne B. Stovall, Asst. Secretary R.N. Smart, Director N. Dale Brown, Jr., Joe B. Allen and Jessica Jones, attorney and attorney assistant for LCTRA from the firm of Allen, Boone, Humphries, Robinson, LLP. Secretary Clifton Wilridge was not present.

Being discussed was a multimodal freight transportation device that moves freight up and down two-way guideways via linear induction motors powered electrically. The transports are unmanned, as was explained in the previous article.

“We all owe a lot to freight because it creates our opportunities to have goods and creates opportunities for economic development,” said Kuhn.

Kuhn began the presentation by explaining that normally three individuals would make the presentation but that one of their members was unavoidably detained.

“We’re one short on our normal ‘three musketeers’ as Ken Allen, who is the executive vice-president for H.E.B. and really wanted to be here, but a lady named ‘Dolly’ kind of messed everything up,” commented Kuhn. “And Charles Butt is real funny about making sure that there is milk on the table for the babies. So Ken sends his apologies and regrets that he can’t be here, and I will attempt to do his portion of the presentation.”

The presentation was broken down into three parts – Lemons, The New Juicer and Lemonade. Kuhn delivered parts one and three, while Roop took care of part two.

Kuhn spoke about transportation issues in that they had inefficiencies, public funding restraints, public focus on environmental issues and what he called a growing “psunami” of freight.

One of the more staggering statistics brought out by Kuhn dealt with the result of a company such as H.E.B. being able to reduce annual transportation freight miles from 60 million to 40 million. The 20 million miles saved would result in 3 million gallons less diesel being burned, 5,000 quarts less motor oil burned, 43,000 less quarts of motor oil that have to be managed, 125 lbs less rubber on highways to be washed into waterways and 2,000 less tires that do not have to be disposed of. The savings were staggering.

Kuhn also explained that the new technology was not competitive against the current trucking or rail industry, but supplemental. He explained how rail roads best service transportation needs to destinations greater than 600 miles. He also spoke of what he called Generation Y, or new truck drivers that don’t work to work nights, weekends or holidays and how the new technology would take the long haul out of the picture allowing this new generation of drivers the ability to be home each night while making shorter, but more numerous daily deliveries.

Safety and environmental issues served by having fewer trucks on the highways were also included.

The second part of the presentation, delivered by Stephen Roop detailed the history and development behind the new universal freight shuttle technology. Roop has been at Texas A&M for 20 years. He basically introduced the system by calling it a hybrid between trucking and railroading.

After laying out a lengthy history beginning in 1999 with federal funding for the study of a Texas Freight Tunnel with an underground rail for 450 miles from Dallas to Larado, to the Governor’s vision for the Trans Texas Corridor to 2008 when they plan to start construction of a demonstration project on donated land located in South Liberty County, to a target date of 2015 when they hope to have the proposed 2,000 miles of guideways connecting Dallas to San Antonio, Laredo, Corpus Christi and Houston with another line from Houston to San Antonio up and the network operational. The historical process was all about finding ways to ship more goods at less cost. The ill-fated beginning ideas formulated around underground transportation took a turn topside, coinciding with the Governor’s approach to major grade-separated corridors between markets in Texas, as the study group took a new approach.

“Wouldn’t this allow us to reconfigure this underground system that was never going to go anywhere,” explained Roop. “We could resize it, reshape it and put it up on the surface and begin operating it as a surface system. When we checked the economics of that, we found out they went from poor or marginally negative to almost investment grade returns and it would be very inexpensive to move freight in the system we’re talking about.”

Patents on some concepts were filed and Texas A&M created an entity through license agreements called The Freight Shuttle Development Corporation, formed in 2005. A year later, in Houston, Kuhn and Roop met for the first time at a railroad conference and began working towards the same goals.

Roop also showed conceptual artist productions of the system that would be 16 feet above ground and travel both ways in the median of the state’s interstate highways. He also spoke of a late development that had both he and the organization very excited.

“I-69 Master Development was awarded to Zachry this past month,” stated Roop. “It puts us at a new level in Texas with a tremendous amount of opportunity to capitalize and push forward the fact that Texas has been named the nation’s leading state for business. Part of that is the transportation system, the economy and the diversification of industry in the state. We think this is a very fertile area for what we are doing. And this year we will start a demonstration site at a location to be announced.”

Kuhn finished the presentation speaking to the tremendous capacity of the system, how it will be constructed using existing rights of way of the current highways system that is already in place, and how the goal to have everything up and running is by sometime in the year 2015.

© 2008, The Dayton News:www.hcnonline.com

Cox addresses speed limits, other considerations at TTC meeting

By ANDY HOGUE,
Gainesville Daily Register

Though stalled in the water for now, discussion on the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 project continues, according to a report from Cooke County’s representative on the project.

Sheila Cox, who was a vocal opponent to the multi-modal toll road project when first presented to the public, was appointed to a regional corridor advisory committee last year. Cox submitted a summary of the advisory committee’s actions from July 23 in Austin, in which she said the project is far from being “dead.”

“... The TTC is still very much alive and continues as a threat to all Texans,” she said in her summary, which appeared in its entirety in the July 25 Register.

The next meeting of the advisory committee is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 21, a Thursday, in Austin (exact location TBA — most likely at the Greer Building on south side of the Capitol on 11th Street). The public is allowed to attend, Cox said, but are not allowed to speak or participate in the discussion.

She said she would like to see a good “delegation” from Cooke County at the Aug. 21 meeting.

“We’re designated at the convergence point for the Trans-Texas Corridor system, so we have much to lose by not being involved and much to gain if we are,” Cox said.

Chairs for guests are situated around the delegation room, while committee members are seated around tables, she noted, noting there is ample room.

Cox said there are usually five to 10 people watching the meetings. She noted Jan Johnson of Cooke County had attended the last two Austin meetings.

Though Cox’s summary of the July meeting had some sharp comments of her fellow committee members, she said feedback has been positive so far.

“I’ve had lots of people contact me, telling me they appreciate me for bringing them up to speed on what’s happening,” she said in an interview this morning.

According to Cox’s summary, the meeting agenda included presentations by two corporations who are members in NASCO (North American Super Corridor Coalition), Cox said. Those presentations were by Scott Braden, President of the Southwest and High Plains Divisions of McLane Trucking Company, and by Russell Laughlin, Vice President of Alliance Texas which is headed by Ross Perot. Both of these presentations included emphasis on the need for the NAFTA Super Highway as a trade route from Mexico through the United States and into Canada.

Also emphasized in these presentations was the role of the Trans-Texas Corridor in the implementation of an international express highway system.

In the question and answer wrap-up of Braden’s presentation, which had highlighted the requirements of major trucking firms, Cox said she asked what was the most cost-efficient miles-per-hour speed for trucks to travel. Braden replied, according to Cox, that 62 mph had been proven to be the most cost-efficient speed and at that speed even the pollution levels were less than at higher speeds.

Braden later indicated that his company’s truckers are ordered to not exceed 62 mph and he described his company’s electronic monitoring system that allows each of their trucks to be monitored during their entire routes.

Cox said she addressed the concern that the TTC corridors are proposed to have 80 mph speed limits for trucks and based on his comments that it would appear that the widespread non-attainment pollution control areas in Texas would only worsen with many trucks from other companies traveling at much higher speeds than 62 mph.

Laughlin commented on the TTC’s plans for Alliance, located north of Fort Worth and south of Denton, which contains Alliance Airport.

“I've given you the plan and the development,” Laughlin said, according to Cox’s notes. “Now you have the plan and the development, so get with the plan or get out of the way.”

Cox said she replied by emphasizing cooperation.

“I asked Mr. Laughlin where is the interaction from the citizens in his closing comment that stated ‘so get with the plan or get out of the way.’ He was speechless and did not respond to my question and at that point the meeting facilitator moved the discussion to the next meeting agenda item,” Cox said.

The committee had several other points of “lively discussion,” according to Cox.

One of those lively discussions dealt with a comment made by committee member, Lana Wolf, mayor of Arlington.

Wolf, according to Cox, said “the TTC needed to get moving faster from the talking stage to the doing stage ... the only opponents to the TTC are coming from those farm people.”

Cox said the opposition to the TTC comes from both major political parties in Texas and not just those in rural, agricultural settings. Cox said she quoted the state Republican and Democratic parties’ platform planks against TTC and eminent domain abuse from various years.

“Wolf seemed shocked by the comments in the Republican and Democratic Platforms and she said that ‘it was just words on paper and no elected official would agree to a platform like that and they would leave the parties to become independents,’” Cox said. “I mentioned that would be an option for them but that the Independent Texans Party and the Constitution Party of Texas had similar platforms also strongly stating opposition to the TTC, abusive eminent domain and the Constitutional infringements of private property ownership.”

Cox said the comments by Wolf, Laughlin and Braden are cause for concern.

“There is a disregard that is prevailing — not just in some of the members of the committee, but it is prevalent in so many areas of government,” she said this morning.

For information on attending the advisory committee meeting, contact Cox at 1(940)727-2187 or at billsheila@swmail.net

© 2008, The Gainesville Daily Register: www.gainesvilleregister.com

Planning group to discuss second round of demand letters to TxDOT

Polk County Enterprise
Copyright 2008

TRINITY — The Trinity-Neches Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the Trinity City Hall to discuss sending second letters to the Texas Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency demanding a meeting to discuss the impact of the proposed Trans Texas Corridor through the region.

Recording Secretary Connie Fogle said the most recent documents sent to the Federal Highway Administration by TxDOT do not bind the state agency to construction along existing highways. The proposed superhighway would be devastating to school districts in Trinity County.

Groveton ISD would be split in two by the highway, she said. The route also plows through environmentally sensitive areas, she added. The loss of timber acreage along would have a major economic impact on a region that depends on timber and tourism, Fogle said. The timber producers would not be the only ones impacted, though. The latest maps continue to divide grazing areas used by cattle ranchers.

These second letters will demand a meeting with the planning commission within two weeks, Fogle said. The group will decide the location, time, date and agenda for the meeting with TxDOT and the EPA during Wednesday’s meeting.

The planning commission also plans to hold a preparatory meeting workshop prior to the meeting with the two agencies. The planning commission also will have an open forum for members of the public and associate members to discuss their concerns about the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The planning commission sent a letter to Richard Greene, administrator for the EPA’s Region 6 on June 18 that advised him of the creation of the planning commission under Chapter 391 of the Texas Local Government Code. The purpose of the group is to coordinate projects that affect the cities of Groveton, Corrigan and Trinity, especially the I-69 Trans-Texas Corridor.

After the group formed, Groveton ISD, Apple Springs ISD, Corrigan-Camden ISD, Pennington, Trinity Rural Water District and Glendale Water District joined the commission. It now covers 607,233 acres. The EPA letter signed by each of the mayors on the commission states the commission’s belief that draft environmental impact statement for I-69/TTC does not address the issues that will severely impact the area. “The DEIS is grossly inadequate in every criteria of study called for by NEPA,” the EPA letter states.

“We believe the primary reason the study is inadequate is because the agency in charge, the Texas Department of Transportation, has utterly failed to coordinate its ‘study’ with the local governments and the citizens of our community. There have been no meaningful discussions with the local governments in our area with regard to the specifi c impacts on transportation, economic, or social interests of our citizens.”

The letter continues by stating that the interpretation of the National Environmental Policy Act by the courts have made it clear that the impact study is not to be completed based on the preconceived idea that the studied project is to be completed regardless of the adverse effects on the human environment.

The several failures to comply with NEPA are listed in the letter as follows: Coordination with local government is a mandated method for the project planners to gain vital information as to the impact of the project on local government, which bears the burden of providing services to the public, the letter says.

For example, the I-69/TTC DEIS lacks equal consideration of the human and natural environment. Even in its non-specific treatment of the impact, the study weighs these critical impacts differently. Specifically, the study discusses the impact to wildlife, the need to mitigate wildlife corridors, and even the consideration of wildlife bridges and tunnels.

It includes a map of the potential mitigation area for the replacement properties for the protection of species, yet makes no mention of the human impact, such as the redistricting our schools, rerouting our school buses, or ensuring our first responders can reach the life threatening emergencies upon which our citizens depend.

This one-sided analysis points to the very reason Congress directed the agencies to coordinate this study with local governments, which the Texas Department of Transportation has failed to do.

While consideration of the impact to wildlife is being discussed, there is no analysis of the human impact and specifi cally the impact on the timber industry, which is the economic backbone of our community. For example, one logging contractor in our area employs 43 individuals and pays approximately $1.2 million in wages annually. These employees live in our community.


© 2008, The Polk County Enterprise: www.easttexasnews.com

"RPO’s are being pushed by TxDOT in an attempt to make the public believe that they are the same as the 391 Sub-Regional Planning Commissions."

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From July 15 TxDOT Sunset Hearing, public testimony

TxDOT pushes Rural Planning Organizations in contravention of legislation—testimony from Hank Gilbert

Susan Rigdway Garry
Anti-Corridor/Rail Expansion (ACRE)
Copyright 2008

Hank Gilbert, former Democratic nominee for Agriculture Commissioner, testified about the proposed Rural Planning Organizations (RPO’s). He is especially interested in the RPO’s because of the possibility that the RPO’s are being pushed by TxDOT in an attempt to make the public believe that they are the same as the 391 Sub-Regional Planning Commissions. Gilbert is president of one of these new 391 Commissions, the Piney Woods Sub-Regional Planning Commission.

This is a very important issue. If TxDOT is behind the formation of RPO’s, the RPO’s will be controlled by TxDOT through the regional Councils of Government (COG’s). On the other hand, the 391 Sub-Regional Planning Commissions are formed by the citizens through their local governments, and they have their own powers, given to them by statute.

Gilbert said, “I don’t believe he [Saenz] exactly told the truth a minute ago. Chairman Delisi, she wanted to make this a love fest today and she committed to honesty. But they have already broken that honesty when it was brought up about the RPO’s earlier today. We had a person at that meeting [on RPO’s] who sent me an email of what went on at that meeting on July 10. TxDOT, specifically Amadeo Saenz, addressed this and said they had come up with money at TxDOT to help fund and reimburse the COG’s if they created an RPO.”

Gilbert continued, “What’s important is that TxDOT has promulgated regulations to create RPO’s, which legislation actually failed last session. . . . So TxDOT decided to push the RPO issue forward so when the legislature comes into session they are having the legislation filed to authorize by statute what they have done by regulation. Then, they will pull the COG RPO’s into the Transportation statute and totally control all of the RPO’s. They’ll be nothing but a sounding board instead of a real board.”

Saenz contradicts Gilbert

After Gilbert’s testimony, Saenz then returned to the testimony table. “What Mr. Gilbert just presented is not factual. First of all, for the commissions, we have not adopted or done anything with the RPO’s. This was a conference, there is a mechanism in there that if they would be formed, which is one of the recommendations, then we can use state planning funds from the federal side to be able to cover their planning needs. But we have not taken any action on anything like that.”

Kolkhorst said “I’m not sure I’m for these RPO’s. . . Let’s not move forward on these RPO’s quite yet until we get through this.” Another Sunset Commissioner commented, “They need legislation to do it.” Kolkhorst replied, “I think what Hank [Gilbert] was trying to say is they’re doing it before we get there.”

Gilbert documents his testimony

Gilbert had documentation from the RPO conference including the agenda showing that TxDOT sponsored the meeting, that Saenz was on the agenda to speak about RPO’s, and info from COG’s about their new efforts to form RPO’s with the assistance of TxDOT. The list of attendees listed 45 TxDOT employees out of 200 registered in attendance at the meeting. Gilbert provided copies of his documentation to the Sunset Commissioners—the proof that his information IS “factual.”

TxDOT is already working on a plan to create its own system of RPO’s so that residents will think they are getting their own powerful Sub-Regional Planning Commission that represents them, but they will really be getting an RPO that represents TxDOT.

© 2008, ACRE: acretexas.blogspot.com

South Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission Formed

Press Release
South Central Texas Sub Regional Planning Commission (SCTSRPC)
Copyright 2008

St. Hedwig- Representatives of the City of St . Hedwig and Wilson County met July 31, 2008 at the St. Hedwig City Hall for the first meeting of the South Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (SCTSRPC).

The SCTSRPC was formed under the authority of the Texas Local Government Code Chapter 391 which allows counties and cities to “join and cooperate to improve the health, safety and general welfare of their residents”.

Under Chapter 391, state and federal governments must coordinate with local planning commissions concerning “common problems of transportation” before building roads or other transportation facilities through their jurisdictions, including the Trans Texas Corridor. (The local commission is the ninth SRPC to be formed in Texas.) The SCTSRPC also expects the state and federal governments to address a list of concerns ranging from impacts to the local agricultural economy to loss of the county tax base.

Serving on the SCTSRPC Board of Directors are Mayor Mary Jo Dylla, of St. Hedwig, Councilwoman Susann Baker, of St. Hedwig, ViceChairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission and at large member Kathy Palmer, of St. Hedwig, Judge Marvin Quinney, of Wilson County, Commissioner Larry Wiley, of Wilson County. Ralph Gerhardt, of Wilson County is an at-large member of the Commission.

One of the main purposes of the SCTSRPC will be to prevent negative impacts from the Trans Texas Corridor and other transportation projects within their jurisdiction. The Commission will also consider inviting other units of government, such as school boards, water boards, and first responders.

Also at the meeting to assist in the first organization meeting were Dan Byfield, President of the American Land Foundation and Margaret Byfield, Executive Director of Stewards of the Range. Both groups assist and teach landowners and other organizations how to use existing law to protect their priorities, private property, economy and way of life. The Byfields were instrumental in helping start the first Sub-Regional Planning Commission in Bell County as well as others across the State of Texas.

The next meeting of the South Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission will be held in St. Hedwig at the St. Hedwig City Hall at 2pm, Tuesday September 23, 2008. The public is invited to attend.


© 2008 City of St. Hedwig: www.sainthedwigcity.com

South Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission Holds First Meeting

SCTSRPC - 391 Commission

Next meeting: August 27, 2008 2pm. St. Hedwig City Hall 8/27/08 Agenda

Wilson County and the City of Saint Hedwig have joined together to create the ninth 391 Sub-Regional Planning Commission in the State of Texas, the first in the ACOG Region 18. We had our first meeting on July 31, 2008.

Commissioners are as follows:

President	Kathy Palmer	St. Hedwig Planning and Zoning Commissioner
Vice President	Mary © 2008, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF): www.texasturf.orgJo Dylla	St. Hedwig Mayor
Secretary/Treasurer	Susann Baker	St. Hedwig City Council woman
	Ralph Gerhart	Wilson County Resident
	Larry Wiley	Wilson County Commissioner
	Judge Marvin Quinney	Wilson County Judge

TxDOT Coordination Letter

© 2008, City of Saint Hedwig, Texas: www.sainthedwigcity.com