"A flawed process has led to a flawed project."
Corridor watch group voices concerns:
Proposed plan environmental impact, eminent domain discussed
April 22, 2006
by Clay Coppedge
Temple Daily Telegram
Copyright 2006
ZABCIKVILLE - David and Linda Stall of corridorwatch.com aren’t sure that grassroots organizations opposed to the Trans Texas Corridor can stop the multi-billion dollar highway proposal in its tracks, but at a meeting of the Blackland Coalition on Friday night, they urged coalition members to stay involved in the process.
“You are the only thing that can change this,” Linda Stall told more than 300 coalition members early in Friday’s two-hour meeting, which also featured an Austin attorney who outlined the eminent domain process.
“You can move a gas station a couple of miles away, but you can’t take fertile topsoil and move it two miles away. Just because the land is empty doesn’t mean you have to put a subdivision on it. If we don’t stop it, they will do it,” Ms. Stall added.
David Stall called the process that has put plans for the corridor in motion a “flawed process that has led to a flawed project. No one asked us about it.”
The corridor is a multibillion, 4,000-mile plan designed to address problems with the state’s transportation systems. It comes with a price tag of $175 billion and a construction time of at least 25 years. The plan includes toll and non-toll roads of six highway lanes - three in each direction - and six high-speed freight and commuter rail lines.
The first phase of the corridor, called TTC-35, would stretch from the Red River to Laredo and roughly parallel Interstate 35. The 4,000-page Environmental Impact Study, released earlier this month, shows a preferred route and a secondary route. Both routes cut through large sections of productive agricultural land.
The Blackland Coalition is a grass roots organization dedicated to educating and informing Texas residents about the corridor.
Copyright © 2006 Temple Daily Telegram www.temple-telegram.com
Proposed plan environmental impact, eminent domain discussed
April 22, 2006
by Clay Coppedge
Temple Daily Telegram
Copyright 2006
ZABCIKVILLE - David and Linda Stall of corridorwatch.com aren’t sure that grassroots organizations opposed to the Trans Texas Corridor can stop the multi-billion dollar highway proposal in its tracks, but at a meeting of the Blackland Coalition on Friday night, they urged coalition members to stay involved in the process.
“You are the only thing that can change this,” Linda Stall told more than 300 coalition members early in Friday’s two-hour meeting, which also featured an Austin attorney who outlined the eminent domain process.
“You can move a gas station a couple of miles away, but you can’t take fertile topsoil and move it two miles away. Just because the land is empty doesn’t mean you have to put a subdivision on it. If we don’t stop it, they will do it,” Ms. Stall added.
David Stall called the process that has put plans for the corridor in motion a “flawed process that has led to a flawed project. No one asked us about it.”
The corridor is a multibillion, 4,000-mile plan designed to address problems with the state’s transportation systems. It comes with a price tag of $175 billion and a construction time of at least 25 years. The plan includes toll and non-toll roads of six highway lanes - three in each direction - and six high-speed freight and commuter rail lines.
The first phase of the corridor, called TTC-35, would stretch from the Red River to Laredo and roughly parallel Interstate 35. The 4,000-page Environmental Impact Study, released earlier this month, shows a preferred route and a secondary route. Both routes cut through large sections of productive agricultural land.
The Blackland Coalition is a grass roots organization dedicated to educating and informing Texas residents about the corridor.
Copyright © 2006 Temple Daily Telegram
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Saturday, April 22, 2006
<< Home