"The governor and Legislature are running the state behind our backs."
Stop the Trans-Texas Corridor
August 13, 2006
Liz Sunderman
The Waco Tribune-Herald
Copyright 2006
I oppose the Trans-Texas Corridor for two reasons.
First, my family has owned land in Hill County since the 1920s. Now the state wants to build a quarter-mile wide toll-road where my great-grandfather raised cattle and call it a “transportation solution.”
Second, I am incensed over the way this is happening.
If this road is built in the “preferred” area (east of I-35 from Waco to Dallas), many small communities could be divided or built over, including Leroy, Penelope, West, Hubbard, Malone, Mertens and Bynum.
In May of 2005, Attorney General Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Transportation to release the comprehensive development agreement (CDA), an order which Gov. Rick Perry has defied. He has waged a legal battle to avoid disclosing it.
The governor and Legislature are running the state behind our backs. I think most of the attendees at the Hillsboro hearing I attended were surprised to learn just what is really going on.
The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America reads “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Taking private land to build a toll road for the profit of a foreign-owned company does not fit my definition of eminent domain.
I feel like a “Johnny-come-lately” to the cause, but after the meeting in Hillsboro, I realize that I am not alone.
Less than a dozen of the more than 350 attendees had seen the so called environmental impact statement, with Texas Department of Transportation officials leading off the evening with a lovely little video and slide show.
Taking notes, I stopped writing when I heard the words “international movement of goods.”
Sorry, but that’s no excuse for taking generations of family farms and some of the best farmland in the state.
If Mexico wants to sell products in Canada, it can buy some ships and sail them up there, or send it on cargo planes. And don’t forget trains. Texans do not owe foreign importers a route through our land.
One thing TxDOT officials fail to acknowledge is that toll roads do not alleviate congestion. They create more congestion and pollution.
I lived in Houston for five years. Shortly after my move there, the western portion of the Sam Houston Toll Road was opened.
When we left Houston to move to Mansfield, the toll road was just as jammed up at rush hour every day as the freeways.
Paying for gridlock
Motorists are paying money to sit in gridlock.
So much for improving traffic flow.
What if the Mexican trucks (or the American trucks, for that matter) don’t want to pay the tolls? With gas prices steadily increasing, a truck driver’s margin is already thin. Will they be forced to use the toll road or will they keep driving Interstate 35?
CorridorWatch.org has lots of information about this abomination — route maps, detailed information about the process and how to get involved.
In whatever way I can, I’ll make my voice heard.
Regardless of what the state and the governor say, we can stop this.
Liz Sunderman, a native of Waco, resides in Mansfield, Texas.
© 2006 The Waco Tribune-Herald www.wacotrib.com
August 13, 2006
Liz Sunderman
The Waco Tribune-Herald
Copyright 2006
I oppose the Trans-Texas Corridor for two reasons.
First, my family has owned land in Hill County since the 1920s. Now the state wants to build a quarter-mile wide toll-road where my great-grandfather raised cattle and call it a “transportation solution.”
Second, I am incensed over the way this is happening.
If this road is built in the “preferred” area (east of I-35 from Waco to Dallas), many small communities could be divided or built over, including Leroy, Penelope, West, Hubbard, Malone, Mertens and Bynum.
In May of 2005, Attorney General Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Transportation to release the comprehensive development agreement (CDA), an order which Gov. Rick Perry has defied. He has waged a legal battle to avoid disclosing it.
The governor and Legislature are running the state behind our backs. I think most of the attendees at the Hillsboro hearing I attended were surprised to learn just what is really going on.
The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America reads “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Taking private land to build a toll road for the profit of a foreign-owned company does not fit my definition of eminent domain.
I feel like a “Johnny-come-lately” to the cause, but after the meeting in Hillsboro, I realize that I am not alone.
Less than a dozen of the more than 350 attendees had seen the so called environmental impact statement, with Texas Department of Transportation officials leading off the evening with a lovely little video and slide show.
Taking notes, I stopped writing when I heard the words “international movement of goods.”
Sorry, but that’s no excuse for taking generations of family farms and some of the best farmland in the state.
If Mexico wants to sell products in Canada, it can buy some ships and sail them up there, or send it on cargo planes. And don’t forget trains. Texans do not owe foreign importers a route through our land.
One thing TxDOT officials fail to acknowledge is that toll roads do not alleviate congestion. They create more congestion and pollution.
I lived in Houston for five years. Shortly after my move there, the western portion of the Sam Houston Toll Road was opened.
When we left Houston to move to Mansfield, the toll road was just as jammed up at rush hour every day as the freeways.
Paying for gridlock
Motorists are paying money to sit in gridlock.
So much for improving traffic flow.
What if the Mexican trucks (or the American trucks, for that matter) don’t want to pay the tolls? With gas prices steadily increasing, a truck driver’s margin is already thin. Will they be forced to use the toll road or will they keep driving Interstate 35?
CorridorWatch.org has lots of information about this abomination — route maps, detailed information about the process and how to get involved.
In whatever way I can, I’ll make my voice heard.
Regardless of what the state and the governor say, we can stop this.
Liz Sunderman, a native of Waco, resides in Mansfield, Texas.
© 2006 The Waco Tribune-Herald
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Sunday, August 13, 2006
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