Thread: TTC: Land loss big concern at corridor meeting

Land loss big concern at corridor meeting
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By JIMMY ISAAC
Thursday, January 17, 2008

CARTHAGE — James Mason doesn't want a new highway cutting him off from his property. James Boggs wants to keep American jobs here.

They were just a sample of about 140 residents who asked, commented and listened during a public forum with state transportation leaders Wednesday night in Carthage. It was the second of several forums scheduled along the Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor, a proposed superhighway that likely will parallel U.S. 59 from Texarkana to the Mexican border.

"We haven't done a very good job of (communicating) in the past," said Steve Simmons, deputy executive director of Texas Department of Transportation. "That's why we're here now."

The Trans-Texas Corridor was an idea first proposed by Gov. Rick Perry about six years ago. It would be up to a quarter-mile-wide highway with toll roads, rail lines, pipelines and utility lines, state officials said. Its cost is estimated at nearly $200 billion.

The idea has caught opposition on several sides — from residents fighting a potential eminent domain land grab to taxpayers fearful of a Spanish firm's involvement in planning the corridor.

"If you put Interstate 69 down the middle of U.S. 59, I've got property on both sides of that road, and it's going to be a six-mile drive for me to get back to my property on the other side of the highway," said Mason, 45, of Panola County. "Whenever you put that road down, you're going to do this to people. You're going to divide properties."

Simmons and other TxDOT officials cautioned that a route for Interstate 69 has not been finalized, noting that construction of even one part of the corridor is at least 10 years away in a best-case scenario.

Mason's comments were in the minority here Wednesday. Several residents asked about the state's ongoing transportation funding crisis and broad corridor plans.

Highway construction costs have risen 62 percent in the past five years and have doubled costs from one decade ago, Simmons said. The federal highway trust fund could be $4 billion in the hole by 2009, he said. That has led TxDOT to focus on maintaining existing lines while telling residents that future large-scale highway projects such as Interstate 69 are likely to be tolled.

"Just like there's not one silver bullet to solve all of our transportation problems, there's no silver bullet that caused all of our problems," Simmons said. "We have 80,000 miles of roadway. With the weather we've been having and those inflationary costs, we haven't been able to keep up with those needs out there."

Hank Gilbert of Whitehouse was in Texarkana on Tuesday and in Carthage on Wednesday on behalf of Texans United for Reform and Freedom, a citizens' group concerned about toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor. He said a new eminent domain statute allows the state to seize property before the owner can take the issue to court.

"You're going to cut farms in half," Gilbert said. "Also, there are a lot of low-income farmers and property owners here in East Texas. They're not going to be able to fight this."

The attorney general's office handles land acquisition, not TxDOT, said Phil Russell, executive director of innovative projects for the agency. Property can only be acquired for transportation purposes, not commercial development, and the department has never used the "quick grab" statute and probably never will, he said.

"As I understand it, it simply gives us the ability to take possession of that property a bit earlier," Russell said. "You don't limit any of your abilities to go to the special commission or the courthouse to argue the value of your property or anything else."

TxDOT will hold 45 public hearings in February in Texas to discuss Interstate 69 and allow residents to respond. A meeting will be held Feb. 6 at Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center, and hearings will be held Feb. 5 in Carthage, Marshall on Feb. 7 and Jefferson on Feb. 21.
http://www.news-journal.com/news/conten ... te_69.html

[i]"Mason's comments were in the minority here Wednesday. Several residents asked about the state's ongoing transportation funding crisis and broad corridor plans."[/i]

The main concern was the flavor of the KoolAid. Since Mason was in the minority, one could assume that the others do not have a clue as to what is happening or just do not care because their land is not affected.

Well I hope Texans wake up because they are leading the way for or against them to implement the North American Union.

Fight it Texas!!




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http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... c&p=586834[/quote]

Sosad we Texans have been trying to fight this since it started. But how do you fight a corrupt state government that has had its pockets lined with cash? They do not care about us the people or that they will be taking thousands of acres of our land. All they care about is the MONEY. Have you seen what they will charge to even use this monster? "tolls" It will destroy towns, communities, but they just do not care. They have domain powers and they plan on using them. With the price of oil going up every day, just imagine what this piece of road will cost... People not aware of this crazy idea need to visit http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/index.htm

I heard it will cost about $7 a mile to drive on!!

Texlegal--

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security"

What did our founding fathers mean when they wrote this????

Perry, Rudy and Cintra have it figured out how to make millions out of this deal. I am sure they have our best intrests at heart....