Posted on 03/13/2008 3:33:58 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A Piney Woods retreat that has hosted national church conferences on controversial issues, celebrated the consecration of bishops and provided summer memories for thousands of teens now faces another kind of challenge.
The nearly two square miles of forest, hills, fields, lakes and buildings that make up Camp Allen Conference & Retreat Center, 15 miles southeast of Navasota, lie in a two-mile-wide strip listed in state documents as the preferred route for the planned Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor.
Proposed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2002, the corridor plan has drawn heated opposition at town hall meetings and public hearings throughout Southeast Texas.
Camp Allen officials have gathered more than 3,000 names on an Internet petition asking the Texas Department of Transportation not to harm the facility, beloved by many Houstonians.
Houston City Councilman Mike Sullivan was a 7th-grader in Spring Branch when his church youth group took a trip to Camp Allen.
"I had never been in the outdoors like that in my life," he said. "I can still remember taking communion there. It was my first chance to be in a place where I could think and learn about my church and kind of find myself spiritually."
Now, Sullivan said, he and his wife, Kim, and daughter, Paige, 15, drive to the camp several times a year just to spend the day or weekend.
"They have hotel rooms open to the public," he said, as well as groups visiting on various sorts of retreats. "You might see Buddhists, Muslims, Jewish groups, Catholics. They reach out to all religions."
For the past nine years, said Carol Riley of Lufkin, she has traveled with her husband, Mike, and daughters Alyson and Sarah to Camp Allen for the Christmas retreat "Holiday in the Pines."
"The serenity is indescribable and the thought of it being endangered is unimaginable," she said.
George Dehan, president of the camp, said others who have attended functions there include former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, Houston Astros outfielder Lance Berkman, singer Pat Green and actress Renée Zellweger.
Although Camp Allen is owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, Dehan said fewer than half of the 42,000 visitors a year are Episcopalians. The rest, he said, come from various denominations, schools, colleges and nonprofit institutions. About 7,000 are children.
Dehan said he spoke up at a public hearing in Navasota on the corridor project, and another camp staff member spoke at one in Hempstead.
"We said we are not anti-toll road or anti-free trade," he said. "We just want to make sure this doesn't impact our camp."
Dehan said he wrote Perry and received "a polite response" that advised working through the public hearings process.
"And we've talked with some TxDOT commissioners," he said. "They always say, 'Oh, it probably is not going to impact you. We think common sense will prevail.' "
Although it does seem unlikely that roadbuilders would choose to bulldoze through a plot of land that Dehan estimates is worth $50 million to $100 million and has so many friends, he said there are reasons for concern.
Partly to ease landowners' worries that the corridor would cut their holdings apart, TxDOT has said it will try to build the corridor alongside existing roads if possible. But in the segment in question that probably would be FM 362, site of the camp's front gate and hotel.
Even if TxDOT chose to go through ranchland across the road, Dehan said, the strip designated as the "Recommended Preferred Corridor" may be too narrow to protect the camp from traffic noise.
"It would be a hugely negative effect because a lot of our programs are outdoor education," Dehan said.
TxDOT spokeswoman Gabriela Garcia noted the strip on the maps is much bigger than the actual corridor is likely to be.
Even with its full potential array of separate toll roads for trucks and cars, tracks for freight and passenger trains and land for power lines and pipelines, the corridor's maximum width would be 400 yards — about one-ninth as wide as the "recommended preferred" strip.
Garcia said it would be built in segments based on traffic demand and a segment in the Navasota area may not be needed for several years.
When the segment is deemed necessary, Garcia said, the initial construction could be nothing more than a four-lane toll road shared by cars and trucks.
TxDOT is expected to select a developer for the project later this month, and the first half of the environmental clearance process is expected to end early next year, Garcia said.
Then, if federal authorities give approval, the second part of the process — when the actual route will be chosen — would begin. That process probably will take another three to five years, Garcia said.
Although TxDOT hearings on the project are over, the public may submit comments for an Environmental Impact Statement through March 19. This may be done online at www.keeptexasmoving.com or by letter to I-69/TTC, P.O. Box 14428, Austin, TX 78761.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
>>Proposed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2002, the corridor plan has drawn heated opposition at town hall meetings and public hearings throughout Southeast Texas.<<
He only thinks he proposed it - its actually part of the master plan drawn up in 1918 by the Masons, the Rockefellers and the Joos.... *
* The above is intended as a satirical comment.
When building the Corridor, it is better to build where there is as little development as possible - like 2 square miles of forest - than through a bunch of houses.
And the road won’t take all the land. And, to be honest, there are so many plots being taken off the development plain by environmental restrictions, that they’d be able to recreate something similar in Texas even if the remaining property is unusable.
Better their retreat than 2000 home owners.
I’m surprised to see you post a pro-TTC story. Sounds like a good idea to build a road through the place where Vickie Jean and his friends go to ‘meet’.
How is the story pro-TTC? And what are you saying, anyhow? That Camp Allen is a tranny hangout?
Gay Bishop Out of Anglican Summit
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1983894/posts
He’s making his comments from Camp Allen. And any story that talks about breaking up that little conclave is a positive story. (And to clarify somewhat, some of the Episcopal bishops are probably straight. They just ‘affirm’ the ones that aren’t.)
Ugh. Doesn’t mean the camp itself is lousy, just that it might perhaps be a little more discriminating as to its choice of clientele. GLBT FReepers (and they are out there) may flame away!
BTTT
Camp Allen is a beautiful place. I love it!
I’d rather see them NOT build the corridor at all.
As a Texan, I haven't talked to a single person who wants this monstrosity....NOT ONE! Although I haven't spoken to Rick Perry or Kirk Watson.
I find it funny that the original plan was to expand the existing I-59 until that Spanish company offered up $1 billion to do the new and improved **cough**cough** toll corridor. This new monstrosisty has nothing to do with need and all to do with greed.
“Fans of secluded retreat fear Trans-Texas Corridor”
Does anyone have a jpeg of Officer Bar Brady from South Park with the caption, “Move along, nothing to see here.”
Amen Sister!
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