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Heh. Don't give up on it. :)
Bad idea for Texas. Here’s why:
An easy target for terrorists. A 200-foot Utility Zone for large underground water lines, natural gas and petroleum pipelines, telecommunication cables, fiberoptics and overhead high-voltage electric transmission lines all in a quarter mile wide package will be an incredibly easy target for terrorists.
Turns private land into State land. The Trans Texas Corridor project authorizes the Commission to take private land away from its current owner in record time - to lease it for any commercial, industrial or agricultural purpose. More than one-half million acres will become government property used for the State to collect revenue and go in direct competition with private business. HB 2702 does not protect Texans, since Perry’s Corridor will be exempt.
Designed to generate revenue first and provide transportation second. The Corridor plan is designed to provide transportation funds, more than transportation. Accordingly it’s not important where the Corridor is built, or how many family farms get taken, as long as it generates revenue.
Negative economic impact for Texas cities and towns. Taking business away from hundreds of Texas communities by limiting traveler access and providing, in its place, State contract concessions that will include gas, food, hotels, stores and more. The approximately 580,000 acres consumed by the Corridor will become State land taken off county and school district tax rolls. Local taxpayers will absorb the difference. Every mile of Corridor will take approximately 146 acres of land off the tax rolls.
Potential for tremendous liabilities created by Comprehensive Development Agreements. The Corridor plan is based on design-build-operate-maintain contracts called Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDA). While new to Texas, these CDAs have been used in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, China, Malaysia, and Hungry. These contracts often include equity guarantees, debt guarantees, exchange rate guarantees, subordinated loans, shadow toll payments, and minimum revenue guarantees. Most troubling is a class of support called “revenue enhancements” that may limit competition and allow the development of ancillary facilities.
Doesn’t solve the real problem. The singular focus of the Corridor plan is to build corridors that connect regions of the state intentionally bypassing urban centers. Those metropolitan areas are left to deal with their own traffic and mobility problems, including access to the Corridor. Since our large cities are the traffic generators the Corridor will offer little if any relief.
Private Interests v. Public Interests. Private investment and partnership sounds like a good idea until you realize that ‘their’ goal is strictly profit driven (not transportation). Private investment will involve bonds and bondholders who naturally want to protect their money and will insist on terms and conditions that can be contrary to the public good.
Dividing the State. Nearly one-quarter mile wide corridors will cut Texas up into pieces like the Great Wall of China, making it more difficult to get from one place to another. Many landowners will find that they have the choice of keeping land they can no longer access or sell it to the state.
Passenger rail. It hasn’t worked anywhere in the world except in dense urban districts - That ain’t Texas!
Air pollution. A don’t fix it, just move it approach. This plan doesn’t reduce pollution, it simply pushes vehicle pollution away from the large urban district into rural Texas. What’s more, it generates more air pollution and wastes gas/money since vehicles moving between large cities will travel further with their engines running longer than taking a direct route.
Visit www.corridorwatch.org for more information.
Joke all you like, but the TTC is being built and the plans are underway to continue on into Oklahoma now.
My parent’s land near I-35 in southern OK has already been surveyed.