Group fights Trans-Texas Corridor

On Monday, American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range, and TURF held an all-day workshop at the Lufkin Pitser Garrison Civic Center on how to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor-69.

Thousands of Texas citizens have voiced their opposition to the TTC-69 in public meetings held by TxDOT, but no one believes they are being heard or that they can keep the massive superhighway from being built, organizers said.

However, there are four cities and their school districts that have found a way to force TxDOT to "coordinate" with them on the TTC-35 and it's working.

"Utilizing Chapter 391 of the Texas Local Government Code, four rural towns in Bell County formed the Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (ECTSRPC) forcing TxDOT to come to them," said Fred Grant, attorney and president of Stewards of the Range.

Grant has been helping the four cities and school districts for the past six months.

Since forming last August, the ECTSRPC has held two coordination meetings with TxDOT and one with Region 6 of the Environmental Protection Agency, where they have had more than 10 hours of open, indepth discussions about the local concerns.

"We discuss our bus routes, re-routing water lines, the disruption of our emergency services, and the taking of 3,500 acres of prime farmland away from our local economy," said Mae Smith, mayor of Holland and president of the ECTSRPC. "Before we formed our commission, we couldn't get five minutes with anyone at TxDOT. Now, they are working with us because they are required to under Chapter 391."

Several members of the Commission attended the workshop to answer questions along with the team that put the strategy together.

"If we can get commissions established up and down the I-69 Corridor we have a real shot at stopping this monster," said Hank Gilbert, Director of TURF and one of the speakers at the workshop.