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Peters is adamant the Greens Prairie Trail option is the best deal and WILL go to condemnation for property.

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I don't own property in that area any longer, and will not be directly impacted by whatever they decide (it seems they have already decided actually); but it is appalling to me how little respect governments and politicians pay to the rights of property owners. Forced taking of one's property through condemnation should be an absolute last resort when there is a critical public interest at stake and all other means have been exhausted. For all the lip service we get from so-called conservative legislators regarding property rights, it sure seems like those rights get trampled on a regular basis.

Update:

I just ate lunch with the land owners / people that I lease the land from (that the county would have to obtain to extend Greens Prairie Trail) and I was given permission to inform whoever that need be that the land would NOT be sold as long as they were alive!

With that being said......this is not going to be on any kind of "Fast Track"

Just seems awful curious that the railroad can't go further south to a less populated area. What's the growth projection for south Brazos County? It's got to be high. Surely the RR could build their addition in an area less likely to see massive population growth.

Techno--isn't there another track slightly south of there that heads west? Maybe that has something to do with it? Terrain or drainage or something?

DD-you are probably aware of this document, but in case you aren't, you may wish to take a look at it to familiarize yourself with the terms/proceedings. It is going to be difficult for you as it is a railroad, but one never knows...

http://recenter.tamu.edu/pdf/394.pdf

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Techno--isn't there another track slightly south of there that heads west? Maybe that has something to do with it? Terrain or drainage or something?

DD-you are probably aware of this document, but in case you aren't, you may wish to take a look at it to familiarize yourself with the terms/proceedings. It is going to be difficult for you as it is a railroad, but one never knows...

http://recenter.tamu.edu/pdf/394.pdf

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Or north? They're putting in that facility in Mumford, right? Add a couple miles along the tracks in Robertson County.

Another meeting tomorrow night. Not sure what is being considered or if this is just another way for more tripe to be crammed down our collective throats.

I wish that we as tax payers/residents were better organized. We are fragmented in level of information and engagement as well as what we are trying to accomplish in our interactions. Brazos County and UP come to the table with variant interests, but have much less of a barrier of fragmentation.

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What's the growth projection for south Brazos County? It's got to be high.

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I don't know the official projections but I can say that all of 2154 south of Fitch is acreage subdivisions and a huge portion of it is built out. I can also say that College Station is quickly running out of land for new home construction. Those two together would seem to suggest that growth in any immediate area is limited.

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What's the growth projection for south Brazos County? It's got to be high.

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I don't know the official projections but I can say that all of 2154 south of Fitch is acreage subdivisions and a huge portion of it is built out. I can also say that College Station is quickly running out of land for new home construction. Those two together would seem to suggest that growth in any immediate area is limited.

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Eh. That's still not a good reason to snarl the area in extra rail traffic.

Info on the meeting tonight. Apparently they did not announce this one at the Monday night hearing at the Brazos Center - hmmm, wonder why?

Thursday December 11, 2014
BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT WILL CONDUCT A PUBLIC HEARING ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2014 AT 5:00PM IN COMMISSIONERS COURTROOM OF THE COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, 200 S. TEXAS AVE., SUITE 106, BRYAN, TEXAS. Closure of Straub and Wade RR Crossings.
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Well, yeah, Slocum, I wonder why? Let's see....UP donated about $2.4 million from the local to federal level and spent about $4-5 million lobbying that same year (2012 or 2013, can't remember). They've got the 72 track line in the Hearne/Mumford area planned and several years ago penned an agreement with outgoing governor Perry promising to move some of the rail away from urban areas.

Meanwhile, there are some big honking' warehouses being built south of Dallas especially along the I-45 corridor just waiting to transport goods all over the place. I don't think those folks want their warehouses to sit idle. UP has an intermodal facility in the Dallas area so it all ties together (for those unfamiliar with shipping, this allows the cargo to have minimal handling because it is already in a container/trailer so to speak.)

I completely understand why the residents are upset and concerned about UP's solution to UP's problem of where to put the siding, but I also understand that they are facing a business juggernaut that has the three 'P's on its side of the table: precedence, power, and politics.


Edit--missed conjunction and spelling

Viva big government. You're land is only your land as long as you pay rent (property taxes) and we don't need it for something more important than what you're using it for. Just bend over and smile. Or don't smile, that's not important.

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This has all been in the works since around February of 2014 yet local
residents have only known about the project for about 6-8 weeks.

- UP 1, County 1, Residents 0, College Station 0.

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I believe the State requires that 'reasonable' notice is given. The definition of reasonable is what is frequently disputed. One party has the ability to get all of their ducks in a row, while the other must marshal their resources post haste. Not an easy task, as another poster had commented.

Slocum, I do think the GP crossing may be the best solution since this train siding will in all probability exist. However, do you know if the CoCS has any plans for a traffic light at Fitch & 2154? I think the City just approved a gas station on the corner there recently? 2154 is used by an awful lot of drivers and how much more land do they have for hwy expansion there ( easement and such like)?

This kind of surprises me. I've dealt with UP folks on several occasions professionally and they were great to work with. Sharp, funny, good people. I'm surprised they are coming across as such *******s here.

Carpe, I don't know- I am interested in this development for a variety of reasons which I needn't go into at the moment. Union Pacific employs something like 45,000 the long term view might be that this does have implications for the Texas economy.

No question UP recognizes the importance of Texas and Louisiana growth the next decade or two. I'm surprised they aren't coming across better over an issue as seemingly trivial as this. No way a simple siding placement is worth this much ill will. End of the day they can do what they want, just seems a bit arrogant from what I've personally witnessed from some pretty good folks.

I agree with you there in that it is a small thing compared to the size of the future rail yard further north. They are taking something like 1000 acres up there aren't they? However, I suspect for the residents who live on the 'wrong' side of the tracks it isn't trivial-they want safe uncongested access; for DD leasing a property and the property owners-they might lose economically.
Doesn't TxDot have to give the railroad permission to close roads, etc? Will they be providing some of the monetary help or is this all on the city and UP? ( I will go reread slocum's post) I haven't attended the meetings, but I will be looking for other's comments.

CS and Brazos County have major issues with Wellborn Road. This really doesn't do much if anything to address those issues. What Wellborn needs:

• Better intersection with Fitch.
  
• Somewhere to safely turn around north of Rock Prairie and south Southwest Parkway. Whoever thought this current arrangement was a good idea should be fired.
  
• Somewhere to safely turn around north of Fitch and South or Rock Prairie. Again, bad idea to push all of that uturn traffic into the Rock Prairie intersection. Certain times of the day we turn right onto RP and take Victoria to Barron to turn left onto Wellborn.
• No left turn at Graham onto Wellborn. A better interchange with Fitch would alleviate some of this. Turning left off of Graham onto Wellborn is just a bad idea.
  
• A light at Barron/Capstone and Wellborn.
  
• A light at S. Dowling.
  
• Resolution on Greens Prairie/Straub/Wade.
  
• Widening from Fitch to at least south of Greens Prairie.
  
• Lower the speed limit to 45.

It really doesn't sound to me like whatever comes of this is really going to accomplish much. UP is going to get what they want and give as little as possible which is what they should do. We'll get a new light at Greens Prairie which will still be better than using an uncontrolled S. Dowling at 730 in the morning. But the rest of that list needs a lot of work and traffic on that road isn't going to go down. I'm fairly willing to bet that CS annexed all of this without any real plan to deal with the traffic issues they would be inheriting. Why? That's how CS rolls (or so it seems) without any real sense of what they are doing. The ultimate solution to the problems in the area is at their feet, not the county and certainly not UP. At this point I have little confidence that anyone in a position of power has any idea what needs to happen.

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I'm fairly willing to bet that CS annexed all of this without any real plan to deal with the traffic issues they would be inheriting. Why? That's how CS rolls (or so it seems) without any real sense of what they are doing. The ultimate solution to the problems in the area is at their feet, not the county and certainly not UP. At this point I have little confidence that anyone in a position of power has any idea what needs to happen.

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Do you believe that it would have been any better had the City not annexed the area? (I am not being sarcastic either).
In what way would the traffic and roads have been improved? I have read posts that have referenced IGN as not being taken care of, was that the City's responsibility at the time or County?
If the County is responsible for some roads, does the money come out of everyone's taxes because I could easily imagine a few people commenting on "why should my taxes go up just to pay for their road?" which was the same argument other people used against annexation in the first place. i.e. "I don't want to pay for that, I live too far away."
Then again, if residents are promised improvements/maintenance after annexation and it isn't scheduled nor completed, I think their complaint is likewise valid.

This growth was going to happen regardless of whether it was under CoCS or Brazos County's domain. Wellborn Road does have a lot of issues, many of which you pointed out. I haven't got a clue how many automobiles travel down that FM on a weekday, but it always seems like a lot. Add to that the close calls I've personally seen with the dump trucks that really really like to go through red lights, I am surprised we haven't had more accidents like the one with the cement truck captured on video awhile back.

I had asked in an earlier post if anyone had any information on how planning was progressing in that area with regards to the road; so much of what CoCs does is both planning/zoning but also highly reactive i.e. the student numbers increasing and the game day traffic increasing. Having to find solutions for the needed infrastructure growth without a lot of funds is challenging I would imagine. Growth is not bad, but it is difficult to manage I expect.

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CS and Brazos County have major issues with Wellborn Road. This really doesn't do much if anything to address those issues. What Wellborn needs:

• Somewhere to safely turn around north of Rock Prairie and south Southwest Parkway. Whoever thought this current arrangement was a good idea should be fired.
  
• Somewhere to safely turn around north of Fitch and South or Rock Prairie. Again, bad idea to push all of that uturn traffic into the Rock Prairie intersection. Certain times of the day we turn right onto RP and take Victoria to Barron to turn left onto Wellborn.

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Sorry to post again, but I definitely agree with this area being difficult. The problem is, I cannot see how they could've left it the way it was. There are always people that ignore 'no left turn' signs and really, there are times when it is perfectly reasonable to turn left and head south on Wellborn (from the shops south of Rock Prairie). Perhaps if they had cut the number of entrance/exit points along that section it might have worked? I don't know, but I agree that U-turns on Rock Prairie would in all likelihood snarl up the thru traffic.

Update your resume Mr Wasserman, you're soon to be out of work.

Oogway

Right now I don't think annexation has done anything but increase CoCS tax revenue but it hasn't been long enough for it to really do much. Maybe they have a plan. Seems like right now would be a good time to roll it out. You're right that growth is tough to manage but pushing traffic away from Wellborn onto Victoria and Welsh isn't a good idea.

I really think they should have put in a couple of medians on Wellborn where you can turn around. I also think the interchange with 2818 should be a no u turn spot. People sitting in the left lane of a 55 MPH road to make a u turn is just bad.


Is this light going in at Greens Prairie or Greens Prairie Trail? GP Trail is further south than GP which is barely south of South Dowling. A light at GP is effectively extending Koppe Bridge instead of making it turn and connect with South Dowling.

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Oogway

Right now I don't think annexation has done anything but increase CoCS tax revenue but it hasn't been long enough for it to really do much. Maybe they have a plan. Seems like right now would be a good time to roll it out. You're right that growth is tough to manage but pushing traffic away from Wellborn onto Victoria and Welsh isn't a good idea.

I really think they should have put in a couple of medians on Wellborn where you can turn around. I also think the interchange with 2818 should be a no u turn spot. People sitting in the left lane of a 55 MPH road to make a u turn is just bad.


Is this light going in at Greens Prairie or Greens Prairie Trail? GP Trail is further south than GP which is barely south of South Dowling. A light at GP is effectively extending Koppe Bridge instead of making it turn and connect with South Dowling.

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I think there is an online street plan on the CoCS website that shows what/how the thoroughfares are designed to funnel traffic, but how effective that is sometimes depends on how inventive drivers are at devising alternate ways to 'test' that system. The numerous posts about folks turning into Chick-fil-a from Hwy 6, turning onto Graham after exiting, going straight from the turn lane, etc. would suggest that while those drivers who are commented upon deem the risks they take acceptable, many other drivers do not.

I agree that pushing traffic onto Welsh and Victoria is less than ideal. There are only so many north-south thru streets and currently how many, 5? that connect with 2818 (Wellborn, Welsh, Rio Grande, Southwood, and Longmire I think) until you get to Texas Avenue. However, with the high school over there at Barron, it makes me wonder how many of the parents who drop off their non-driving students off then travel over to Wellborn and continue north ( that is an assumption on my part I realize and based only on anecdotal evidence) or also travel north on Victoria to drop off at CSMS.

Hopefully, and based upon what I have seen in the past, the city and school district are working together upon plans for congestion around the newest elementary, Spring Creek. From what I have noticed, the number of parents who drive their children to school seems to be increasing each year. That can be for a variety of reasons-work schedules, etc but regardless it has to be taken into account doesn't it? Otherwise who in their right mind heading to work would drive east on Rock Prairie Road in the far right lane at 8:00 in the morning past CSMS? It flows, but slooowly. You can plan for that, yet it only happens for a short while twice a day. My children aren't at Cypress Grove anymore, but it used to back up as well. Does anyone know if they still use a police officer there to help?

I don't know to which Greens Prairie they were referring-I thought it was the road further south; isn't it closer to the affected roads that are being closed?

Do you see some of that growth being pushed east or leapfrogging some of the acreage developments that are out there (souh CS) now?

From a map titled "Greens Prairie Trail Extension Project" produced by either county or UP for meetings, the new crossing will be at the intersection of GPT and 2154. This area is in the county and in the COCS' ETJ (not city limits). The proposed extension is Phase 1: "Extend Greens Trail across Tracks to IGN. Has NADA to do with GP or S. Dowling- both lie in the COCS limits- any work to be done there would involve TXDOT, COCS and UP, not County.

I generally use Straub as my preferred crossing to 2154 but GPT with a light is OK. I can get out to 2154 S by going through Saddle Creek-Duck Haven or several crossings from IGN. OR run IGN-Holleman into town.

I still think the 'fast-track' is in play and tis a done deal and now a dead horse. GPT is UP funded and already has TXDOT's blessing, so duh!!

Well, they voted today to close Straub and Wade.

I do not feel that the county voted in the interest of its tax payers. I hope voters remember this come election day.

Is anyone really surprised by this? Allowing citizen input was just a formality and a show.

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I do not feel that the county voted in the interest of its tax payers.

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