Plans for Texas' First Private Toll Road Roll On -- and Right Over People in its Path

Mark Haslett

At this point, Texas Turnpike's road might roll on whatever opponents say.

Barker, at his sleek Texas Turnpike Corp./Public Werks office overlooking Turtle Creek, characterizes the people who came to speak as being opposed to all growth in the area. "I think we're getting blamed for not being transparent when we're actually more transparent, because we're going out talking to these communities well in advance, telling them what we're thinking, what's going on. Well, the people get riled up, and you know, I don't know how you get around that."

Whatever the population increases actually are, many locals say more traffic is coming. Officials in the corridor point to two major industrial developments as the reason for the increased traffic. One is 6,700 acres of land in Greenville purchased a few years ago by Walton Development, a firm in Canada that has quietly been buying empty land across Texas.

In 2011 the city of Greenville predicted that the development would have "tremendous impact" on the city and Hunt County, anticipating that Walton would turn the unde-veloped land into a community of 21,000 houses.

And in Wylie, the Kansas City Southern Railroad company recently purchased space and began plans to start operating a shipping, trucking and warehouse facility. "We're going to be faced with that trucking problem in a very short period of time, and I believe that as many people who are upset about this toll road as I'm hearing from, I'm going to hear from many, many people who are very upset about the clogging of [Highway] 78 with trucks," says Williams, the Collin County commissioner.

Williams would like to see some sort of project that relieves the truck traffic on Highway 78, but finds the idea of a private company getting to do it "distasteful." On the other hand, she doesn't think she has much choice in the matter and is hesitant to criticize the Texas Turnpike Corp. "I think they can pursue this effort with or without the blessing of local government," she says. "I think that Michael and the RTC [Regional Transportation Council] did a very good job of slowing them down."

That public process has remained unimpressive to Teske, the Lavon mayor. If the toll road becomes the main thoroughfare in town, he's certain that the poorer residents who can barely afford gas would never be able to use it. "I get more and more sad about the whole thing," he says. "It's not really what I envisioned for the people out here."

In October, a Lavon resident named Sean Walker found orange survey markings directly behind his neighborhood. He followed the path in his car to the next survey markings and found he could draw a line through them. The marks were made by Huitt-Zollars, a construction firm that the Texas Turnpike Corp. has employed. At another meeting the TTC hosted in Rockwall a few days later, Walker asked Barker if the survey markers were the location of the official route of the toll road. Barker, he says, assured him that no route has been chosen yet.

"My answers in Rockwall were sincere that we have not chosen a route," Barker added in a follow-up email after the meeting. "I am meeting with my team tomorrow to find out exactly what is happening with these paintings on the ground and I owe you an answer as soon as I get it."

Barker still hadn't given Walker an explanation about the paintings when the Lavon City Council decided to write a resolution opposing the toll project this October. Around 50 people showed up to the gym where the City Council meets, thanking them for taking a stand.

The City Council unanimously passed its resolution opposing the roll road. Teske admitted before the meeting, though, that the resolution would be largely symbolic.

"I think that maybe the ship has already sailed, and all these meetings out there, the public comments, it's putting a check in the box," he says. "I really don't think they care what the residents out here think."

< Previous>