FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2003
CONTACT: Katie Chimenti
281-326-3343
Larry Tobin 281-326-1687
San Jacinto Rail Condemnation Proceedings Delayed
A surprise move
by the San Jacinto Rail to lay claim to property
south of Ellington Field through condemnation
proceedings
has run into delays at the
hands of the landowner,
the City of Houston.
A preliminary hearing
on the condemnation
was scheduled
for Monday, April 7, at the downtown offices
of the law firm Jackson Walker.
Railroad representatives
were attorneys
Robert B. Neblett III of
Jackson Walker and Thomas E. Sheffield.
Representatives
of the City of Houston
and the Galveston
Bay Conservation and Preservation
Association (GBCPA) were
also to have attended
the hearing.
"The meeting,
however, was
postponed until May 28. The
City was unprepared
and requested
more time to
prepare,"
said GBCPA representative
Francis Chin.
"Condemnation
of land is a hasty and premature
action," said Katie Chimenti, Vice
Chair of GBCPA. "No permit
has been issued
for the proposed
San Jacinto Rail. As yet there
has not even
been a final
Environmental Impact Statement
published for the
proposal."
A final EIS is a required
step before
any permit decision
can be taken,
noted GBCPAšs
Larry Tobin. "It stands to reason that
you do not start condemning property
when you have
no final EIS and no permit in hand," said
Tobin. "And if it comes to that, we
are not even
sure that a preferred
route has been
selected
for the proposed
rail as yet."
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SJR Condemnation Proceedings
2 of 2
San Jacinto Rail is a project
of the Burlington Northern
and Santa Fe Railroad, serving
four chemical companies
at Bayport. The intent
is to establish a 13-mile
railroad westward from Bayport to connect
with other rail routes
near State
Highway 3. The proposed
rail would have its terminus
adjacent to where
the Port
of Houston Authority aims to build
a mega-container
port at Bayport, a location GBCPA opposes
as inappropriate for container
terminal development.
Alternate
routes have been
under consideration
for the proposed
rail, one passing to the
north of Ellington Field and another
to the south. At a meeting
of the Houston City Councilšs Transportation,
Technology and Infrastructure
(TTI) Committee
on December
16, 2002, rail representatives
indicated that they
favored the
northern route.
However,
the land involved
in the recent
condemnation filing was identified
as being "along Route
1C" for the proposed
San Jacinto Rail and lies immediately
to the southwest
of Ellington Field. This places
the strip of property
adjacent to the
northern edge
of Clear
Lake City.
"Concerned
citizens are
taken aback by this new
move into condemnation
proceedings,
apparently out of the
blue," said Chimenti. "San
Jacinto Rail appears to have
departed from
the northern
route favored
in December.
The land affected
by the condemnation
lies squarely
on the southern
route, next
to Clear
Lake City."
A GBCPA spokesperson
at the December
TTI meeting
pointed out that both routes
have unacceptable
community impacts in Houstonšs East End. The
southern route
has evoked
considerable
opposition in Clear
Lake City
because it lies
so close to schools and subdivisions and threatens
to be the
vanguard of a corridor of industrial development.
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Galveston Bay Conservation
and Preservation
Association
P.O. Box 323, Seabrook,
Texas 77586
Phone:
281-326-3343
Website: www.gbcpa.net E-mail:
gbcpa@ev1.net