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Challenging the Wisdom of the Trans Texas Corridor.
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North Texas residents protest super tollway July 10, 2006 Brad Watson, WFAA-TV GAINESVILLE — The state heard an earful at public hearings on the Trans-Texas Corridor after residents learned of plans to build through Cooke County. Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Department of Public Transportation expressed beliefs the highway and rail corridor from Laredo to the Red River will meet the state's transit needs in the decades ahead. However, some landowners along the way are fighting it.
TxDOT prefers the
corridor of superhighways and rail lines to run east of the
Dallas-Fort Worth area and then veer northwest through Collin
County, Grayson and Cooke counties. "It will hit the hardest when it hits their wallet," said Mark Whitfield, a Cooke County resident. "So it's my income, so of course I'm going to fight for it." Both Whitfield and Cooke County resident Jerry Ware own Lavender Ridge Farms, where visitors can cut their own flowers. The property is in the middle of the 10-mile-wide path where the state could build the quarter-mile-wide corridor. "We're going to lose that peaceful country atmosphere...that we love," Ware said. TxDOT can't say exactly how many thousands of acres of Cooke County land would be gobbled up in the highway plan. However, along with rural land, homes are potentially in the way. About 1,000 homes surround Lake Kiowa where Fred Bradley retired to get away from traffic. "It would be like living in downtown Dallas because you'll have railroads and highways and everything in one corridor," Bradley said. TxDOT said construction won't start for three to five years.
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This Page Last Updated: Wednesday January 30, 2008