No one could stop the Trans-Texas Corridor. It had the aggressive backing of Governor Rick Perry, the full support of the Texas Department of Transportation (the largest state agency in the nation), and was internationally backed by Cintra-Zachary. This $80 billion project was on a fast pace to connect the Chinese owned Mexican seaports with Canada, that is, until American Stewards of Liberty found within section 391 of the Local Government Code the requirement for state agencies to coordinate with planning commissions.
We guided five courageous central Texas towns and their school districts to invoke coordination and take a stand equal in spirit to the Alamo, but with a much better result — Texans won.
Here is their story …
The Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (ECTSRPC) was the first planning commission created under Chapter 391 of the Local Government Code for the purpose of coordinating with state and federal agencies. Formed by the towns of Holland, Little River-Academy, Bartlett, Rogers, and Buckholts, together with their respective school districts, the ECTSRPC represented approximately 6,500 people, and their jurisdiction covered 30 square miles.
The communities that formed ECTSRPC would have been destroyed by the creation of the I-35 Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), a quarter-mile wide super transportation corridor. Fire stations would have been cut off from the communities they protect. School districts would have to be redistricted. School buses would add hundreds of miles a day navigating around the limited access super-highway. Over 500,000 private acres of land would be confiscated from the southern tip of Texas to the Panhandle to accommodate the internationally funded highway system.
Issue: Multi-modal superhighway corridor. First leg of the NAFTA superhighway
Primary Agencies: Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Federal Highway Administration (FHA)
Background of the Project:
The Trans-Texas Corridor was the primary leg of what became known as the NAFTA Superhighway, a network of multi-modal transportation corridors that connected Mexican Seaports to Canada. The stated purpose of the corridor was to expedite international freight to and through America and Canada.
By design, the corridor had few access ramps and bisected communities to shorten travel distances. No additional border security was planned at the Mexico-Texas border. Chinese-owned ports on the Mexican coast were to be offloaded in sealed containers, not to be opened until they reached their destination. The first upgraded security check was located in Kansas City, Kansas called a “Smart Port” where cargo would be scanned while moving through the facility. Efficiency and expediency of goods was the stated mission of the NAFTA Superhighway.
The corridor contained six passenger lanes for commuter travel, four truck lanes for long hauls, freight rail and high-speed rail. The right-of-way that would be condemned for the project was a quarter-of-a-mile wide, taking 146 acres per mile from Americans. The right-of-way was to house the transportation facilities, hotels, gas stations and restaurants so that travelers would not need to leave the corridor.
The superhighway was funded by international investors who would collect toll fees for the next 50 years. Americans, however, would have their land condemned and communities destroyed.
The first leg of the corridor was the I-35 Trans-Texas Corridor. Promoted in 2002 by Governor Rick Perry, he described the TTC as the new model for transportation in the State of Texas. In 2003, his hand-picked House Transportation Chairman Mike Krusee unveiled a massive Omnibus Transportation package at the end of the Legislative Session that included a 100-plus page Trans-Texas Corridor bill giving TXDOT the green light to develop three separate TTC corridors in Texas.
Once the details of the bill were finally made public, Texans began to realize the TTC was a profit vehicle and not sound transportation planning. Included in the details was a non-compete clause, which made it prohibitive for any parallel road to be expanded that was within 10 miles of the toll corridor. Texans knew they had been sold out.
During the 2005 and 2007 Legislative Sessions, Texas citizens worked to repeal the TTC legislation. Governor Perry managed to keep the law intact.
Environmental Study & Design Contracts
TXDOT was well into the scoping process of their environmental studies on the I-35, I-69 and Ports-to-Plains Corridors in 2003. In tandem, the state signed a design-build contract with Cintra-Zachary for the I-35 corridor. Cintra, a Spanish company, owned 75% of the newly formed corporation. As TXDOT was conducting the presumably impartial impact analysis of different alternatives under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which would identify the environmentally preferred route, Cintra engineers were already making plans to move forward with one route for the I-35 corridor, prior to environmental clearance.
Oddly, parts of the contract between Cintra and the state were being withheld from the public. It was suspected that the route had already been pre-determined by Cintra, which influenced the preferred alternative identified by TXDOT in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). After a year-and-a-half court battle, TXDOT was forced to release the full contract, and as expected, the aerial maps showing the route selected by Cintra were the same as the footprint of the preferred environmental alternative selected by TXDOT.
Coordination Commission Formed
During the 2007 Legislative Session, American Stewards of Liberty (ASL) found in Chapter 391 of the Texas Local Government Code, specific coordination language that applied to all state agencies. Chapter 391.009(c) reads:
“In carrying out their planning and program development responsibilities, state agencies shall, to the greatest extent feasible, coordinate planning with commissions to ensure effective and orderly implementation of state programs at the regional level.”
We made the strategic decision to wait until the 2007 Legislative Session ended before alerting Texans to the coordination opportunity they had to stop the TTC. In June of 2007, the idea was discussed with Ralph Snyder, a giant of a Texan who had studied and fought the TTC since it became known to him. He immediately went to work and organized four towns in Eastern Bell County, which were Holland, Bartlett, Little River-Academy and Rogers, along with their school districts, into the first coordination commission formed in the state of Texas. They called themselves the Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (ECTSRPC).
The first organizational meeting by the Commission was held, and the letter drafted by ASL was approved to send to TXDOT requesting they coordinate the TTC with the Commission. TXDOT was given 30 days to respond. On the28th day, TXDOT agreed to meet.
In preparation for the meeting, the Commission adopted two policies: (1) There would be no Trans-Texas Corridor through the ECTSRPC jurisdiction, and (2) they fully supported the expansion of the existing I-35 interstate. They also studied the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the regulations, and then analyzed TXDOT’s environmental study against the requirements of the law. The study, they concluded, was grossly inadequate, as there was no analysis as to the local impact, the economic impact, or even the environmental impact. The study was put together as if it would never be challenged.
Coordination Begins with TXDOT
The first coordination meeting with TXDOT included the environmental study manager, two TTC managers for TXDOT, the local district engineer, and the public relations director. It was attended by four local TV stations, primarily because this was the first meeting of its kind where the public was allowed to hear the open discussion of the agencies plans for the corridor.
The ECTSRPC questioned the agency for four long hours with specific concerns about the impact the highway would have on the local communities, which had not been considered in their analysis. They received few if any specific answers from TXDOT. Clearly, the local impacts had not been a concern to the state agency. They built a record of inadequacies that would later be the key reason the project failed to achieve environmental approval.
However, TXDOT was just a few months away from submitting their final study and told the commission they had learned nothing new during the meeting that would change their report. They intended to have the Final Statement released in January of 2008.
The Commission, however, had other plans for TXDOT.
Coordination Begins with the EPA
ASL recommended that the Commission reach out to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is required to review the environmental analysis. It took three letter requests to get the EPA’s attention, however their persistence paid off and the second in command for Region 6 agreed to meet.
When EPA reviews an environmental statement, and finds it does not adequately analyze the impacts, it can require the agency to redo portions of the study, potentially significantly delaying a project. The goal of the meeting with the EPA was to bring to their attention the many gross violations of the NEPA study, requiring EPA to withhold its approval.
The EPA came with the second in command for the Region, two study reviewers, and a NEPA attorney. The ECTSRPC added to the information provided to TXDOT by having the school superintendents describe the economic impacts through added bus miles, redistricting of school boundaries, and the loss of tax revenue. The Fire Chief also attended and explained how the route would bisect his emergency district making it impossible to reach much of the community in an emergency.
By the end of the meeting, the EPA assured the Commission their concerns and impacts would be taken into account and asked that any new information be submitted directly to them.
ECTSRPC Expands
Anticipating that TXDOT might plan to go around the commission by moving the highway to the east, the Commission added the city and school district of Buckholts in Milam County. This left the only realistic alternative for TXDOT to route the project on the west side of the commission, expanding I-35, which was the Commission’s policy all along.
Coordination Expands
Other areas followed ECTSRPC’s lead and formed their own commissions up and down the routes of the planned superhighways in the state. Now TXDOT was not just fighting one commission, but several commissions, each with their own specific local issues that needed to be considered in the environmental analysis.
Over the course of the next two years, the ECSTRPC met with several more state and federal agencies and TXDOT two more times. ASL also prepared lengthy petitions the Commission submitted to the Federal Highway Administration and the Council of Environmental Quality. A project that was just a few months away from approval was now facing considerable hurdles and delays placed in its path by the 391 local commissions.
Project Delayed
A third coordination meeting was held with TXDOT in January of 2009, where the agency informed the Mayor’s that TXDOT had agreed to consider using existing facilities first (I-35), before pursuing a new corridor. But the Commission was not fooled by the sleight of hand and pointed out that while they agreed this would be the correct approach, this would require the agency to start the process over. Expanding existing facilities was not one of the alternatives advanced in their environmental analysis. Doing this would add several more years to the project before it could ever break ground.
Then, TXDOT informed the Commission they had dropped the “Trans-Texas Corridor” concept and would now be looking at building the multi-modal facility segment-by-segment as needed. Still, the Commission was not fooled by the new “Innovative Connectivity” approach. A name change was not enough to get the Commission to drop their opposition.
The environmental study that was just months away from final approval when the Commission formed still had not been filed, and in 2009, the legislature failed to pass the Comprehensive Development Agreements they needed to move forward with building the corridor. Further, the time was up for them to complete their environmental study on the I-35 TTC Corridor, by their own regulations.
“No Build” Alternative Issued
Then, on October 6, 2009, the Texas Department of Transportation announced they had “listened to the public” and would be recommending a “no build” alternative for the I-35 TTC corridor. The Wall Street Journal reported a more accurate account:
“In a filing to the Spanish market regulator, Cintra said the Texas state government made the decision after the U.S. Federal Highway Administration raised questions about the environmental impact of the planned highway.”
The only entities standing between the TXDOT/PERRY/CINTRA superhighway were the five unpaid Mayor’s, their school districts, and one brave citizen named Ralph Snyder — all of whom were backed by ASL. And right behind them were the numerous other commissions formed along the route advocating the same concerns. Had they not stepped forward and utilized coordination, there is no doubt that concrete for the superhighway would have been poured. Because of the local government commissions, TXDOT was forced to make a “no build” recommendation for the first time in the history of the agency.
The Commitment of the Commission
This was a modern-day David v. Goliath battle. Countless hours were put into coordinating the TTC by everyone involved. The Commission met regularly for 27 months, with numerous meetings in between, and ASL was behind the scenes helping guide every one of them. They stayed committed to pressing forward. They stayed focused on the long-term strategy – delay the project – the longer the delay the more likely the investors and the agency would tire of the project. They were satisfied with many little gains, and even setbacks, which led up to the ultimate victory.
Today, we can appreciate the importance of this victory even more as we witness China’s aggressive dominance on the world stage, and clear intent to destroy America from within. Imagine if there were superhighways networked across our country for China and other foreign powers with destruction of America as their goal, to move unchecked anything they wanted into the middle of our country. The current invasion occurring on our border today under the Biden Administration would have a superhighway leading directly to the interior of our country.
Ralph Snyder said in the beginning that he did not believe the Trans-Texas Corridor could be stopped but felt certain we could move or at least lessen the impact. We proved the power of coordination when local citizens are willing to take a stand to protect and defend their community.
Each of the towns that formed the first commission were given a plaque to hang in their respective offices that simply read: “The Trans-Texas Corridor Stopped Here.”
