Great Lakes Basin Transportation will not meet a Monday deadline for filing an alternate route for its proposed freight train line from Milton, Wis., into LaPorte County.
"We are going to file a request for an extension on Monday," said Frank Patton, founder and managing partner of GLBT, on Friday, declining to provide further details. "It should be public shortly thereafter."
In related news, a local lawmaker said he will spearhead updating the state's eminent domain laws related to railroads to make it more difficult for business interests to take privately owned land for their own profit.
The federal Surface Transportation Board, which held public meetings on the 278-mile proposal in the spring, set an Aug. 29 deadline for GLBT to offer an alternate route to the one that cuts through southern Lake and Porter counties.
"There is no explanation in the information GLBT has provided to date to explain whether GLBT considered other potential alignments and variations and why they might have been rejected," Victoria Rutson, director of the Office of Environmental Analysis, wrote in a July 5 letter to one of GLBT's attorneys.
The Office of Environmental Analysis will compile the more than 3,900 comments submitted online, as well as those made during the spring meetings, for an environmental impact statement on the proposal. That is expected to take a few years.
Earlier in the week, Patton indicated via email that GLBT planned to meet the Monday deadline. It was not immediately clear Friday what might have changed. A proposal to build the Great Lakes Basin Transportation's freight rail line through south Lake and Porter counties is creating uncertainty for government, schools and real estate professionals. "For us it's kind of a really large guessing game as far as forward planning," Lowell Town Council president... A proposal to build the Great Lakes Basin Transportation's freight rail line through south Lake and Porter counties is creating uncertainty for government, schools and real estate professionals. "For us it's kind of a really large guessing game as far as forward planning," Lowell Town Council president... (Amy Lavalley and Carrie Napoleon)
GLBT's $8 billion privately funded proposal, would be the largest new rail line in recent times and is meant to provide a bypass for Chicago's congested rail yard and take trucks off the road. The route will have the capacity for up to 110 trains a day.
Two of the six Class I railroads expected to be served by the freight line have publicly stated they will not participate; the remaining four appear uncommitted to the project.
Several people, including a representative with the opposition group Residents Against the Invasion of Land by Eminent Domain, or RAILED, have submitted alternate routes for consideration to the STB.
"There have already been some good alternative routes submitted," said Kathleen Honl, one of RAILED's organizers, adding she wasn't surprised Patton would not meet the deadline. "Though I would doubt he would kill the project altogether, maybe he is realizing that his original route isn't the best choice. Of course, this is speculation."
A document on the STB website outlines what was discussed in an Aug. 5 teleconference between GLBT representatives, their attorneys, and representatives from the Office of Environmental Analysis.
"GLBT indicated that the general location of their proposed route was designed as a balance between the closer and more distant routes (from Chicago)… (and) included design objectives to avoid population centers, connect with other railroads, and avoid wetlands."
The document notes that the group discussed submissions on the STB website that identify alternate route, and "GLBT indicated that it is reviewing scoping comments and considering them."
GLBT indicated during the teleconference "that it will prepare a robust narrative" on how it screened route alternatives and variations. According to the document, the OEA will independently review the information GLBT submits.
Meanwhile, State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, chairman of the House of Representative's Roads and Transportation Committee, said he will work to update the statutes on railroad eminent domain, some of which date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s.
"It's the days when railroads were just beginning to have an impact on the nation. It appears to be quite liberal by modern standards," he said.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling several years ago on an eminent domain case on the East Coast led many states to update their related statutes, he said, but not those regarding railroads.
"We should not take people's land or property unless there's a compelling public interest, and a compelling public interest is not that someone makes a profit," he said.
The move was prompted by media reports about GLBT's plans to take land through eminent domain if its proposal were to move forward, he said, as well as requests by the Porter County Board of Commissioners to take a look at the statutes.
"This is an issue whether (the GLBT plan) exists or not. It needs to be done. I've been talking to the big railroads and they see the need," he said.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Above is from: http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-glbt-route-deadline-st-0827-20160826-story.html
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