FORT WORTH -- A special Fort Worth Transportation Authority board meeting likely will be called next week to approve two commuter rail station sites for the T's TEX Rail project, officials said, despite lingering opposition from residents of nearby neighborhoods.
One of those station sites is just south of Mistletoe Boulevard and directly west of Baylor All Saints Medical Center. Officials from the T and the city say they're pressing forward with that location, rather than a site a few hundred feet north of West Rosedale Street, because it's more suitable for transit traffic heading to the medical district.The T board will likely be called into a special session June 20 to determine the locations of stations serving the medical district and north Fort Worth near the Stockyards, T President Dick Ruddell said.The board is under pressure from the City Council to end years of delays and build the commuter rail line by 2016. It would run 37 miles from southwest Fort Worth to Grapevine and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.On Monday night, T officials explained their thinking to several dozen residents of Mistletoe Heights, where a neighborhood vote taken about two months ago had a majority opposing the station site.But T board member Mike Brennan, who lives in the area, said the station will bring improvements that otherwise couldn't happen -- including a sound wall separating houses from the adjacent Fort Worth & Western Railroad tracks."The neighborhood's input is important. The functionality of the station is important. The cost of construction is important," Brennan said during an open house Monday night at St. Stephen Presbyterian Church. "The whole process demonstrated that there isn't one voice in the neighborhood."Besides building a sound wall, T and city officials have tentatively agreed to close Mistletoe Boulevard to westbound traffic if the station is built at the T's preferred site, to prevent drivers from using the neighborhood as a shortcut, Brennan said. Westbound traffic would be diverted at Beckham Place to 12th Avenue and West Rosedale Street.City officials must still take formal steps to make such a traffic change. They say they'll pursue the plan if the T board selects the site south of Mistletoe Boulevard.Cody Cotten, a federal purchasing employee who lives near downtown, said he looks forward to riding the TEX Rail line. He attended the open house and said he likes the station location, although he acknowledged living closer to downtown than to Mistletoe Heights."It seems to me to provide better access to the hospitals, as well as Magnolia Avenue," he said.Casi Dunavin, who lives in Mistletoe Heights and works at a medical office in southwest Fort Worth, also approves of the station plan."I would definitely use it to get to the airport," she said.In north Forth Worth, an open house is scheduled to discuss a proposed station serving nearby neighborhoods. It will be 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Diamond Hill community center, 1701 NE 36th St.The T now has its sights set on property at 2901 Decatur Ave., the current home of the Rodriguez Foods tamale factory.However, this week the factory's owner, Phil Rodriguez, told the Star-Telegram that he had not been contacted by the T and has no intention of selling his property. He said he has about 70 employees who now worry that their jobs will be sacrificed for the commuter rail line.Gordon Dickson, 817-390-7796Twitter: @gdickson