Private developers who want to build a commuter rail line from southwest Fort Worth to Plano will ask state lawmakers for a special tax district to collect money off the route in 13 cities, officials briefed on the plan say.
But creating a new layer of local government could be a tough sell in the Legislature, which gets under way Tuesday, and where members have repeatedly balked at creating laws that provide funding for North Texas public transit projects. And there could also be local opposition, as some leaders in area cities along the Cotton Belt line are expressing concern about losing control of land in their boundaries."I don't think it'll be an easy deal," said Vic Suhm, executive director of the Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition, which has tried in vain several times during past legislative sessions to get approval of bills allowing local elections to raise taxes and fees for rail or other transit projects. "It has the potential to create a tax, and you've got a lot of those people who aren't interested in giving locals any more authority."The Cotton Belt project would stretch 62 miles, with trains serving places such as southwest and downtown Fort Worth, TCU, the Stockyards area, Grapevine, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, Addison, Carrollton and Plano. More than half of the Cotton Belt project -- 32 miles -- is in Tarrant County, where it overlaps a commuter rail project known as TEX Rail that the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, also known as the T, has been planning for years.The T has applied for $480 million in federal funds under the name TEX Rail, and if the application is successful the money could be included in the Cotton Belt project.But it would be just a fraction of the estimated $2.7 billion needed to build the entire 62 miles. So an unidentified consortium of businesses has notified the North Central Texas Council of Governments that it will submit an unsolicited proposal this month or in February to build the Cotton Belt corridor with a combination of public and privately raised dollars.The proposal could include the promise of bringing a rail car manufacturer to the region, to build equipment not only for the Cotton Belt line, but also for commuter rail and streetcar projects statewide -- providing hundreds of new jobs at the same time.In return, the privately backed group could recapture its investment by receiving revenue from future property values, or dollars generated by transit-oriented development around the train stations.But to do that, the consortium needs legislative permission to create a special tax district with powers that stretch across 13 cities in Tarrant, Dallas and Collin counties."The private-sector team has developed some draft legislation that hopefully will be filed immediately upon the outset of the legislative session in January," said Tom Shelton, senior program manager at the council of governments, who is overseeing the Cotton Belt initiative.'Lots of questions' on powersShelton told the Regional Transportation Council in December that he was fielding "lots of questions from different jurisdictions about what those powers will be."Although the draft legislation to create a tax district hasn't been publicized, Shelton said the entity "would not have eminent domain power" and wouldn't be able to supersede cities' authority."We will not subvert in any way the powers and authority that properly resides with home-rule cities, such as city planning and zoning," he said. "We certainly will not incur debt and issue bonds without the prerequisite support of the city councils."Cities along the route have been asked to endorse the council of governments as the "responsible government entity" for developing the Cotton Belt project.Grapevine officials refused to act on an endorsement during a December meeting, saying they didn't have enough information about how the plan might affect their power to control development in the city."If it's a private entity that is wanting to deal with one group instead of multiple cities, then the cities will have to cede some level of control, power or regulatory authority to this central group," Grapevine Councilman Chris Coy said. "That will override what cities want to see."Councilwoman Sharron Spencer compared the moment to when Fort Worth and Dallas agreed in the 1960s to build DFW Airport on land primarily in Grapevine, giving the larger cities zoning authority over their smaller neighbor."It's exactly what happened with us many years ago when DFW Airport was built," she said. "We ceded control of a lot of things, which we've learned a lot from."Approval with reservationsIn December, the Fort Worth City Council approved designating the council of governments as the responsible entity. But a paragraph was added to the resolution making clear that the city "reserves the right to review and evaluate the merits of any public-private partnership" and to withhold support."We've talked to the folks working on the unsolicited proposal. I personally have talked to them," Councilman Jungus Jordan said. "I told them we're not going to sign any blank checks."Addison, Coppell, Haltom City, North Richland Hills, Plano, Richardson and Southlake have also approved the agreement.Carrollton is scheduled to vote Tuesday.Although the Cotton Belt corridor also passes through Colleyville and Hurst, no train stations are planned there, and their city councils aren't being asked to pass an endorsement at the moment.The Dallas City Council will also be asked to approve the agreement, Shelton said. The schedule is pending.Supporters of the Cotton Belt project say they could ask for help from Gov. Rick Perry, who might be interested in helping to bring the rail car manufacturer to the state.Perry created the Texas Enterprise Fund in 2003 to lure major employers to the state and through 2011-12 allocated $480.8 million to 102 projects. An additional $145.7 million in unallocated funds was available as of last year, according to statistics at the governor's economic development office.In Fort Worth, despite the cautious words about the power of a special tax district, Jordan is a strong supporter of the commuter rail project.He has been at the forefront of the effort to speed work on the TEX Rail portion of the project in Tarrant County and has chastised the T for slowness in gaining federal approval for the work.As it stands, the TEX Rail portion of the Cotton Belt corridor would open for passenger rail service no earlier than 2016 -- and then only if the T is successful in gaining federal new-starts dollars.The Cotton Belt project -- which could result in the entire 62-mile corridor opening by 2016 -- could be the best way to speed up the effort to expand passenger rail in Tarrant County, if cities can be satisfied their authority is protected, Jordan said."The only way I will support this," he said, "is if it accelerates the program, and it's less expensive than the [TEX Rail] plan we are already looking at in our passenger rail work group."But he added, "This is an intriguing idea and we're going to look at it."Gordon Dickson, 817-390-7796Twitter: @gdicksonHave more to add? 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