BNSF proposal has small town politically paralyzed.

[blue streak 1]

BNSF has plan to locate a rail yard on the old Frisco line close to Dallas.  City of Gunter council tried to pass some ordinances without notification to populance.  Terrible backlash by residents.

“The most hated people in Gunter”: How the government of this North Texas town broke apart (msn.com)

[samfp1943]

blue streak 1

BNSF has plan to locate a rail yard on the old Frisco line close to Dallas.  City of Gunter council tried to pass some ordinances without notification to populance.  Terrible backlash by residents.

“The most hated people in Gunter”: How the government of this North Texas town broke apart (msn.com)

 

   The linked site holds the 'Tale":  A smalkl rural town with a population of some 2500 and an uncomplicated form of local goverrnance.  Has onesingle rail line through town.  It lays on a former SL-SF rail line, nee: BN and now BNSF.

  The raiklrioad has ownership of some 950 acres, just outside of town(?). In 2023 it signaled to the local community politicians, it wanted to build  a new ":Logistics Park on its land. 

  At this point it sounds like what happened in Gardner,Ks. some20 or so years ago.  Gardner, was an urban commuinty some 20(?) miles out of Kansas City; when the BNSF started their KC area Logistics Park.

 These days it is a huge ,in aream, facility; lots of warehousing, manufacturing, and distributiuon facilities.  The rail yard  seems to be several miles in length.(?) .

 Gunter, Tx. seems to be walking a similarpath, now? 

 

[BaltACD]

Sounds like a jobs or no jobs equation for Gunter.

[caldreamer]

When I read the link the blame should go to city council for not being more open about the proposed BNSF yard. Holding meetings in secret and not informing the citys residence as to what was going on was absolutly wrong.  I do not blame BNSF for wanting to build a yard there.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

After reading the story, I got the impression that the residents are trying to preserve the small-town atmosphere (whatever that is) of the place.  This may be a lost cause since creeping suburbanization from Dallas-Fort Worth is getting close.  BNSF is just the harbinger of what is to come.

[Euclid]

Arrogant City Councils often support what is good for them as opposed to what is good for the city.  And in terms of what is good for the City Council in this case, the new rail yard would have been a golden bonanza for the Council.  But obviously they also knew that many of their constituent residents would not be in favor of the project. 

 

So to get around that problem, they just approved the new project without telling anyone about it.  Of course, the residents feel deeply betrayed by their Council, so the residents’ reaction was fierce.  So now the Council is playing the victim card of how threatened they feel from the critical reaction of the residents. 

 

But, the Council members resigning is a good thing because they have proven their priorities are not where they should be.  Now, just get the Mayor to resign, and then start over with new people who understand that it is the residents who are in the driver’s seat.

 

Everyone is lucky that this blew up before it became unstoppable.

[CMStPnP]

There is a lot more to this story.    Traffic is increasing on the BNSF because Dallas and Fort Worth is booming in services, manufacturing and urban sprawl development.     The BNSF line itself is planned to be a future heavy rail commuter line to these new suburbs.    So Gunter makes sense from that perspective to hold freight trains there.      This BNSF line has a large interchange with the ex-RI but now Trinity Railway Express line between Dallas and Fort Worth and there is a small to medium sized yard there along with a diamond.   See BNSF trains switching that interchange on the Dallas to Fort Worth trip sometimes.

Additionally, Prosper, TX used to be the refuge of some of the very wealthy.   4000-6000 foot homes in some parts with a lot of land.   One of the Dallas Cowboys had a big spread there, I think it was Dione Sanders.    Frisco, a little further South is now a big Disney type / retail development and the Dallas Cowboys moved their training facility there.     Hence, Gunter was probably looking forward to all that future tax revenue as the sprawl moved past them North. 

DFW is planning to expand it's suburbs to close to the Red River border of Oklahoma at some point in 30-40 years.    DART the regional transit authority has already built to distant suburbs of Denton (Google A-Train) but plans to go a lot further North.    They own the ex-T&NO and former Houston and Texas Central ROW NE from Plano, TX, through McKinney (former KCS interchange) all the way to Sherman and possibly Dennison, TX.     BNSF line in above link curves NE to Sherman then North to Dennison where it crosses the Red River on a shared bridge with the UP (former KATY?).    BNSF parallels the DART owned former Cotton Belt ROW between Sherman and Dennison.

DFW plans like decades into the future with their rail transit development.   Looks like BNSF took the plans into account when it decided on this location.    It makes sense from several different angles.    I think ultimately BNSF will get their yard at that location.    Time will tell though.

There used to also be a former KATY route into Dallas that paralled the BNSF (Frisco line).   I believe much of it was taken by the North Dallas Tollway but as you get closer into Dallas it splits from that route and becomes a bike path, so you can probably see it from Google Earth or trace it.   It goes through Highland Park which is a close in suburb and it is called the KATY TRAIL now.    They also have a local Dallas business that uses the KATY herald and theme that got it's start on the KATY TRAIL (see link below), it's rapidly becomming a franchise if it is not already and so you might soon see it in your states.    Frisco, TX uses the hearld of the SLSF railroad on all it's City property and some water towers.......which is kind of strange.

https://katyicehouse.com/

City of Frisco, TX (see logo).

https://www.friscotexas.gov/

Texas does this a lot.    Former T&P right of way in Dallas is called "Pacific Avenue",   "Central Expressway" NE of Dallas is named after "Houston and Texas Central Railway".........they relocated the rail line when SP (T&NO) owned it and built the freeway on it's former ROW,  One of the main freeways through Austin is called "MOPAC Expressway", list goes on and on.

[Euclid]

So what is the plan for solving this problem?  Is the project on hold?  Assuming it had been approved when town was not aware of that, has that approval been withdrawn, or will it go ahead?

[tree68]

It appears that BNSF has temporarily withdrawn the plan:  https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/people-fight-to-keep-bnsf-railway-logistics-center-out-of-their-small-grayson-county-city/3304300/

One likely reason BNSF wants the facility to be annexed into Gunter (half of the planned site is apparently already in the city) is so they can take advantage of existing city services.  If they built the facility completely outside of Gunter, they'd likely have to come up with their own water and sewer.

The city is trying to work their way out of the mess the resignations have created, per news media.

[CMStPnP]

Just a follow-up to this.   They just announced on the Dallas news a $6 Billion residential and leisure development on the Red River in Dennison, TX which is on the Northern end of this former FRISCO line in Texas before it crosses the river.   So the Urban sprawl of DFW has reached the Oklahoma Border.    They have a few gaps to fill in between but it will only be a few more years.    They are building a Hard Rock Cafe Casino on the Oklahoma side because Texas does not currently allow Casinos.