KHOU-11’s Mike Zientek reports that Afton Oaks residents aren’t too happy about the possibility of METRO routing a rail line down Richmond:
Homeowner Richard Whiteley said nearby Richmond Avenue has never been a threat — until now.
Metro planners said they are considering putting a light rail line along Richmond, running right past Afton Oaks.
Whiteley worries the avenue would become narrower, and drivers looking to avoid it would turn his community into one big detour.
“It would be bedlam here. We’d have cars backed up. We wouldn’t be able to get out of the neighborhood,” Whiteley said.
Daphne Scarbrough owns a custom bed store a few miles east on Richmond Avenue.
She worries an elevated rail line would lead to water inside her business during heavy rain.
“There’s no place for the water to go. So the water, I would assume that it’s going to have to come up onto the land and on either side of the rail,” Scarbrough said.
Opponents of Richmond rail point to something else. They said when voters approved a Metro measure back in 2003 the proposed southwest line ran along Westpark Drive. The word ‘Richmond,’ they claim, wasn’t even whispered.
“I don’t think that anybody, either when they buy a house or take on any large endeavor, their initial plans are implemented to the ‘nth’ degree that was in that plan,” said George Smalley, Metro spokesperson.
In effectively endorsing the White/METRO bait and switch, Rep. John Culberson (R) lost quite a bit of credibility, since he previously had insisted that METRO provide detailed ballot language on rail-line placement.
Now, with Culberson’s tacit approval, METRO officials and Mayor White basically scoff at the notion that the METRO solutions plan that had the approval of voters is at all binding — and it seems the Afton Oaks folks may get a light rail line Galleria development boondoggle in their neighborhood, like it or not.
UPDATE: Don’t miss these comments in our forum from a resident who was at the meeting.
(Old) Forum Comments (14)
