Charles Kuffner received a very heartening email from Robin Holzer of the Citizens Transportation Coalition:
In June, Harris County released the new Capital Improvement Plan which identifies 5-7 new priority toll roads to be developed. On Tuesday, CTC volunteers demanded that Harris County open up the toll road planning process, and we came home with a victory.
[…]
Community leaders from Cottage Grove, Westbury, Willowbend, and Meyerland expressed concerns about traffic, noise, flooding, air quality, and other impacts from proposed toll road construction. We called on County Commissioners not only to hold public meetings in every affected neighborhood, but also to ensure toll road planning addresses community concerns.
When the Toll Road Authority Director, Mike Strech, said there was no need to hold meetings until future plans are ready, the Commissioners disagreed. Commissioner Lee agreed meetings are important, Commissioner Garcia said they need to happen in every affected neighborhood, and Art Storey pledged to come participate. Judge Eckels asked us to help make sure good information gets out to the community.
As I write, civic club leaders in southwest Houston are organizing a town hall meeting about the Fort Bend Parkway Toll Road and related road widenings.
(I wrote about the Fort Bend Parkway Toll Road the other day.)
This is a major step in the right direction for HCTRA.
