Tyrone wants to meet with property owners before deciding about railroad crossing

2010-01-11

By Martha Barksdale

Saying they would like to know what area property owners think, the Tyrone Town Council decided Thursday night to delay a decision on closing the Valleywood Road railroad crossing until its Feb. 4 meeting.

For months, the town and the Georgia Department of Transportation have been going back and forth on an agreement for a project that would close two railroad crossings in Tyrone, extend Park Drive and create a new crossing at East Crestwood Road, possibly aligned with West Crestwood Road across Senoia Road.

GDOT has told Tyrone it needs a decision by Feb. 10 or it will have to scrap the project.

The sticking point in the past has been money. GDOT is paying its part of the project out of federal grants, but Tyrone must agree that it will be responsible for right-of-way acquisition and utility relocations. Tyrone wants GDOT to guarantee the town will have to pay no more than $225,000, but GDOT says it cannot do that. The possibility of having to buy land for wetlands mitigation cannot be ruled out, and GDOT says that falls under the heading of right-of-way acquisition, which cannot be paid for with federal money.

The council is concerned that if it does not agree to the GDOT project, CSX will petition to have the crossing closed. This would occur without the extension of Park Drive, meaning that residents on the east side of the crossing would have to head north and cross the railroad tracks behind Rite Aid.

Councilwoman Gloria Furr said she had gotten comments from a property owner on the west side of the tracks who said she would not sell the right-of-way for the project. Furr and all the council concurred that they would never condemn and take private property for the project.

The council decided to meet with adjoining property owners--about five tracts could be affected--to discuss the plan and get their feelings.

“I don’t want to abandon this too quickly,� Councilman Eric Dial said.

The council also wants to use this time before the Feb. 10 deadline to find out if GDOT would be able to fund the crossing relocation project if CSX does petition to close the crossing in the future.

Gordon Shenkle, who heads Tyrone’s Planning Commission, brought up another point during the citizen comment portion of the meeting. He said closing the Valleywood crossing would mean there was only one way in and out of the East Crestwood Road area, which could be a problem for emergency vehicles.

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