© lvn - 1978 |
Marble Hill was built, but never went on line.
Proponents claimed it was necessary for our
Right Is Might! |
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What is the price of progress? I-69 issue begs the question
The I-69 interstate is a very real and personal issue for farmers and
residents of southwest Indiana. For the rest of us, it is just a news story.
It is a story, however, that may foretell the future of many rural
communities. The saying “If we don’t learn from history, we are bound to
repeat it” certainly applies to the I-69 issue.
In 1960, there was a wonderful community on the east side of Indianapolis
known as Brightwood. It was a community with strong intact families, many
churches, and a local school system with high standards that local
children attended. Employment was high and crime was low. Houses were modest,
but
well-kept on tree-lined streets.
Then the interstate came. In 1965, in the name of economic progress,
I-70 and I-65 cut through Brightwood on their way to Indianapolis, The
construction literally cut the community in half and lasted for about
10 years. When the work was finally completed, most of the area businesses
had left along with many of the residents. By 1970, the population
of the community was 18,928 - a 25 percent decline from just a decade earlier.
In addition, local streets were changed to route traffic more quickly
in and out of the downtown business district. State and city leaders said
the progress was needed to stimulate economic progress, to bring jobs to
the area, and to position Indiana as the Crossroads of America.
During the next decade as Indianapolis grew and prospered, Brightwood
disintegrated. With about a third of its residents meeting the federal
definition of “poor,” the area was designated “most in need” by the
federal government. In 1980, St Francis de Sales Catholic Church closed
after
serving the area for 102 years. In 1985, the last remaining bank branch
in the area closed. In 1991, the area was targeted by law enforcement
agencies for programs to combat gang and drug activity.
Today, Brightwood remains a community in transition. Local church and
community groups are making progress in solving some of the social and
economic challenges of the area, but much needs to be done. The economic
growth the interstate system brought never came to Brightwood, but the
vivisection of the community by the roadway forever changed the way
of life for thousands of Hoosiers.
The route for I-69 that Indiana Governor Frank O’Bannon chose is the
most direct route between Indianapolis and Evansville, Ind. It is also
the
most expensive route and will chew up more than 4,000 acres of farmland.
In making the announcement, the Governor said the project will bring
economic growth to communities like Bloomington and Evansville. However,
smaller communities like Washington, Ind. with its large Amish population,
may
have an experience similar to Brightwood. Many farms in the path of
the interstate may be split in half. The 2,800 acre Maxwell farm in Morgan
County is one that may find it now has fields on both sides of the highway.
The I-69 project still has a long way to go. The federal government,
which is paying 80 percent of the cost*, still
has the final word. Environmental
groups are promising lots of lawsuits that will delay the project even
more. Yet we see in this process how the folks in Washington and the state
capitol view rural communities.
They see rural areas as “undeveloped” land. They see a town with small,
locally owned shops and no Wal-Marts or strip malls as communities in
need of development. While it is true that many of our towns need more
jobs and vocational opportunities for young people, it would be nice if
this could
be accomplished without destroying a way of life many prefer. Does
the price of progress have to be the loss of community?
We in small towns and rural communities need to educate our policy makers
and elected officials that we are not just a vast wasteland waiting for
the next highway or strip mall to be built. We need to insist that
agriculture be considered when measuring the economic activity of an area.
We must
insist that quality of life concerns be considered when evaluating
the benefits of a development project. If we do not fight for the land,
it
will be taken from us. If we do not fight for our communities, they
will disappear.
Farm World
Dave Blower Jr.
P.O. Box 90
Knightstown, IN 46148
davidb@farmworldonline.com
800-876-5133, x-188
Fax: 800-318-1055
* [editors note] This
80% is the return of the federal gas tax that we pay at the gas pump.
This money comes back to Indiana in exactly the same amount even if no
I-69 is built. This is why our side says. "No New Terrain I-69,
Fix the Roads we have." This money must be used for transportation,
but it may be spent in anyway that wise leadership of our state can choose.
State legislators are under constant pressure to raise the states gas tax
by INDOT, to bring in the 20% in state matching funds necessary for I-69,
because of irresponsible INDOT and gubernatorial budgeting.
I-69 folly
INDIANA'S O'Bannon administration has done the unthinkable. It
has ignored economics, environment, the federal government
and plain good sense in choosing a so-called ''new terrain''
route for the extension of Interstate 69 between Indianapolis and
Evansville.
Frank O'Bannon, in so many ways a visionary governor whose reach
has been broader than his small town Southern Indiana
background might have led some to expect, in this instance is
letting his provincialism show. He thinks a big new road will open,
at long last, a better economic future for his home region.
The list of those who disagree with his decision to ignore the
obviously cheaper, environmentally safer route, which would follow
current Interstate 70 and U.S. 41 by way of Terre Haute, is
long and getting longer.
It includes most of the Bloomington city council; most of the
farmers in the path of a ''new terrain'' route; most of the state's
environmental community; most anybody you ask in economically
fragile Terre Haute, which would get hurt; most any local
official who knows the state has limited funds with which to
finance badly needed road projects across Indiana; and any number
of federal bureaucrats, whose agencies have not-so-gently suggested
a different course.
So determined was Gov. O'Bannon to get this issue settled his
way that he announced a route before a required environmental
impact report was finished.
He and other fans of the ''new terrain'' route use familiar,
but superficial, arguments, suggesting theirs is the only ''sensible''
route
and that it will add the ''missing'' spoke to the state highway
wheel.
The ''new terrain'' route makes especially good sense if you
are a (politically powerful) highway contractor, because it will involve
a lot of new blacktop. It's the great ''missing'' opportunity
for maximum profits, not only for road-builders but for those who
would scatter motels, fast-food restaurants, factory outlets
and the whole great agglomeration of roadside ''development'' along a
brand new path through Southwestern Indiana's lovely forests
and farms.
Shame. And what a shame.
There is still a chance for a better outcome. Opponents have promised a court battle.
They should be ready for the usual complaints that they are standing in the way of progress and blocking decades of effort.
Nonetheless, they should fight on, for they are actually standing in the way of folly.
I-69 route choice not end of road
January 10, 2003
Our position is: The governor's decision on a route will not and should
not resolve the
I-69 controversy.
Gov. Frank O'Bannon's predictable selection of a high-cost, high-impact
route for the
extension of I-69 represents a victory for the highway lobby, but it's
hard to find any other clear
winners.
Evansville political and business leaders, who appeared to command the
governor's
allegiance all along, are crowing about the state's choice of a so-called
new terrain route between
that city and Indianapolis.
But the case never has been made that a lower-cost option with less environmental
destruction -- that is, the use of an upgraded I-70 and U.S. 41 via Terre
Haute -- would have been
of less economic benefit to Evansville, unless 15 minutes or so of driving
time is truly as crucial
as proponents of new terrain make it sound.
Evansville was going to connect to this link in the Canada-to-Mexico "NAFTA
highway"
no matter what. And the I-70/U.S. 41 corridor, carrying half the price
tag of the $1.7 billion
project O'Bannon called for, would have passed through three of the state's
poorest counties, a
powerful answer to those promoting I-69 for economic development.
Now, if O'Bannon's choice is ratified by the Federal Highway Administration
(a big if), the
road will not connect with Terre Haute, which wants it. But it will, at
a heavy price in farmland
and forest, pass near Bloomington, which has not clamored for it. Mayor
John Fernandez wants
it; many of his constituents, and the majority of his city council, do
not.
Nor do many Southside Indianapolis residents want a new-terrain I-69 that
would carve up
neighborhoods as an I-70 connection would not.
More than 100,000 Hoosiers signed petitions favoring the I-70/U.S. 41 alternative.
Two
federal agencies agreed it should be considered. Yet the state Department
of Transportation, in
conjunction with the Evansville-based consultant firm Bernardin Lochmueller,
declined to place it
on the short list of "preferred options," signaling that neither public
opinion nor expert opinion
on this historically crucial issue was to be evaluated impartially.
After three years of study, and a half century of discussion about a southwest
Indiana
highway, the saga isn't over. The state still has not completed the formal
environmental impact
statement in which its route decision must be presented to FHA, source
of 80 percent of the
funding. The federal review will take months. In the meantime, the agitation
will continue, as it
should.
Hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars that Indiana could use for
other pressing
transportation needs are at stake. So are wetlands, forests, farms and
communities whose value
only begins to be expressed in dollars. Tempting as it is to put the I-69
battle in the past,
Indiana's future demands that it grind on.
The Roanoke Times / roanoke.com
Sunday, November 10, 2002
Recent ruling by National Register of Historic Places marks victory for
Roanoke Valley activists
Group wins hard-fought struggle over I-73
http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story139450.html
Virginians for Appropriate Roads never gave up the struggle to preserve
farms and
communities.
By RAY REED
THE ROANOKE TIMES
A handful of citizens tossed a gantlet of stinger spikes into the
path of a proposed interstate highway last week.
Their tireless, nine-year campaign finally scored when the
keeper of the National Register decided that part of Southeast
Roanoke is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The keeper's signature on a memo last month may have taken some air out
of an Interstate
73 route through the Belmont neighborhood.
It was not an easy success for Ann Rogers, a 1975 graduate of Hollins
University and
freelance grants writer, and the group of activists who say they never
really had a voice in
deciding whether I-73 should be built.
Appearing stymied during the public participation aspects of I-73 decision-making,
Rogers
and the group only worked harder toward their goal of preventing bulldozers
from reshaping
farms and forests into pavement.
"Fix U.S. 220" instead of building a highway through undeveloped areas
of Franklin
County, Rogers and other members of Virginians for Appropriate Roads argued.
The Virginia Department of Highways said that U.S. 220 from Roanoke to
North Carolina
has congestion and safety problems that block any readily available fixes
- a response shaped
by federal legislation and by the state's policymaking Commonwealth Transportation
Board.
Early in the I-73 study process, other citizen groups in western Roanoke
County and in
Botetourt and Bedford counties pointed out to VDOT that potential I-73
routes in their
neighborhoods would invade historic sites, or spots inhabited by endangered
species.
VDOT eventually chose an I-73 route where environmental and historical
objections had
been minimal.
VAR centered a renewed effort on that path, hiring a historic preservation
consultant who
evaluated the Belmont neighborhood along with the Gainsboro area of Northwest
Roanoke
and half a dozen other sites in Roanoke and Franklin County.
By that time, Rogers said, her group had spent about $22,300 fighting I-73.
Its largest
benefactor had been Friends of the Earth, an international association
that paid for newspaper
ads urging opponents to show up at public meetings held by VDOT.
Other financial support came from "a benefactress in the community" who
made a few
gifts of $500 to $1,000, and from the Roanoke County citizens group that
had successfully
opposed an I-73 route west of Salem. Rogers declined to name the benefactress.
Rogers said there's no way to put a price on the time and personal resources
that have been
contributed by group members, who paid for postage, travel, phones and
other
communications. Also, she credits her husband's patience and support.
VAR is organized as a nonprofit group. Rogers said it files its tax returns
as a chapter of
the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League of Glendale Springs, N.C. The
league has
about a dozen chapters and reported $351,000 in cash and land contributions
in 2000.
VAR had a roller-coaster experience with a potential donor in October 2001.
A Florida
man who could have given a substantial amount indicated he would do so,
then backed out.
Rogers said she thought he may have been concerned that her group would
sue some
government agencies.
But so far, the group has used the government's administrative channels to make its points.
How they did it
Rogers and other members of VAR voiced their opinions at every I-73 public
event held
by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Their viewpoints were countered at those events by business leaders and
chamber of
commerce speakers who said an interstate highway would boost the economy
in Roanoke,
Franklin and Henry counties and solve safety problems on U.S. 220.
The business leaders often were representing the same groups that had persuaded
U.S.
Sen. John Warner and Rep. Bob Goodlatte to write I-73 into federal highway
legislation and
provide about $25 million to study potential routes.
Rogers submitted her group's comments - 208 pages of information about
endangered
species, air quality, active farmland and potential historic sites - into
VDOT's collection of
letters, e-mails and notes on I-73 from 8,000 citizens.
Those communications always seemed to be outweighed in the decision process
by the
federal highway legislation, which had designated the U.S. 220 corridor
for a new highway
and specified that it would be an interstate.
VDOT treated that legislation as its mandate, and rejected most of VAR's
claims as it went
about developing an environmental impact statement.
Early on, VDOT moved some of its proposed routes when activists pointed
out
endangered species, or when sites with historic significance were recognized.
By the time VDOT narrowed its focus to a route through Southeast Roanoke
and eastern
Franklin and Henry counties in May 2001, it had already stopped accepting
public
comments.
Rogers was undaunted. "This is just the beginning," she said then. "There
are so many
flaws in the process. We have so many options to pursue."
Although public input seemed to have been stifled by that point, Rogers
was working at
higher levels.
Federal laws had become diluted in their protection of endangered species,
recreation areas
and environmental resources.
But a new arena was emerging. The National Historic Preservation Act had
been
strengthened by Congress, and a trend of federal court rulings protected
many sites.
VAR managed to get the help it needed from two environmental professionals.
Andrea
Ferster , a public affairs lawyer in Washington, D.C., and Harry Reem ,
a historic
preservation consultant from Arlington, began working with the Roanoke
activists.
Forester told Rogers to take a step few people knew was available.
The Washington lawyer told Rogers how to get the group recognized as "an
official
consulting party in the section 106 process" that is administered by the
federal Advisory
Council on Historic Preservation. This president-appointed council watches
over agencies,
including the Federal Highway Administration, to be sure they comply with
the preservation
act's requirements.
Becoming an "official consulting party" recognized by that council gave
VAR the same
status as a local government or a state's historic preservation officer.
That status opened the door for the group to submit new, in-depth comments
on historic
sites along the I-73 path, including Roanoke's Gainsboro neighborhood,
Franklin County's
Coopers Cove area and the Jubal Early home place on Virginia 116.
Reem's exhaustive analysis of the Belmont neighborhood convinced the keeper
of the
National Register.
The "late 19th- and early 20th-century, mixed-use, blue-collar working
class neighborhood
is historically and architecturally significant for its association with
the history of Roanoke's
growth as a booming industrial center and railroad hub," said the comments
from Patrick
Andrews, the register keeper.
"The district contains locally important factories and hundreds of vernacular
bungalows
and American Foursquare residences of industrial workers," the memo said.
Many of the houses were built in the 1920s, according to house-by-house
documentation
that Reem submitted.
Only a few newer houses dot the neighborhood, and that uniformity of age
helped it
qualify for the National Register.
Coopers Cove didn't meet the requirements because it has too many newer
homes among
its old farmhouses, Rogers said.
What's next?
Rogers and VAR aren't done yet.
Rogers has her sights set on obtaining another historic designation for
an area farther
south in Franklin County. She and Reem are almost ready to file their claim
with the Federal
Highway Administration.
But she's not saying where the site is or what makes it historic.
Yet.
She and Reem also plan to pursue their argument that the Gainsboro area
has enough
historic status to affect VDOT's plan to route I-73 along I-581.
The Gainsboro claim hasn't received the approval of the keeper of the National
Register,
but the federal regulations allow an appeal to the Advisory Council on
Historic Preservation.
|
© lvn - 1978 |
Marble Hill was built, but never went on line.
Proponents claimed it was necessary for our
Right Is Might! |
|