Commission Urges Study Of CSX Impact
The Tampa Tribune (FL)
By George Wilkens
March 15, 2008
Despite assurances by CSX Transportation that its proposed Winter Haven rail hub will reduce Plant City's train traffic, commissioners want an independent opinion.
"It's probably going to take three trains out of here, on average," Ron Morrow, the railroad's Polk County operations director, told Plant City commissioners during a 6 p.m. Monday workshop. "You're sitting here with a net loss of some trains."
Two dozen CSX freight trains go through Plant City daily. Half-jokingly, Commissioner Robert Brown asked if one of the daily trains to be eliminated "could be the one that comes through here at 3 in the morning."
The Jacksonville-based railroad has been seeking a suitable site for a new "intermodal terminal" for more than four years. An agreement between Florida and CSX officials has accelerated that move.
That $491 million deal is intended to provide the state Department of Transportation with 61 miles of CSX track in the Orlando area for commuter rail. It would also help the company expand freight operations with the new hub, about seven miles south of downtown Winter Haven.
Most of Morrow's 45-minute presentation centered on plans for the terminal and its economic advantages for Winter Haven. Commissioners wanted to know more about its effect on Plant City.
"I'm more concerned about the trucks leaving the yard than the trains coming in," said Commissioner Bill Dodson, questioning whether the facility would generate additional tractor-trailer traffic through Plant City. "It's clear we already have a capacity issue" on Interstate 4 through the city, Dodson told Morrow.
Morrow said the "the great majority" of trucks hauling the company's freight and automobiles already are on the highway. "The direct impact is in Winter Haven," Morrow said.
During the commission meeting following the hourlong workshop, City Manager David Sollenberger urged further study.
"I think we need to get some kind of independent evaluation of how Plant City will be affected," he said, recommending the Federal Railroad Administration be asked to include Plant City in its impact study of the Polk County terminal.
The Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization also believes the railroad administration study will amount to an independent review, Sollenberger added.
Commissioners did not vote on the CSX item but agreed by consensus to accept the city manager's recommendation. "I think it's very important we have an independent view of what to expect," Dodson said.
CSX Hub Could Benefit 2 Lawmakers
The Tampa Tribune (FL)
By Lindsay Peterson
March 15, 2008
Two state lawmakers could benefit from Florida's multimillion-dollar plan to help CSX Transportation expand its freight operations into a major hub in Winter Haven.
State Sen. JD Alexander, R-Winter Haven, controls a warehouse and distribution business that partners with CSX to serve warehouse customers near the proposed hub. State Rep. Marty Bowen, R-Haines City, owns property a few miles away along the CSX tracks, adjacent to the proposed hub site.
The state plans to spend $491 million to buy 61 miles of CSX tracks in the Orlando area for commuter rail, and help CSX improve its tracks statewide and move to the proposed 1,250-acre hub.
Lawmakers are split over the effects of the Department of Transportation proposal. Some say it will bring unwanted truck and train traffic into their communities; others say it will bring needed jobs and relief for commuters.
Key components of the proposal, including the money the DOT wants to give CSX, will come before state lawmakers this session.
Alexander supports the $491 million deal, in particular the efforts to help CSX move from its rail yard in Orlando to Winter Haven. He thinks it's "a great economic development opportunity for Polk County," said Bud Brewer, spokesman for the land management company Atlantic Blue. Alexander is Atlantic Blue's president and chief executive officer.
In January, Atlantic Blue bought storage and warehouse business Phoenix Industries, which is less than five miles from the proposed hub. Phoenix serves businesses that contract with CSX to ship goods across the country.
On its Web site, Phoenix touts having "developed unique dedicated service offerings with CSX and Union Pacific Distribution Services."
Discussions between the families behind Atlantic Blue and Phoenix "have been going on for years," Brewer said. "It's part of an ongoing strategy to get into other income-producing businesses."
Atlantic Blue also formed a partnership last year with development company Highlands Cassidy to build a 140-home subdivision in Winter Haven. Highlands Cassidy owns property next to the proposed CSX hub and Bowen's property. Though in partnership with Highlands Cassidy, Alexander has no ownership of that property.
Alexander, Bowen Offer Support
Alexander has openly advocated for the Winter Haven hub and the CSX deal, talking at a legislative delegation meeting in December about its economic benefits. "There are lots of jobs surrounding the hub that are in the warehousing and manufacturing business," he said.
He also said he had known for "seven or eight years that there was a general need to streamline some of the rail transportation connecting our port system, and the FDOT was working on that."
A legislative aide to Alexander, Rachel Barnes, said there was no conflict between his company's ownership of Phoenix and his position on the CSX deal. "I did some homework. I'm pretty confident that there is not any conflict of interest at this point."
Bowen is co-owner of 140 acres of pasture and citrus land directly north of the proposed hub. The pasture land runs along the rail line at the proposed hub's eastern edge, according to Polk property records.
Bowen said there is no conflict between her property ownership and her role as a lawmaker. She said she didn't even know where her property was in relation to the proposed CSX hub.
"My brother and I have owned the land for a number of years ... long before I knew of the hub," Bowen said. There is a contract to sell it as part of a sale involving several properties, she said. She wouldn't provide details.
She isn't involved in any talks involving the CSX deal in the Legislature this session, she said. But she supports the hub, saying, "I think it would be a great asset for Winter Haven." At a news conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday, she stood with a group of Orlando-area lawmakers who want commuter rail in their area and gathered to express their support for the deal.
Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida, said state laws dealing with conflicts of interest are quite permissive. "When it comes to the law it's almost nonexistent, because of the citizen lawmaker concept." They serve part-time and deal with issues that often overlap with their jobs back home, he said. Teachers, for instance, vote on the education budget.
"But if they stand to directly benefit from a matter before the Legislature, you would want them to disclose their interest and abstain from lobbying or talking to their colleagues about it," he said.
"It's better to err on the side of being as upfront as possible."
The problem isn't only the existence of a conflict of interest, but also the appearance that there is a conflict, he said.
Cost, Liability Divide Lawmakers
State Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, an opponent of the CSX proposal, said that lawmakers who could benefit from the deal should not take part in discussions or activities concerning its fate in the Legislature.
"I think there's a general distrust among citizens of government, and a lot of people think elected officials are involved in deals," she said. "We owe it to constituents to be up here and not be taking part in things that are good for ourselves or family members."
Dockery is married to C.C. "Doc" Dockery, who was the driving force behind the Florida high-speed rail plan, a proposed passenger train system that voters approved in a constitutional amendment in 2000. He helped fund the campaign in support of the measure.
Voters repealed the amendment four years later. CSX gave $50,000 to the opposition effort.
"I'm happy to disclose my relationship," Dockery said. "Doc Dockery never had any financial interest in any entity connected to high-speed rail. ... He was never involved in giving subsidies to for-profit companies, nor did he ever make one dollar from the effort."
Like her husband, she said, she wants more passenger train service in Florida, and she favors the Orlando commuter rail plan. But she and state Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, oppose the CSX deal because it will bring more freight trains through downtown Lakeland. Also, hundreds of trucks per day will be going in and out of the Winter Haven hub, carrying a variety of things from cars to building supplies.
Other lawmakers, including state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, have complained about the cost of the deal, saying that in this tight budget year, the money would be better spent on more critical road projects.
Several lawmakers also are leery of a liability package that CSX wants the state to sign. It would make the state responsible for all accidents on the commuter line, even those caused by CSX while using the line.
Without the Legislature's approval of the liability package, the deal can't go through. Lawmakers also must approve the DOT's budget, which includes money for the deal.
EDITORS NOTE: Research developed by reporter Billy Townsend in pursuit of another story was used in this report. Townsend, the Tribune's Polk County reporter, stopped covering the proposed CSX rail realignment in October to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest. His wife, executive director of the Downtown Lakeland Partnership, was named then to a Lakeland task force on the realignment. The partnership has criticized the realignment as proposed.
CSX railroad plan upsets Polk leaders
The St. Petersburg Times (FL)
By David DeCamp
March 15, 2008
Big town politicians pushing their traffic on rural neighbors. A railroad with a lucrative government deal. An outraged small city.
It's the backstory of how Orlando may one day get commuter rail. And it's the reason for the heated debate dividing Central Florida and Tampa Bay lawmakers in Tallahassee.
The fight is over a complex plan struck under former Gov. Jeb Bush to run commuter trains on CSX's railroad through Orlando. In exchange, the state would subsidize the building of the biggest railyard in the Southeast in Winter Haven. It would help improve CSX's freight line through west-central Florida.
But largely unnoticed before the deal was struck was what would happen to Polk County. Clearing rail space in Orlando meant more trains slicing through Lakeland and trucks chugging around Winter Haven.
"They are going to divide our city," says Lakeland Mayor Buddy Fletcher, whose citizens are in an uproar. "They are going to destroy our downtown."
Lakeland's Republican Sen. Paula Dockery, among others, wants more study and a new train route around her hometown. Some Tampa Bay lawmakers worry the extra freight traffic could curtail Tampa's own bid to one day have commuter rail.
But Orlando area lawmakers want to deliver long-promised traffic relief to residents and businesses. Their allies include millionaire Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, who has pushed to enlarge transportation options in a region where his family and business allies own land.
The question before the Legislature: Is the train already down the tracks or will critics derail it?
Orlando leaders have wanted commuter trains for years to relieve Interstate 4 gridlock, but efforts failed until late 2004, when CSX offered to help as part of its strategic plan.
The Jacksonville-based railroad, which doesn't run commuter lines, wanted better freight lines in Florida.
Commuter trains could run through downtown Orlando. Then CSX would increase freight traffic on its other main route from Baldwin into Polk County. State officials liked improving freight routes, too.
The agreement unveiled in August 2006 set aside $150-million to buy 61.5 miles of rail for the commuter project. The state also would spend $341-million to improve CSX's other freight routes and help create a massive rail center in Winter Haven.
The railyard proved an easy sell in Winter Haven, where CSX said the project would add more than 8,000 jobs in a decade.
"It's going to be an enormous engine for us," said Jack Barnhart, executive director of the East Polk Committee of 100, an economic development agency.
But Dockery and other lawmakers, such as Tampa's Sen. Victor Crist, say the massive railyard, its traffic and the money for CSX didn't get anywhere near the public review that the Orlando portion did. For more than a year, residents expressed similar dismay in public meetings.
Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, said the Polk area had been discussed publicly, though. "It had to go somewhere & and there was only one other [CSX] line," he said. "Whether people understood that or not, I did. And that was five or six years ago."
Fueling the tension in Tallahassee is how the project was funded in the first place and that one senator, in particular, is recorded as having a role.
As the 2005 legislative session drew to a close, a Florida Senate committee quietly revised a growth management bill (SB 360) that ultimately provided $1.5-billion for transportation projects. There was no mention of CSX and commuter rail.
But within a month and nearly a year before Gov. Bush would announce the deal, state transportation officials were touting the plan as an "illustrative project" in presentations.
A Senate record shows that Alexander proposed adding the money. But Alexander isn't heard doing so on a recording of the meeting. He said he had no role with the money, although he supports the project and says Lakeland issues can be ironed out in the planning process.
The senator is a member of one of Florida's famed agricultural families. From the fortunes of the late Ben Hill Griffin Jr., the clan has built a large land management company, Alico. It has major holdings in Polk and southwest Florida. He's also president of Atlanticblue Group, which has a stake in Alico.
Since CSX picked Winter Haven, the family businesses have added holdings nearby. Another lawmaker, Rep. Marty Bowen, R-Haines City, has owned 84 acres near the site since before the project was announced, records show.
The railyard also could benefit another project Alexander desires, a 152-mile proposed toll road from Polk to Collier counties. Currently shelved due to a lack of traffic demand, the $7-billion Heartland Parkway would open to development land owned by Alico and others, including Bowen Brothers, the House member's family company. At its optimal, CSX said 1,573 trucks will travel to or from the railyard daily.
"There really is no connection between the two, except that the CSX project would put truck traffic on the road that would boost up the feasibility of Heartland Parkway in the Polk segment," said former Sen. Rick Dantzler, a Bartow attorney who advocated the toll road.
Alexander said he played no role in CSX's selection of Winter Haven for the new railyard, echoing CSX project manager Rick Hood. CSX considered 15 sites, including Pasco and Hernando counties, before approaching Winter Haven in August 2005, Hood said.
Records and company reports show Alexander's recent business investments came after the CSX deal became public.
In January, Atlanticblue announced it bought Phoenix Industries, a distributor and warehouser a few miles up the CSX rail line from the proposed terminal. CSX officials say their rail terminal would handle large freight containers, unlike the Phoenix Industries refrigerated commodities business.
Last month, Atlanticblue also became a partner in a 40-acre, 150-home site in Winter Haven. Spokesman Bud Brewer confirmed the company also bought two hotels in Winter Haven.
Alexander said his company purchased Phoenix Industries and other properties to diversify. "You can't make any money farming," he said. "If we could, we would."
But opponents say it's just one more reason to slow the project.
"Obviously there a lot of issue like that which are a part of this project. And even when the details and the questions of many people come up, it seems to be the answer is always, it's a done deal," said Dockery, who backed a defunct high-speed rail plan Bush and CSX opposed.
State transportation officials back the new project but concede breakdowns with Polk.
"Should we have done more outreach? Absolutely." Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos said. "But when we did this negotiation, requiring CSX to make improvements on their other line & is a benefit to the traveling public."
But recent appraisals, released Friday after a request by the St. Petersburg Times, will provide more fodder for critics. They suggest the state is spending at least $70-million more than what it might have paid for just the commuter rail property.
Dockery and Lakeland's two House members, Dennis Ross and Seth McKeel, want to withhold payment to CSX until Lakeland's issues are addressed. They and others are also challenging a bill that would grant CSX some liability immunity.
"Why should the taxpayers have to accept the responsibility for a private corporation?" said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.
But central Florida leaders rallied in the Capitol last week, including Webster and future House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park. And Gov. Charlie Crist separately call the proposal a "great idea" that "sounds forward thinking."
"We've got a town saying 'They can't do that,' and they have 95,000 people," Webster said. "I think the balance weighs in favor of the metropolitan area of Central Florida. It's worse to have the traffic there than in maybe a more rural part of the state."
A great inductive leap on CSX story
The Lakeland Ledger (Online)
By Tom Palmer
March 15, 2008
I was reading the Trib's latest CSX story and was struck by the weasel word "could" and by the information that was omitted.
You don't have to read corporate papers to know Phoenix Industries has a relationship with CSX. The company is served by CSX rail and there are rail sidings along this section of this industrial corridor on Snively Avenue in Eloise and have been for as long as I can remember. I'd be willing to bet the agribusiness empire with which J.D. Alexander is associated has used CSX to get some of their products to market a time or two as well. Nothing new there.
Highland Cassidy, which owns property all over Polk County, is indeed the sole owner of land next to the CSX site. As a matter of fact last week I blogged about its being quickly rezoned to industrial by the Winter Haven Planning Commission.
That says more about Winter Haven's attitude toward growth and development than anything else.
There's no question there are a lot of people in the Winter Haven area with dollar signs in their eyes over the potential economic impact of the CSX deal.
There's also no question J.D Alexander and Paula Dockery have been butting heads in Tallahassee over a lot of issues, including the CSX deal. These kinds of intramural fights are common in Tallahassee and provide an unending dependable quote machine for journalists.
My question is this. If you're going to slyly accuse someone of graft, shouldn't you have more evidence?
p.s. St. Petersburg Times had a good overall piece in Snnday's paper that offered more perspective than the Saturday Trib piece.
Shine Light In Shadows
The Lakeland Ledger (FL)
March 16, 2008
When it comes to public meetings and public records, Florida has not always been "the Sunshine State." The public could be denied access to budgets, contracts, purchase orders and other records by the very employees who were being paid with public funds. City and county commissioners could close meetings on a whim - or meet behind closed doors before their regular meeting, then hold a public performance of their scripted, but-well-edited, backroom doings.
In 1959, then-Rep. J. Emory "Red" Cross, D-Gainesville, introduced legislation that laid the groundwork for today's Florida Government-in-the-Sunshine Law and Florida Public Records Law. "I had seen public officials abusing their rights and mistreating taxpayers," he told The St. Augustine Record in a 1998 interview. "I felt something ought to be done about it."
It's not surprising that Cross had to persist until 1967 (he was in the Senate by that time) before the legislation became law. Nor is it any surprise that many members of the Legislature work in annual session after annual session to create exemption after exemption to the state's Sunshine Law.
This session is no different. Present law, for example, lets governmental agencies meet behind closed doors with their attorneys to discuss strategy in pending lawsuits. But the law requires transcripts of the meeting, which then become public after the lawsuit is settled. Governmental attorneys want that record-keeping requirement eliminated, saying members of the private bar use those transcripts to gain advantages in future litigation.
THE BIGGEST EXEMPTION
Such is the price of gaining and keeping the public's confidence. And as Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, has observed, those closed-door sessions have become the "worst-abused exemption" of the state's Sunshine Law.
Oh, Petersen knows there is an even bigger exemption to the Sunshine Law. We'll let Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, the House minority leader, tell you about it: "Yet, when they [state legislators] voted to place the constitutional amendment mandating government in the sunshine on the ballot, the Florida Legislature opted to exempt itself from much of its reach. The argument was that the legislative process, which is usually compacted into a 60-day session, is not optimally suited for all the kinds of notices and requirements that other governmental bodies and commissions must abide by."
CSX AND SUNSHINE
And that is how, during 2006, Gov. Jeb Bush's administration was able to work out a deal with the CSX Corp. that will cost taxpayers $491 million to create a commuter-rail system in Orange County, build "the mother of all rail yards" in Winter Haven and disrupt downtown traffic for communities along Florida's backbone.
Bush was indignant during a recent Lakeland visit when asked about the CSX deal. "I resent the implication there was a secret deal," he said before storming away. Left unanswered are questions such as: Why did the Florida Department of Transportation's District One secretary in Bartow not know of the railroad plan when it was announced? Why were Central Florida regional planning directors unaware of the commuter-rail plan or the plan to reroute rail traffic through Polk County?
Gelber, in an op-ed piece late last year, explained what happens when sunshine is dimmed: "When the public and media are shut out of government, the vacuum is usually filled by special interests & mistakes are made usually at the expense of citizens.
"I believe it is time for Florida to reconsider whether giving the Legislature a pass on compliance with Florida's Sunshine Law is a good idea."
Gov. Charlie Crist has been a supporter of open government. He created a state Office of Open Government. He has ordered state agencies to post contract information on their Web sites. The Legislature should lose its "do as I say, not as I do" attitude, and join cities and counties in openness.
As Gelber concluded: "The bulwark of any democracy is an informed citizenry. Conducting business in the shadows may be easier sometimes, but it is neither better nor fairer, and its shortchanges the very people we seek to serve."
It's time for legislators to work on their suntans.
Orlando-area commuter rail will require some bargaining
The Orlando Sentinel
By Aaron Deslatte
March 12, 2008
With the nine-week legislative session nearly one-fourth complete, Central Florida's biggest priority -- finalization of a $491 million deal to bring commuter rail to the region -- sits stalled on the tracks.
The biggest reason: opposition from the city of Lakeland.
CSX Corp., the company planning to sell 61 miles of its tracks through downtown Orlando for commuter trains but still run some freight trains during off hours, has made clear it needs a liability agreement to protect it from lawsuits if there are accidents.
But a handful of lawmakers are demanding that the state Department of Transportation and CSX make additional accommodations for Lakeland, which would see extra freight-train traffic through its core business district if Orlando and Central Florida counties get their commuter rail.
And those demands are holding up the bill, which is not yet introduced in the House and is stuck in Senate committee without a hearing date.
"I'm not hearing it until I feel it's all ripe and ready to go. I don't have that," said Senate Transportation Chairman Carey Baker, R-Eustis.
At the center of the fight is Sen. Paula Dockery, a Lakeland Republican whose husband was the driving force behind the now-repealed constitutional amendment to build high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando.
Dockery says the deal that former Gov. Jeb Bush announced with CSX in 2006 was great for the company -- enabling it to expand its freight operations -- but a lousy one for her hometown.
The state agreed to pay about $340 million to make improvements on the rail line going through Lakeland. That will divert trains away from Central Florida and help CSX ship more loads of coal, orange juice, cars and fertilizer right through the city's main drag.
"If we pay for them to have greater capacity, they can put more trains through downtown Lakeland," Dockery said.
Dockery has the power to hold up the bill because its next committee stop is the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Alex Villalobos, a Miami Republican and close ally of Dockery's.
"There's no reason to really push ahead if it's not going to be heard in Judiciary," Baker said.
Dockery wants the state to look at other ways to eventually bring commuter rail to her district and to the Tampa area. But she also wants CSX to abandon its plans to move its switchyard -- now in Taft, in south Orange County -- to land it owns in Winter Haven.
The company has resisted that suggestion. It also says that if it can't get liability protection, the deal is in jeopardy.
"If commuter rail does not pass, CSX will continue to run trains and continue to serve the growing freight demand in the state," said Craig Camuso, a CSX regional vice president in Tallahassee to lobby the bill. "But the state of Florida is going to miss out on qualifying for $300 million in [federal transit] funds" that will help pay for commuter-rail trains.
A number of lawmakers outside Polk County are sympathetic to Dockery's concerns, uncomfortable with the liability issue or envious that in an extraordinarily bad budget year, Central Florida is in line to land big transit dollars.
"Other areas feel like they're going to be left behind," said Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, one of several lawmakers who warned about 50 regional business leaders Tuesday that the deal could face trouble.
"These are things that happen, like business negotiations. We just have to work through them," said Rep. Franklin Sands, a Weston Democrat and future minority leader who criticized the CSX deal earlier this year.
The legal issues surrounding whether taxpayers or CSX would pay to settle injury lawsuits after a wreck "are a big deal and need to be resolved," he said.
The business leaders who flew to the Capitol for the Orlando Area Chamber of Commerce's annual lobbying event were warned to press the issue with other lawmakers.
"I would ask that you help us," Rep. Steve Precourt, R-Orlando, told them. "When $500 million is sitting on the table, that's getting a lot of interest."
Top boosters for the project -- including future House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, and Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden -- say they're confident the deal will be sealed by the session's end in May.
And the group got some reassurance from Gov. Charlie Crist, who hasn't weighed in forcefully on the project but told the delegation that the concept of commuter rail was "forward looking" and "a great idea."
"We just need to continue to push it along," said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who planned to meet with Dockery while in Tallahassee.
"A lot of legislation doesn't get passed in the first two weeks."
Plant City Wants Another Opinion On Rail Hub's Effect
The Tampa Tribune
By George Wilkens
March 12, 2008
Despite assurances by CSX Transportation that its proposed Winter Haven rail hub will reduce Plant City's train traffic, commissioners want an independent opinion.
"It's probably going to take three trains out of here, on average," the railroad's Polk County operations director told Plant City commissioners during a workshop that began at 6 p.m. Monday. "You're sitting here with a net loss of some trains," Ron Morrow said.
Half joking, Commissioner Robert Brown asked whether one of the daily trains to be eliminated "could be the one that comes through here at 3 in the morning." Two dozen CSX freight trains go through Plant City daily.
Detailing the company's struggles over the decades, Morrow said today's trains have emerged as the least expensive, most fuel-efficient way to move large quantities of freight.
For more than four years, the Jacksonville-based railroad has been seeking a suitable site for a new "intermodal terminal." An agreement between Florida and CSX officials has accelerated that move.
That $491 million deal is intended to provide the state Department of Transportation 61 miles of CSX track in the Orlando area for commuter rail while helping the company expand freight operations with the new hub, about seven miles south of downtown Winter Haven.
Most of Morrow's 45-minute presentation centered on plans for the terminal and its economic advantages for Winter Haven. Commissioners wanted to know more about effects on Plant City.
"I'm more concerned about the trucks leaving the yard than the trains coming in," said Commissioner Bill Dodson, questioning whether the facility would generate additional tractor-trailer traffic through Plant City.
"It's clear we already have a capacity issue" on Interstate 4 through the city, Dodson told Morrow.
Morrow said the "the great majority" of trucks hauling the company's intermodal freight and automobiles already are on the highway. "The direct impact is in Winter Haven," Morrow said.
During the commission meeting after the hourlong workshop, City Manager David Sollenberger urged further study.
"I think we need to get some kind of independent evaluation of how Plant City will be affected," he said, recommending the Federal Railroad Administration be asked to include Plant City in its impact study of the Polk County terminal.
The Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization also thinks the railroad administration study will amount to an independent review, Sollenberger added.
Commissioners agreed. "I think it's very important we have an independent view of what to expect," Dodson said.
