Polk County Rail Hub

PCNB has obtained a paper copy of the minutes from April 19’s closed meeting between CSX and various Lakeland business and government officials at the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce building to discuss the impacts of the planned rail hub and distribution center south of Winter Haven.

The minutes read a lot like the descriptions of the meeting participants gave to local press. It was mostly informational, full of details that, quite frankly, were available in the Tribune’s April 7th story.

There are a couple of noteworthy elements, though, including a full list of who attended.

I have added, where I know, information about who these people are. -- Polk County News Blog

Today I learned CSX has already purchased a 12-acre corridor to extend Pollard Road to State Road 60 and that it wasn't cheap. The price tag was $1.2 million -- $100,925 an acre --according to county records.... Side Table Spectator

County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson is about to up the ante in the CSX debate.

He has prepared a letter he wants his fellow county commissioners to send to the state Department of Community Affairs, urging it to reconsider its decision not to impose development of regional impact status on the first phase of the planned CSX rail hub/distribution center south of Winter Haven.

Here’s the text of the letter, addressed to Tom Pelham, secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs: -- Polk County News Blog

Two interesting developments in the CSX project today: - Tom Palmer from The Ledger blogs about a CSX land deal and asks if the City of Winter Haven can objectively review development approval applications. - Billy Townsend posts a... -- Empirical Polk

Q:How many trains will come through the ILC each day? How long will each train be?
A: It is expected 3 to 4 trains per day will enter and exit the terminal facility that will be a 24-hour, seven-day a week operation. Trains will vary in size from a maximum length of 10,000 feet,to a majority today being about 7,500 feet.

Q:What is a realistic daily truck count?

A: Initially, it is anticipated 150 trucks will enter and depart the terminal operation each day. It is also estimated another 240 vehicle carriers will leave the terminal and 160 will return. All told, fewer than 1,000 truck-trips are expected to be spread out over a 24-hour period.

Q:What is the timeline for the facility’s construction?
A: The intermodal/automobile terminal is targeted to be operational at the beginning of 2009, which means construction would begin early next year. Under the CSX contract with the City, sale of the first 318 acres will occur by the end of 2007,and purchase of the remaining 930 acres would occur by December 2010. Development of the larger parcel will not occur until required local, county and state approvals are in place.

Winter Haven Insider

County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson is pushing for approval to send a letter to state planning officials to rule that the entire CSX freight depot is a development of regional impact. However, according to Florida law, it will take more than a letter....Side Table Spectator

It's no longer just the folks in the Sundance subdivision that are railing, so to speak, against the proposed CSX freight terminal.. Now there's word that residents in the Lake Ashton community are circulating a petition demanding that the project be considered as a DRI from the onset, not sometime in the future....Side Table Spectator

The city has turned to the water bills it sends out to plug the proposed CSX facility.

Most of the city's estimated 30,000 water customers have already received a glossy 8 1/2-by-11-inch question-and-answer newsletter about the proposed 1,250-acre rail transfer center in south Winter Haven. -- The Lakeland Ledger

The city of Winter Haven has turned to the water bills it sends out to plug the proposed CSX facility.

Most of the city's estimated 30,000 water customers have already received a glossy 8 1/2-by-11-inch question-and-answer newsletter about the proposed 1,250-acre rail transfer center in south Winter Haven. -- The Lakeland Ledger

The Polk County Commission is on the road today to visit a CSX facility outside of Atlanta. This afternoon I was talking with a friend about this 'roadtrip'. I wondered if they were flying or driving, they're driving. Next... -- Empirical Polk

A stalled CSX freight train blocked downtown streets and sidewalks for about 90 minutes Monday afternoon. -- The Lakeland Ledger

I was in Georgia Monday with a County Commission quorum and some of their staff members to look at what a CSX freight terminal might look like. The terminal was neat, but the area around it reminded me of South Frontage Road and County Line Road rather than the suburbs across the lake from Cypress Gardens or the back roads behind them.....Side Table Spectator

wrote recently that CSX bought 12 acres to build a road to their new facility. Today I began wondering whether those 12 acres ought to be added to the 318-acre facility to put it over the 320-acre DRI threshold....Side Table Spectator

CSX railroad officials said Tuesday that a series of "unusual circumstances" caused a freight train to stall in downtown Lakeland on Monday afternoon and block traffic. -- The Lakeland Ledger

Polk County commissioners voted 3-2 Wednesday to send a letter to the state Department of Community Affairs to press the issue of whether the proposed CSX freight terminal should be reviewed as a development of regional impact. -- The Lakeland Ledger

A trip Monday to a CSX freight terminal in Fairburn, Ga., has given four Polk County commissioners a better idea what to expect if a similar facility is built in Winter Haven. -- The Lakeland Ledger

But CSX isn’t the only rail company planning to build a major distribution center/office hub in Polk County.

Flagler Development’s Lakeland Central Park would bring up to 6 million square feet of commercial development to 724 acres just off the Polk Parkway southwest of town. It is a development of regional impact, which means it is being extensively reviewed. (By comparison, the 1,250-acre CSX distribution center is not because the company and Winter Haven have split the project into two smaller pieces.) -- Polk County News Blog

For the first time, a local government in the Bay area is formally objecting to the fast-track approval process of the massive CSX rail hub and distribution center planned for south of Winter Haven.

That hub is the backbone of a half-billion deal put together last year by former Gov. Jeb Bush’s administration that would reorganize freight rail traffic throughout the state and bring commuter rail to the Orlando area. The Port of Tampa has also expressed interest in tapping into the hub and the burgeoning central Florida distribution industry, generally. -- Polk County News Blog

County commissioners voted 3-2 on Wednesday to try again to persuade state planners to require CSX to go through a development of regional impact review for its proposed freight terminal in Winter Haven. -- The Lakeland Ledger

Once the Winter Haven ILC is underway, CSX intends to purchase the surrounding 900+ acres the plans for which will be evaluated by the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) process. The plans call for a combination of warehousing, industrial and office space. Here are a few of the tenants attracted to the Alliance, Texas ILC:.....Winter Haven C of C

Last October representatives from Winter Haven visited Alliance, Texas for a closer look at the potential impact of the CSX Integrated Logistics Center planned for south Winter Haven. The Alliance facility provides a good look at an ILC and its surrounding area developed from raw land, much as the Winter Haven site will be. There is an interesting slide show and much more information on that ILC here....Winter Haven C of C

In March of 2006, attorneys representing CSX Transportation requested a letter of clearance from the Department of Community Affairs in Tallahassee. The correspondence outlined the acreage requesting clearance and specifically addressed Development of Regional Impact (DRI) thresholds. Here are pertinent excerpts:

The project acreage was described as follows:
318 acres total
- 160 acres for the intermodal terminal
- 99 acres of vehicle storage and unloading
- 10.5 acres of administrative and control buildings
- 3.3 acres of maintenance buildings
- 45 acres of stormwater management areas
… together with construction and dedication of a public roadway connecting the Intermodal Facility to SR 60.

......

Editor’s Note added 5-11-07 at 7:31 a.m. — The roadway is not contiguous to the 318 acres and will be publicly owned and maintained. This type of transaction is often found in public/private partnerships and the bottom line is it saved Polk County taxpayers the cost of land acquisition.

In fact, it will accomplish one objective of a Polk County road improvement plan released last year. The roadway will complete the “Pollard Road extension.”)

Winter Haven C of C

The Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce's blog has responded to an issue I raised in an earlier post about whether the purchase of the Stokes property put the CSX project over the DRI threshold.

The chamber blog said it won't because the land isn't contiguous. One local planner I talked to thought otherwise and is investigating....Side Table Spectator

State Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, on Friday entered the CSX hub/development of regional impact debate with some pretty strong words. Like a majority of the Polk County Commission, she thinks the Winter Haven project should be treated as a development of regional impact from its inception and subjected to a thorough regional review.

“The fact that it’s not going through a better process, and people are just being told to deal with it, is not proper planning,” Dockery said during a phone interview, calling the CSX center “a major regional project.” -- Polk County News Blog

Momentum toward creation of the $8 billion Heartland Parkway has ground to a halt, largely because of the change of Florida governors, said Rick Dantzler, spokesman for a group of landowners pushing for the highway.... Polk County News Blog

I would argue that the central tension at the heart of the CSX/development of regional impact debate is this: Winter Haven, CSX and Haven-area economic developers sell the rail center as a single 1,250-acre, 8,500-job producing, tax-base expanding behemoth of a project. But they want to regulate it as a 318-acre, 200-job run-of-the-mill industrial site.....Polk County News Blog

For the record, Polk County Manager Mike Herr has read the letter exchange between CSX and the state Department of Community Affairs informally declaring that the 318-acre CSX hub need not undergo a regional review....Polk County News Blog

Fast forward to 2007 and the CSX debate. I had a series of questions I wanted to ask Greene about the city’s approach to approving the project. Through his spokeswoman, Greene on Monday declined to talk to me. He referred me to strategic initiatives director Pete Chichetto or Assistant City Manager Dale Smith. -- Polk County News Blog

The Lake Wales City Commission Tuesday night unanimously added to the growing political pressure for a full-scale regional review of the entire 1,250-acre CSX rail hub and distribution center proposal.

I wasn’t able to attend the meeting, but City Manager Tony Otte confirmed the vote for me in a phone message. I’m not sure if there was much discussion.

This leads nicely into a discussion I had earlier this week with Jon Peck, a spokesman with the state’s Department of Community Affairs. Polk County News Blog

The letter makes these points:

--CSX has added 20 acres to the 318 acres it already had set aside for its first phase, putting it over the 320-acre threshold.

--Additional buffering may be required, further increasing the acreage.

--There are an additional 930 acres involved, which argues for a comprehensive look sooner rather than later. ... Side Table Spectator

Hood spent much of his statement describing how the CSX project will help ease national and state truck traffic in two ways:

1) By taking freight containers off trucks and placing them onto trains for cross-country hauls to Winter Haven.

2) Serving as the catalyst for a half-billion dollar plan that will create Orlando-area commuter rail. And just in case you don’t realize how completely linked that plan is to the CSX hub, Hood noted that commuter rail line “doesn’t become available” until the new hub is functioning. ...Polk County News Blog