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We have lived in the area for 23 years and have enjoyed raising my children here. Even while growing up in Midfield I knew I wanted to live in this area. When we moved here it was not zoned industrial. As I type this I am listening to the crickets and frogs; I can see the stars. I grieve and am angry at the thought that this is being stolen not only from me, my family, our neighbors but future generations. Everyone who thinks that it is a good idea should petition to have it in their back yard. I will be glad to help you get it.
NFS has now reported that the actual job number for NFS is 70. The additional numbers are thought to be gained from ADDITIONAL industry that will invade our community. Its funny, I wonder where all these people who think it is a great idea live? Where do the members of the Metropolitan Development Board live? Where do our state representatives live?
And remember to those who think it is a great idea to put this in a residential area I WILL BE GLAD TO HELP YOU GET IN YOUR BACK YARDS.
[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]
We have lived in the area for 23 years and have enjoyed raising my children here. Even while growing up in Midfield I knew I wanted to live in this area. When we moved here it was not zoned industrial. As I type this I am listening to the crickets and frogs; I can see the stars. I grieve and am angry at the thought that this is being stolen not only from me, my family, our neighbors but future generations. Everyone who thinks that it is a good idea should petition to have it in their back yard. I will be glad to help you get it.
NFS has now reported that the actual job number for NFS is 70. The additional numbers are thought to be gained from ADDITIONAL industry that will invade our community. Its funny, I wonder where all these people who think it is a great idea live? Where do the members of the Metropolitan Development Board live? Where do our state representatives live?
And remember to those who think it is a great idea to put this in a residential area I WILL BE GLAD TO HELP YOU GET IN YOUR BACK YARDS.
[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]
Since you have lived there for 23 years, I'm curious to know, did you received the notice and check that cpg35223 is saying all effective homeowners received back in the 90s?
Also, this will not just effect the homeowners that live in the Bessemer/McCalla area. It will effect every driver, at every rail road crossing on the NFS line with crossings that are not elevated as train traffic will increase 10 fold!
Since you have lived there for 23 years, I'm curious to know, did you received the notice and check that cpg35223 is saying all effective homeowners received back in the 90s?
Also, this will not just effect the homeowners that live in the Bessemer/McCalla area. It will effect every driver, at every rail road crossing on the NFS line with crossings that are not elevated as train traffic will increase 10 fold!
I did not say everybody got a check. I said the property owners where the current Jeff Met is got a big, fat check, and other homeowners in the area were absolutely dying to sell at the time as well. Between the payoffs to landowners, the public hearings, etc., it was just common knowledge that this sparsely populated area was going to be converted to industrial use. There was ample notice for Jeff Met, and given how the JeffCo EIDA made no secret of its plans to increase the rail presence in the area, residents got 15 years' notice. Yeah, they didn't sent out flyers every month, but this has been out there for years.
You know it is funny. I never received a check, letter etc. but I have had flat tires, ran off the road, played dodge with the 18-wheelers on McAshan. We fought down other trucks stops in our area until Bessemer sneaked down the freeway and annexed in a plot for the Flying Jay. Which by the way, McAshan is proof of the great (not) road up keep (Where is all that money that Jefferson County invested). We then fought down a recycling plant (again by sneaky Bessemer).
According to The article on the NFS corridor, they are requesting funding from the state and local government.
Now, where do you think that is coming from? This was a quiet residential area when we moved here. And at the risk of offending someone and sounding harsh I am tired of everyone who does not live in our area thinking that they can shove all their great ideas off on us. Either move here, live here or shut up and leave us alone. Put you "great" ideas in your own yard!!!
Ditto! If we had wanted to live in the pretentious neighborhood of Mountain Brook, we very easily could have. However, we had choices and we decided to live in the sprawling countryside while being close enough to the city. Please don't pay any attention to cpg35223 . . . how would he know more about our community than we do?
Ditto! If we had wanted to live in the pretentious neighborhood of Mountain Brook, we very easily could have. However, we had choices and we decided to live in the sprawling countryside while being close enough to the city. Please don't pay any attention to cpg35223 . . . how would he know more about our community than we do?
My guess is that cpg35223 is in some way involved in this.
One would have to be a moron to argue on something that does not involved them, and from other past posts in other forums I have seen from cpg35223, I do not think he is a moron at all, which leads me to believe, some how, some way, this involves him - of course I may be wrong, he could be a moron, but I doubt it.
It's really simple. That entire area was zoned for probable commercial/industrial development years ago, at the expense of taxpayers all over the county. Jefferson County expended considerable resources in the mid- to late-90s preparing that entire tract of land for precisely this kind of usage, before there was any kind of major residential development. I know, because I visited that area. I saw the plats, I saw the land use studies, and I knew that, at the time, there was next to nothing out there. It was an ideal piece of real estate because it was inexpensive, unpopulated, and flat for eventual rail access. Sayre, where you suggest, is ill-suited for development for a rail hub. Like most of Jefferson County, it is hilly, making it difficult to put together the large tracts of contiguous land that are required for large-scale integration of industrial and distribution properties with a transportation net.
So now, 15 years down the road, suddenly all these homeowners who now live in the area are up in arms because the county intends to go ahead with the plans it had laid out years ago. I mean, this isn't like these guys sat up last week and said, "Hot damn! There's some vacant land over there! Let's run a railroad through it!"
When I looked for my house, I certainly didn't buy a home next to land that was zoned commercial/industrial. Yet the people who are protesting this did exactly that, despite the fact that the intended use of the neighboring properties had been explicitly defined for years. So now, according to you, the taxpayers of Jefferson County are expected to just eat the considerable costs sunk into the Jeff Met area just because the new homeowners in the area have not done their due diligence.
This is grossly and completely inaccurate.
The land that Norfolk Southern is proposing has always been zoned rural/residential. The comprehensive plan published by the County last year specifically reaffirmed that fact -- and in fact, the presentation about the comprehensive plan touted that homeowners could pick a neighborhood based on the plan with the confidence that the area they picked would remain as is for the "foreseeable future"
Just so you'll know I'm not making this up -- I offer the two following links - one is to the plan document, the second to the presentation -- along with providing a cut and paste from page 29 of the presentation.
"But there’s also another important aspect of this part of our planning process: one of the “attractions” that Jefferson County can offer people, that most of the cities can not, is that they can choose from the whole range of the different kinds of “places” to live in!From the rural countryside (say, of the Corner area) to the extensively-developed urban setting (of Forestdale). And because this is such an asset for the County and its residents, each of the different kinds of areas – natural, rural, sub-urban to urban – need to be protected and preserved in their own right.So it will also be a function of this Plan that, if somebody comes in looking for, say, a rural area to move in to, and to invest in building a house in, they will have at least some assurance – with the Plan – that the area they are looking at will stay “rural”, at least for the foreseeable future."
In other words, your assumption and story is completely off-base and incorrect.
To make matters worse, Jefferson County officials released this plan last year, and had several town hall meetings in the McCalla area to get feedback and to explain the plan -- even though they had been working with the railroad for two years already on the RR plan. It's not like something changed - they deliberately lied to McCalla area residents, likely because they did not think that they would be held accountable.
I would hope that this would radically change your opinion as expressed above.
The land that Norfolk Southern is proposing has always been zoned rural/residential. The comprehensive plan published by the County last year specifically reaffirmed that fact -- and in fact, the presentation about the comprehensive plan touted that homeowners could pick a neighborhood based on the plan with the confidence that the area they picked would remain as is for the "foreseeable future"
Just so you'll know I'm not making this up -- I offer the two following links - one is to the plan document, the second to the presentation -- along with providing a cut and paste from page 29 of the presentation.
"But there’s also another important aspect of this part of our planning process: one of the “attractions” that Jefferson County can offer people, that most of the cities can not, is that they can choose from the whole range of the different kinds of “places” to live in!From the rural countryside (say, of the Corner area) to the extensively-developed urban setting (of Forestdale). And because this is such an asset for the County and its residents, each of the different kinds of areas – natural, rural, sub-urban to urban – need to be protected and preserved in their own right.So it will also be a function of this Plan that, if somebody comes in looking for, say, a rural area to move in to, and to invest in building a house in, they will have at least some assurance – with the Plan – that the area they are looking at will stay “rural”, at least for the foreseeable future."
In other words, your assumption and story is completely off-base and incorrect.
To make matters worse, Jefferson County officials released this plan last year, and had several town hall meetings in the McCalla area to get feedback and to explain the plan -- even though they had been working with the railroad for two years already on the RR plan. It's not like something changed - they deliberately lied to McCalla area residents, likely because they did not think that they would be held accountable.
I would hope that this would radically change your opinion as expressed above.
Not at all. Given the fact that the JCEDA invested tens of millions of dollars a decade ago in building a very large industrial park in the area and, even then, couched in public hearings the possibility of expansion, this is part of the natural evolution of the park. The goals and expansion plans of the park have not been a secret. They've been out there for over a decade.
As far as what was said two years ago, I have no idea for I was not present at those meetings. However, I do know that the authority has been pursuing railway linkage to an expanded industrial park since its inception.
Not at all. Given the fact that the JCEDA invested tens of millions of dollars a decade ago in building a very large industrial park in the area and, even then, couched in public hearings the possibility of expansion, this is part of the natural evolution of the park. The goals and expansion plans of the park have not been a secret. They've been out there for over a decade.
As far as what was said two years ago, I have no idea for I was not present at those meetings. However, I do know that the authority has been pursuing railway linkage to an expanded industrial park since its inception.
First, the railway line has always run immediately along the entire length of the industrial park from it's inception. The park has always had railroad access -- that has been one of the selling point of the park in the current sales materials
Second, the both of the parcels identifyied by the county as possible expansion of the park lay adjacent to the park, north of the tracks. No expansion of the park was ever proposed for the NS property -- because in the master plan that land was reserved for residential growth.
Yes, the plan for by the county to offer this site to NS was very much a secret for three years.
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No Hub 4 McCalla
