Council to vote on Cotton Belt agreement next month

The Plano City Council will have an opportunity next month to join the North Central Texas Council of Governments in an effort to pursue private-sector funding for the Cotton Belt Rail Corridor.

An interlocal agreement authorizing the COG to seek proposals from companies to help fund and develop the project will be on the council's Dec. 10 agenda. The 62-mile rail project is planned to span from Fort Worth to Plano through Tarrant, Dallas and Collin counties.

At Monday night's preliminary council meeting, Michael Morris, director of transportation for the COG, presented a detailed explanation of how the procurement process would work and how it might enable the Cotton Belt rail project to pull into North Texas up to 25 years ahead of schedule.

The process is made possible thanks to Senate Bill 1048, a bill passed by the 82nd Texas Legislature that expands the abilities of governments to enter public-private partnerships.

Using the framework of the bill, the COG, pending approval of a selection of stakeholder cities, will jointly seek a private sector partner with the help of DART and The T, Morris said.

"LBJ is under construction now with work we did with TxDOT advancing a public sector-private sector concessionaire," he said. "The North Tarrant Express is being advanced in Tarrant County with a public-private sector concessionaire. We're trying to do that on the rail side because we wish to build a balanced transportation investment in the region."

A letter of intent from a potential private sector partner has already been received, offering to help design, build, operate, maintain and finance the project, Morris said. The current thinking is to provide private partners with a share of economic development revenues resulting from the project and create a special transportation district comprised of local governments and transit agencies, Morris said.

"We are now moving toward the hopeful receipt of a proposal, which becomes public information the day we receive it," he said. "You'll know technology, alignment, cost, right-of-way, if funds are needed by the public or not [and] how they wish to work with local governments in order to build the project."

While the process will be based on such an unsolicited proposal, it will be open to competitive bids, Morris said. The COG will review financial aspects of the proposals, while the transit agencies will review technical considerations such as tracks, cars, stations and integration into existing networks, he said.

"If in fact there is a proposal, and if in fact it's something we all like, this would be turned over to a rail district or government structure largely managed by the transportation authorities, with you managing the local government receipts that you're putting into the particular project," Morris said.

Council members in Addison and Richardson have already approved the agreement for their cities, and it will be on the agendas for the cities of Fort Worth and Grapevine in December.

DART is expected to approve the agreement at its Dec. 11 committee of the whole meeting, and COG is set to approve the agreement at its Dec. 20 board meeting, Morris said.

"I'm very interested in us having a seat at the table to take that next step, whatever it is," Plano Mayor Phil Dyer said to Morris. "... You've said it many times: There is no commitment at this time to anything that's not reversible or not escapable, and if that's very clear, I feel very good about where we are."

Morris closed his presentation by stressing the importance of the project to the council.

"I would not be doing my job representing the nine-and-a-half million people that will be in this region in 25 years if we did not think outside the box to advance the passenger rail system," he said. "We've been adding a million people to this region since 1960. We're going to add another 3 million in the next 25 years. We cannot do it and maintain a quality of life on the balance of the roadway system."

Local governments, transit authorities and private sector partners will work with the 83rd Legislature to develop the special transit district, Morris said.

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