Texas Transit Association

Next month, more than two years and countless meetings later, five cities - Denton, Lewisville, Flower Mound, Highland Village and Corinth - will vote on a half-cent sales tax to fund the authority’s plans for a commuter rail line from Denton to Carrollton.

Will the DCTA’s train finally leave the station?;
Five cities to vote next month on a sales tax to fund commuter rail line
The Dallas Morning News August 13, 2003

Texas Rep. Burt Solomons says he still remembers clearly the day the idea for the Denton County Transportation Authority was hatched.

The Carrollton Republican said it began in February 2001, when Denton city officials approached him for state transportation dollars.

“I had been thinking that we were going to have to try to do something about controlling our own transportation needs on a countywide basis versus just a city-by-city basis,” he said. “I was just trying to figure out how I might want to put it together, and in talking to them, it sort of came to me, ‘Well, what would you think if we just created our own transportation authority?’”

He wrote the law authorizing the creation of the transportation authority, and it was passed by the Legislature in March 2001.

The agency’s interim committee included representatives from cities with populations of more than 12,000. Members from smaller cities and unincorporated areas of the county also were appointed.

They met for the first time in November 2001, charged with drafting a plan to decide which mode of transportation would best suit the county and coming up with a proposed tax rate.

In December 2001, committee members clashed over the use of buses. Several members of the executive board questioned whether the public would ride buses.

“I’m not sure buses are effective in any environment,” Flower Mound City Manager Van James said at the time.

Highland Village City Council member Fred Busche agreed.

“I think I know my constituents, and I know that a bus service is probably not going to be at the top of their hit list as a way to get somewhere,” he said.

The committee hit another snag later that year when Corinth residents living along the Rails-to-Trails corridor realized the proposed commuter line would run through their back yards.

The trail was originally the right-of-way of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad that ran between Denton and Dallas. The city bought the land from the Union Pacific railroad in 1993 for a hiking trail, but the railroad easement was reserved and sold to Dallas Area Rapid Transit.

Board chairman Charles Emery said that the trail was crucial because it is the only route across Lewisville Lake. The trail passes by Golden Triangle Mall, Denton Regional Hospital, North Central Texas College and several major employment centers.

At a public meeting in May, Corinth residents made it clear they wanted to derail any plans for a commuter train running along the trail.

But in June, with one dissenting vote, the board approved a transportation service plan that would cost more than $ 280 million and begin commuter rail service as early as 2008. The plan then went out to city councils across the county for more criticism and fine-tuning.

All of the city councils of the member cities - except The Colony’s, which cited problems with its sales tax rate, already the maximum allowed by law - approved the plan and cleared the way for a November 2002 election to approve creating the DCTA.

Seventy-three percent of Denton County voters approved the authority. The committee then asked its five major member cities and the county to provide $ 375,000 in “near-term funding” until the sales tax election to hire a consultant to provide administrative services and mount a public education campaign.

The Flower Mound Town Council denied the request for interim funding, and council members expressed disapproval of the service plan.

The authority decided in June to make radical changes in its service plan and decided to depend only on its five members cities for funding. The board focused its plan on traffic relief to Interstate 35 East and indefinitely delayed services to the rest of the county, including most bus routes.

It also voted to ask its five major member cities to approve a half-cent sales tax to fund the authority and to assume the rest of the towns in the county wouldn’t participate. Part of the tax money would go back to the cities for three years.

The founders of the authority say it is still a countywide agency.

“It’s still extremely worth pursuing because of the tremendous growth that we’re still continuing to see in the county,” said Scott Armey, who as Denton County judge helped get the authority started.

Mr. Solomons predicts a successful election.

“But I can tell you,” he said, “it’s always a tougher sell when you’re asking people to pay for something.”