Cy-Fair area residents invited to voice transportation concerns Tuesday

A public meeting on freight-rail possibilities is scheduled for Tuesday, April 26, in Jersey Village as part of a regional series of gatherings by the Houston-Galveston Area Council.

The meeting will address issues related to freight movement in the Houston area and specifically Jersey Village, said Alan Clark, head of the H-GAC's Transportation Policy Council. It is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. at the Jersey Village Civic Center, 16501 Jersey Drive.

Issues like transportation of hazardous material and safety amid increased truck traffic could top the list of concerns voiced by residents at the meeting, said Chandra Bondzie, deputy project manager of the studies.

The event will include a panel of community and business representatives.

Other meetings scheduled as part of H-GAC's Regional Goods Movement Study will occur in Pasadena, Kendleton and Texas City. The study is to be completed in February 2012.

The Regional Goods Movement Plan focuses on the eight counties around the Greater Houston area.

While this round of meetings probably will not address the issue of a commuter rail or light rail system near Jersey Village, Clark said that light rail in that community is an absolute possibility for the future.

"There is active planning going on right this minute at the Gulf Coast Rail District," Clark said, adding that a commuter rail could utilize the same rail tracks that exist in the Hempstead corridor.

The Gulf Coast District was created by the city of Houston and Harris and Fort Bend counties and met for the first time in 2007. Its mission is to work with public and private partners to upgrade the regional rail network.

The meetings were scheduled strategically around Houston, Clark said, because "some parts of our region are more heavily impacted" by traffic, like Jersey Village, which is pocketed in the corner between U.S. 290 and Beltway 8.

The issue of multi-modal or different means of transportation is especially important to Jersey Village now as the city is in the early stages of planning a new development on land south of U.S. 290 on a newly constructed extension of Jones Road. Jersey Village zoning restrictions have resulted in a building moratorium until the city can decide how to properly categorize the area, but the new development could serve a substantial economic impact to the area.