The Seven Lakes West Landowners Association [SLWLA] is inches away from completing an agreement with the Aberdeen Carolina and Western Railway Company that will protect the community's front entrance, making the Lakeway Drive rail crossing a permanent, public crossing with gate arms and signals.
Members of the SLWLA Board, the railroad, and other affected businesses and landowners have been negotiating behind the scenes for weeks to complete the agreement.
Absent a deal, it is possible that the crossing could be permanently closed.
The Board, late Thursday, announced a special meeting to be held on Thursday, February 2 at 7:00 pm to present details of the crossing agreement to the membership, take public comment, and vote on the agreement. A final meeting of the various parties to the agreement is scheduled for earlier in the day on February 2, SLWLA Legal Director Jack Stevens told The Times.
While it is clear that the agreement will include payments from the Association and, possibly, other affected parties to the Aberdeen Carolina and Western Railway [ACWR], the size of the payments and the identity of the other parties to the agreement have not been released, pending completion of the negotiations.
Wasn't this a done deal?
SLWLA members and regular readers of The Times may be surprised to learn that a crossing agreement is necessary -- particularly one that involves payments from the Association to the ACWR.
Over the past several years, The Times has reported on plans by the NC Department of Transportation [NCDOT] to upgrade the crossing, using federal rail safety funds to install lights and gate arms, while closing two lower-volume crossings in West End.
That plan, the subject of considerable public debate, appeared to be finalized in January 2011, when The Times reported that the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Federal Highway Administration had signed off on the environmental review required for the project, clearing the way for the release of $650,000 in funding.
At that time, NCDOT Railway Engineer Nancy Horne told The Times that she expected construction to begin in late Spring or early Summer 2011. But Spring and Summer came and went.
In August, Horne explained that the crossing upgrade could not move forward until the ACWR signed a permanent easement that would make the Lakeway Drive crossing a public crossing, rather than a private crossing. And the railroad seemed to be in no hurry to sign the agreement. Horne expected construction would be delayed until Winter 2011.
Precedent for payments to railroad
In October 2011, ACWR management requested a closed session meeting with members of the SLWLA Board of Directors, and, during that meeting, asked for a sizable lump sum payment to help defray the 20-year cost of maintaining the Lakeway Drive crossing after the NCDOT upgrades are in place.
"Frankly, we were astounded," SLWLA Legal Director Stevens told The Times.
After the meeting, Stevens and the Association's outside counsel scrambled to research the history of the railroad's relationship with the Association and the various Westside developers, as well as to find any agreements related to the crossing.
"There were various agreements," Stevens told The Times, though those agreements apparently were between the railroad and the various developers of Seven Lakes West, rather than the railroad and the Association. "All had specific time periods and different payments," Stevens said. "At some point, some payments to the railroad weren't cashed. Eventually, the developer stopped sending checks."
Stevens told The Times that what appears to be the last valid agreement governing the rail crossing dates to GS Communities' time as developer, which ended in 2005.
'An unprecedented opportunity'
Recognizing that precedent existed for payments to the railroad related to the crossing, an ad hoc committee comprised of Stevens, SLWLA President Mick Herdrich, and Secretary Jane Sessler began negotiating in earnest with the ACWR and other property owners who would be impacted by the possible closing of the crossing.
Stevens noted that a closure of the front gate of Seven Lakes West would affect not only the residents who live behind that gate, but the entire Seven Lakes business community.
"We have the East Gate," he noted. "But people exiting that gate would most likely turn right on 211, instead of turning left" to shop in the Seven Lakes Business Village.
As the negotiating team approached their task, Stevens said, "We realized that we have an unprecedented opportunity to make this problem go away forever."
He said the Board felt the Association should take the lead in the negotiations, not only because Westsiders would be most directly affected, but also because the Association owns Lakeway Drive.
Possible loss of funding
Adding pressure to the negotiations was a threat by NCDOT to withdraw the $650,000 in federal rail safety funds that would pay for the crossing upgrade if the easement agreement requested from ACWR was not signed by December 31.
NCDOT's Horne told The Times Friday morning that she received notice on December 30 that the easement agreement had been signed. From NCDOT's perspective, that means the project can move forward. However, the Department is not involved in the negotiations between the railroad, the Association, and other affected parties.
Horne said NCDOT's next steps are to give Lakeway Drive at the crossing a state route number and forward plans to the ACWR, so that the railroad can design the relays and other electrical systems that will allow the crossing signals to communicate with the traffic signals at the intersection of NC Highway 211, Seven Lakes Drive, and Lakeway Drive.
Horne said low volume crossings at Mode Road and Edgewood Terrace in West End will be closed as part of the overall safety improvements -- but only after the NC Highway 73 crossing in West End is upgraded. And that work has been rolled in to the overall upgrade of NC Highway 211 from two lanes to four from West End to Pinehurst.
A Matter of Significant Interest?
Stevens told The Times that the SLWLA Board had debated whether to designate the pending crossing agreement a "matter of significant interest" to the community, which would trigger an extended public comment period before any decision could be made.
"We struggled with that question," Stevens said. But the sensitive nature of the negotiations, the involvement of various private businesses and property owners, and the threatened withdrawal of funding all made that an unworkable option, he explained.
Instead, with negotiations nearly complete, the Board has scheduled a public meeting during which the agreement can be explained, the membership can offer input, and the Board can make its decision. All of that is expected to occur on the evening of Thursday, February 2, at 7:00 pm in the Great Room of West Side Park Community Center.
