news-record.com

RALEIGH — Railroad company representatives say a bill pending in the state House is “forward-looking,” ensuring that high-speed trains and new local transit lines can be built throughout the state.

Robert McIntosh, who owns Universal Scientific Supply Co. on Pine Street in Greensboro, scoffs at that notion.

“They’re not looking forward for me,” McIntosh said as he stood outside a legislative committee room last week. “They’re going to tell me what I can and can’t do with my property going forward.”

The legislation is the latest attempt by lawmakers to help railroads ensure that their trains can safely operate and that there is room to expand in the future.

“We need to work with these landowners to preserve the corridors,” said Scott Saylor, president of the N.C. Railroad Company, whose lines pass through Guilford County and Greensboro.

The railroad raised hackles in 2006 when it tried to charge landowners rent on their own properties if buildings were in the right of way. Saylor said the company ended that practice after strong backlash.

Under the bill pending before the legislature, existing property would be excluded. But landowners whose property was in a railroad’s right of way — typically 100 feet on either side of the track — would have to negotiate a written agreement with the railroad before putting up new buildings or even dedicating the property as open space as part of a development deal.

Pete Goria, a businessman from eastern Guilford County, said he understands the railroad’s needs.

“It’s not all bad,” he said. “We need rail, we need to work together,” Goria said.

But Steve Butler, owner of the D.S. Butler Farm and Airfield in Oak Ridge, said that unless the railroads want to pay for additional control, landowners are getting a raw deal.

“They’re trying to take my property and not give me a damned thing for it,” he said.

That’s a view that had sympathy on the House Judiciary III Committee on Thursday, where members debated the bill.
“That is a taking without compensation and I believe it to be fundamentally unconstitutional,” said Rep. Bill Faison, an Orange County Democrat.

Saylor said the railroad didn’t have an interest in heavily regulating landowners. He showed the committee pictures of trains laden with heavy and potentially dangerous cargo passing close to buildings that house nursery schools and the like.

There’s little the railroad can do about such existing situations, he said.

But going forward, he said, it would be better to avoid potential problems — especially as lines for high-speed trains that go more than 90 mph are laid.

“We need a safety agreement with them,” he said. “We need an understanding with them how the property is going to be used.”

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com