Surprise City Council votes against BNSF’s $3.2B West Valley rail hub

Opposition toward BNSF Railway Co.’s planned multibillion-dollar rail hub northwest of Phoenix has mounted over the past year. Now a neighboring town is pushing back against the project.

Surprise’s City Council unanimously voted in favor of a resolution formally opposing the project at an Oct. 7 meeting, saying the rail hub and logistics park in its current form would have “substantial unmitigated risk” and place an undue burden on Surprise infrastructure and public safety services.

At the meeting councilmembers expressed ongoing problems communicating with BNSF and getting any real solutions proposed to mitigate community concerns.

“The way they’re going about doing this, as far as I can tell, their plan is to ram this thing in and let the residents and the taxpayers pay for the repercussions,” Councilmember Chris Judd said during the meeting.

Mayor Kevin Sartor said this resolution isn’t an end point, and “the city is open to discussions, we’re open to solutions, but we have not gotten that to this point.”

This story is posted in partnership with Phoenix Business Journal. Click to read the full story.

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