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Homeowners Sue To Stop CSX Hub

Posted Jun 8, 2007 by Billy Townsend

Updated Jun 8, 2007 at 04:19 PM

A group of homeowners in Sundance, the small rural subdivision adjacent to the massive proposed CSX rail hub and distribution center in Winter Haven are seeking an injunction to keep the company from moving forward with its plans.

The 26-page injunction request, filed on behalf of about 20 area residents, says the CSX plan is incompatible with the character and zoning of their area and should be halted.

The group is represented by Lakeland-based lawyer A. Brent Geohagan. CSX and the city of Winter Haven, which owns the land where the hub would be located, have 20 days to respond to the suit under Florida law.

Geohagan said his clients are not seeking a temporary emergency injunction at this point, but if they see CSX make a significant move - such as closing on the deal to purchase land from the city of Winter Haven - they will.

Jacksonville-based CSX calls the project an “integrated logistics center,” a statewide rail-to-truck distribution center unlike anything in the Southeast. It would handle vehicles and shipping containers routed primarily from the nation’s West Coast ports.

At the Winter Haven hub, the containers would be transferred from trains to hundreds of waiting trucks. CSX has projected that the hub will produce up to 1,150 trips a day on State Road 60. That’s before the inclusion of the surrounding distribution center, which covers a much larger area than the train hub.

CSX and other project backers in Winter Haven say it may employ up to 2,000 people.

The hub is the backbone of a half-billion-dollar deal put together last year by then-Gov. Jeb Bush’s administration that would reorganize freight rail traffic throughout the state and bring commuter rail to the Orlando area.