Uncertainty surrounds proposed CSX hub in Johnston County
Courtroom observers say it means something when a jury takes a long time to deliberate, that maybe the case isn’t cut and dry.
CSX, in considering Johnston County for a $272 million container hub, has left three months open for speculation. In that time the project has risen and fallen, been seen as both savior and scourge of Eastern North Carolina. It has now settled into a quiet uncertainty as to what will happen next.
On Wednesday, a group of state and Johnston County officials, including members of the Four Oaks Board of Commissioners and a Johnston County Commissioner, will fly to Ohio to tour a CSX intermodal hub south of Toledo that is the twin of what the company proposed for Johnston County. Last summer, state transportation and economic development officials went on a similar tour of the Ohio facility, along with Johnston County’s economic development director Chris Johnson.
Meanwhile, two CSX officials are scheduled to talk about the freight hub project they call CCX, and its impact on economic development, at a regional conference Wednesday. Carl Warren, who oversees CSX infrastructure development from South Carolina to Quebec, and Jim Van Derzee, CSX industrial development manager for North Carolina and Virginia, will speak at the N.C. East Alliance State of the Region conference in Greenville.
Last Wednesday, the project got a boost from the N.C. Department of Transportation, which released its preliminary rankings under the Strategic Transportation Improvement program, from which CSX had asked for $100 million. The STI uses data to evaluate and rank projects based on criteria such as transportation needs and economic impact.
CSX’s plan to put a truck-to-train container hub along the railroad’s north-south line near interstates 95 and 40 scored the highest of any of the STI’s hundreds of projects. Rail Division director Paul Worley said the money is on the table if CSX wants it.
“The project has scored well enough through the STI formula for the $100 million,” Worley said. “We basically have to see if they have a viable site, with buy-in from the local governments, the proper zoning and land acquisition, a good commitment from everyone involved.”
In January, CSX announced it would build a regional container hub on 450 acres between Selma and Micro. Within weeks, amid property owners declaring they would fight to hold onto their land, county commissioners and the governor said the site was nonviable, and CSX canceled the few contracts it had signed.
Pointing to the governor’s rejection of the site, Worley suggested the company likely would move on from Selma. If that happened, though, as long as any alternative site was along the north-south CSX line and within 150 miles of the original site, the STI ranking would hold, Worley said.
CSX released a statement on the project’s STI score, saying it was pleased North Carolina saw the potential in its container hub. The statement did not mention Selma, but did say the company “would continue to evaluate potential sites,” suggesting it has moved on from its original site.
Four Oaks has emerged as the most visible alternative, largely at the invitation of Mayor Linwood Parker.
Between Four Oaks and Benson, Parker has assembled what he thinks to be a viable site. Based on the price paid for the town’s business park, Parker said the railroad would have to pay $25,000 an acre and twice the tax value of any home or building. That would total $18 million for 450 acres, more than four times what CSX offered in Selma.
Though he said he hasn’t spoken directly with CSX, Parker said he’s learned the company would be willing to pay that price if it came to Four Oaks.
It’s a big deal, a game changer, everybody knows that. But you don’t need to drag it out. People need to get on with their lives.
Four Oaks Mayor Linwood Parker
While Parker hopes to see the container hub in Four Oaks, the proposition is meeting pushback similar to what it faced in Selma. Last Monday, a Four Oaks Board of Commissioners’ meeting turned into an ad hoc public hearing on CSX with nearly a dozen speakers, all but one opposing the project.
Allen Wellons is chairman of Johnston County’s Economic Development Commission and president of the development corporation offering contracts to Four Oaks landowners. In that role, he said, he’s been an advocate for the project, for keeping CSX in Johnston County instead of seeing the company leave for a competing site in South Carolina or Virginia.
Wellons said his generation wouldn’t reap the largest rewards of a Johnston County CSX hub. But he said he thinks the project is the key to prosperity for generations to come.
“I’ve always been an advocate for children, and the most important thing for a child is having a job for their parents,” Wellons said. “I think that does more for a family than any other thing. When I looked at what is a good use of land and what it means to be good stewards of that land, creating jobs was a better use than anything I know.”
Even Parker, though, seems to have reached a limit. In a letter to CSX, he asked the company to tell the county if it will stay or leave by Friday. On Monday, he released a statement saying the town had “gone as far as we can.”
“As everyone knows, there are people in opposition of this project as well as people who are in support of the project,” he said in the statement. “We informed state officials of our progress, as well as mounting opposition to the project. It is now up to Gov. McCrory and the railroad to reach a decision about the location of this project.”
Drew Jackson: 919-553-7234, Ext. 104; @jdrewjackson
This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Uncertainty surrounds proposed CSX hub in Johnston County."