Fans of secluded retreat fear Trans-Texas Corridor

Project could be routed through Camp Allen
By RAD SALLEE
Houston Chronicle    
March 12, 2008

A Piney Woods retreat that has hosted national church conferences on controversial issues, celebrated the consecration of bishops and provided summer memories for thousands of teens now faces another kind of challenge.

The nearly two square miles of forest, hills, fields, lakes and buildings that make up Camp Allen Conference & Retreat Center, 15 miles southeast of Navasota, lie in a two-mile-wide strip listed in state documents as the preferred route for the planned Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor.

Proposed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2002, the corridor plan has drawn heated opposition at town hall meetings and public hearings throughout Southeast Texas.

Camp Allen officials have gathered more than 3,000 names on an Internet petition asking the Texas Department of Transportation not to harm the facility, beloved by many Houstonians.

It’s all here … and the SAVING CAMP ALLEN petition is here …