Pilot Flying J truck stop should be built

The opponents of the planned Pilot Travel Center would have you believe that everyone who lives in the area is against the project (“Another hearing planned over Pilot Flying J truck stop,” Sept. 15). In one sense, they are right. No one wants the extra traffic. But I disagree with my neighbors who oppose the project. It should be built.

I want it built because a reputable employer is creating at least 80 jobs. I want it built because it generates new economic activity. I want it built because there will be a new business in the community paying taxes. And mostly, I want it built because I believe that, outside of narrow and clearly defined legal constraints, people should not be told what they should do with their property.

Based on comments at the recent public meetings, it is clear that much of the opposition to the truck stop is based on the assumption that what the neighbors want to be developed on someone else’s property matters in some way. Fortunately, outside of narrow legal restrictions, what we want does not matter. If someone shows up to tell you or me what we should do with our property, we’ll be happy that such protections exist.

The number of trucks and cars on Interstate 25 will not change at all whether the truck stop is built here, is built somewhere else or is not built at all. Whatever pollution, noise and light that results from those cars and trucks fueling and stopping to rest will happen, somewhere or the other. Opposing the truck stop here does nothing for the planet, it just moves it out of our backyard.

There is a real danger to our community if our county officials fail to approve this project, especially if it is clear that the project is denied because of “Not in My Back Yard” opposition. Other businesses, including ones that we do want, will get the message that doing business in Santa Fe County is more trouble than it is worth.

I heard a lot of people lamenting the loss of a “semi-rural lifestyle.” This seems, at best, a wishful exaggeration. The area affected by this project is largely suburban, office or industrial. There is a fair amount of privately owned open space; it is naïve to expect such open space to remain undeveloped. And let’s acknowledge the unspoken irony — as I understand, the property that became Rancho Viejo was in fact a ranch before the development. Lucky for us living here that no one showed up then to bemoan the loss of his or her rural lifestyle.

Hundreds of people took the time to attend the latest community meeting, many wearing a T-shirt someone had made for the cause. In their faces and eyes I saw commitment, grim determination and even fear. Over a truck stop. New Mexico has so many serious problems — poor education, poverty, lack of jobs, drugs and hunger. It breaks my heart that none of those problems are important enough to inspire the same energy and commitment that building a truck stop at the closest freeway exit does.