Court of Appeals Decides Missouri has no Property Interest in Katy Trail Bridge

Today the Missouri Court of Appeals issued a ruling denying that the state of Missouri has any property right in the Boonville Lift Bridge and allowing the Department of Natural Resources to proceed with a plan to allow Union Pacific to remove the bridge.

The bridge is part of the Katy railroad corridor. Although the bridge is not part of the Katy Trail, because it is a connecting link in the Katy railroad corridor, removing the bridge could have serious ramifications for the legal status of hundreds of miles of the Katy Trail.

Attorney General Jay Nixon made this statement:

My office will appeal this case to the Missouri Supreme Court. If the giveaway of the bridge is completed, the ramifications could threaten the integrity of the entire Katy Trail, as well as take away an integral component of the city of Boonville's economic development efforts.

Governor Matt Blunt issued a statement that says in part:

"I am pleased that the department will no longer have this frivolous lawsuit hanging over its head so it can be free to direct its resources to protecting the environment and creating new recreation opportunities for Missourians including new access along the Katy Trail. The Katy Trail is one of my priorities and I remain committed to completing the trail from St. Louis to Kansas City."

In response to the ruling, the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center sent this press release:

A Court of Appeals decided today that Missouri has no property interest in the historic Boonville Lift Bridge, even though the Bridge is a part of the transaction that created the Katy Trail. The court found that under the 1986 Agreement that led to the creation of the Katy Trail, Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources could have obtained rights to use the Bridge for trail purposes if waivers of liability had been accepted by the Railroad, but that the availability of this option did not grant any presently existing property rights to DNR or the State.

In filings with the court, three former DNR Directors had expressed support for Attorney General Jay Nixon’s case against DNR and had opposed the no-bid giveaway of the Boonville Bridge. Frederick Brunner executed the agreement on behalf of the DNR in 1987. G. Tracy Mehan, III, was director of the DNR when the Katy Trail was opened in 1992. Steve Mahfood was director in 2004 and opposed Union Pacific’s efforts to remove the Boonville Bridge. All three shared the same understanding that the Boonville Bridge would remain part of the rail-banked Katy Trail corridor and that the Boonville Bridge was required to be kept available for transportation purposes.

The three former directors sided with Pat Jones, who, with her husband Ted Jones, donated over $2 million to the state of Missouri for the creation of the Katy Trail and understood the bridge would remain a part of it. They also join Raye Reynolds, the former official of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, who executed the Agreement with the State transferring the Katy Trail’s operating corridor to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

“The Attorney General has the power to take action to save the historic Bridge and prevent a severance in the rail-banked Katy Trail corridor. We will encourage the Attorney General to seek transfer of this case to the Missouri Supreme Court,” said Bruce Morrison, an attorney with Great Rivers Environmental Law Center. Great Rivers represented the three former DNR Directors along with Pat Jones, and Raye Reynolds in filings with the court.

Great Rivers is a nonprofit public interest environmental law firm in St. Louis that provides free legal services to those working to promote preservation of open space, clean energy, clean air and clean water. Its web address is: https://greatriverslaw.org/

MoBikeFed has an overview of the Boonville Bridge issue and how developments on the Boonville Bridge may affect the legal status of the Katy Trail as a whole.

Original documents related to the Katy Trail and the Boonville Bridge are here.