Opinion ID: 297805
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Adequacy of 1968 Hearing.

Text: 25 It is stipulated that the 1968 hearing was held at 10:00 A.M. on a working day at the Texas Highway Department's District 14 headquarters located at 1709 Interregional Highway in Travis County, Texas, outside the city limits of Austin. Appellants contend that this was neither 'a convenient location' nor 'a time or place generally convenient for persons affected by the proposed project', as required by the pre-amendment version of Section 128, supra, n. 7, and Policy and Procedure Memorandum 20-8(1), issued June 16, 1959 (hereafter, the 1959 PPM). They contend further that the 1968 hearing failed to consider 'the economic effects' of the proposed highway, as required by Section 128 and the 1959 PPM, particularly in failing to consider the problems of displacement and relocation. They also contend that the public notices of the hearing were inadequate. 26 While acknowledging the constitutional importance of public hearings prior to final administrative determination of highway location and design, 10 we do not feel that injunctive relief, either in the nature of ordering a new location hearing or halting construction until a new hearing is held, would, at this stage, effectuate the rights or protect the interests of the appellants or those they represent, if, indeed, the hearing was to be held inadequate as a matter of law. Although we in no way condone hearings of any sort conducted in a legally deficient manner, we recognize that there must come a point in time when even the most grievous wrong is sadly beyond the power of equity to rectify. Here the appellants, persons displaced from the Clarksville community by an expressway project, have been relocated and their houses demolished, commitments have been entered into by the City of Austin, the State of Texas, and the federal government among themselves and third parties, and construction is proceeding. The equities of the case have become multifarious and more sharply antagonistic. Against the rights and interests of the appellants must be balanced the diverse interests that have now matured. Many factors, including existing contractual commitments, work completed, the extreme difficulty or impossibility of now relocating the right-of-way or altering the design, the public's need for rapid and safe transportation, as well as the impossibility of returning the appellants to the status quo ante even if a hearing were ordered, all mitigate heavily against the intervention of equity, if it were warranted at an earlier state of the project. 27 The judgment of the district court granting summary judgment is affirmed in all things except with regard to the need for a design hearing limited to the yet to be approved design for the U.S. 183 interchange, where it is reversed and remended for proceedings not inconsistent herewith. 28 Affirmed in part; reversed and remanded in part. 29 ON PETITION FOR REHEARING AND PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC