Funds for Texas 36 development study in works
Fort Bend County Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers is heading up local efforts to negotiate funding for a feasibility study on the need for the potential Texas 36 extension through the county and into the Katy area
The project, which is supported by Katy leaders but opposed by the Katy Prairie Conservancy, is part of a potential three-phase project that wound extend Texas 36 from Freeport to Waller County.
Phase one of the project, a roughly $460 million development which will widen the existing Texas 36 located on a north-south 55-mile stretch between Freeport and Rosenberg from two lanes to four lanes, is already beginning to be funded and likely to start construction as early as 2018.
Under current plans, phase two would extend the highway north from Rosenberg past Fulshear and into Katy’s west region near Igloo Road and stop at Interstate 10, as well as create an alternate route beginning near U.S. 90A and ending in Sealy.
A potential third phase would extend Texas 36 north again from I-10 to Waller and then take a left turn to reach Prairie View at Texas 6. The second and third phase are known as the Highway 36A project.
Though the second and third phases are more of an idea now than a plan, the potential development has garnered support from many, including Katy leaders. Meyer is adamant the highway extension through his county and into the Katy area is necessary.
“It’s a (highway) connection that’s needed to accommodate population,” Meyers said. “It
will help economic development, and if we don’t get it built, the congestion is going to get a lot worse. If we can’t get funding, we can’t do anything.”
The need to construct the initial expansion phase is due to the increasing congestion from fastgrowing Freeport, which is seeing companies spend billions to expand petrochemical plants. Expansion of the Panama Canal also is likely to bring more goods through the region.
Meyers and regional development leaders believe the added port traffic and population growth also will need to be eased going north beyond phase one. The funding for a feasibility study for phase two could be contingent on the passing of Proposition 7 on the Nov. 3 ballot, which would alter the kind of revenue deposited into the state highway fund, according to Raquelle Lewis, TxDOT spokeswoman.
“We are having ongoing discussions with HoustonGalveston Area Council about options for funding a SH 36A feasibility study,” Lewis said. “The proposed constitutional amendment would need to first be approved by voters and then the funding would have to be allocated to TxDOT by the state Legislature.”
Once a feasibility study is conducted for the second phase, which will measure the practicality of the project, the plan can move forward to fund an environmental impact assessment and eventually begin construction. Since the entire development process will easily require more than a decade, not even including the potential third phase, Meyers said funding is needed now.
The feasibility study could reach a cost of about $2 million, according to Alan Clark, H-GAC director of transportation planning. Through federal funds, the council last year pledged $500,000 for the study, with the Highway 36A Coalition that is formed by local counties and governments, including Katy, pledging another $500,000 more than a year ago. H-GAC already has committed about $50 million to the project’s first phase and is expecting to be able to commit $410 million more for that phase over several years, mostly through TxDOT federal funds.
The parties are hoping to have funding for the study by next year, according to Clark, who added that “the funding will likely only be for the part (of the project) that goes to I-10, not the (third phase).”
Potential for the second phase of the project and a possible third phase is supported by Katy city leaders because of the possible commercial traffic and value the highway project would bring to the area’s western region, which is poised to develop several commercial business properties.
“We’d like to get our share of (the highway project),” Katy Mayor Fabol Hughes said. “The increasing values of properties because of the project will be a benefit to everyone along that area between Highway 90 and I-10. There are many benefits with commercial property already filling in there and the potential of added resources a major highway would bring.”
City Mayor Pro Tem Charles Brawner agreed, adding that the highway would help usher in growth to the area as well.
“Eventually, you have to create easement for road gridlock, and with the area only going to keep growing and commercial property filling in, it would be a natural boost to the growth. I’m all for it as long as the development is done correctly,” he said.
In the eyes of those at the Katy Prairie Conservancy, the existing route ideas for the development of phases two and three aren’t being planned correctly to divert around the protected areas.
Though most of the protected prairie property is located well north of Katy and closer to Waller and would not be affected heavily until the potential third phase, the prairie does have a sliver of land in the western region of Katy. Leaders there believe the route decision for the second phase ultimately will dictate where the third phase will be located, which would cut across large parts of the prairie in Waller County.
Founded in 1992, the prairie is a nonprofit land trust hoping to conserve and restore up to 50,000 acres of land, which extends into Harris and Fort Bend counties. Prairie leaders are adamant that Texas 36A leaders should plan the route further west than the idea calls for now, said Executive Director Mary Anne Piacentini.
“Just because someone had an idea for the route to be where they think it will be doesn’t mean it has to be there,” Piacentini said. “If you move it west it will still function. Roads can move, nature can’t. We understand development is going to come, but there is a balance that we bring by the protection of green space.”
In response, Meyers said the area for the potential 36A routes have been designated for a major highway ever since a commissioner’s court authorized development for the first Waller County Thoroughfare Development Plan in 1985, which has since gone on to feature different versions of a northsouth highway in the area. Meyers said Katy Prairie Conservancy land owners knew their land sat on this designation when they acquired the property. Piacentini confirmed Meyers’ statement but again stated that “roads can move.”