NBC5 Interviews Glendenning Regarding Collin County Outer Loop
The Collin County Outer Loop is a project that has been in the works for more than a decade.
The County is going section-by-section to purchase land and acquire right-of-ways, currently working on a section from the Dallas North Tollway east to Route 289 (Preston Road) that involves 16 parcels between Celina and Prosper.
But there are some bumps in the road. Two offers made by the County to landowners were recently rejected. Both parcels of land were purchased in 2017, by companies titled “Tollway Celina 45 Partners, LLC” and “CADG Celina Outer Loop, LLC.”
In a recently filed Commissioner’s Court Order, the County points out that it can use eminent domain “if purchase negotiations are unsuccessful.”
“We haven’t filed this case, but we’re prepared to,” said Collin County Judge Keith Self. “Everybody knows all we’re doing is determining what we’re going to pay for this land. We’re not taking anybody’s house, we’re not taking anybody’s business. We’re buying land and that’s what this whole process is about.”
Self said that none of the land that the County plans to acquire for this section of the Outer Loop contains any structures – it is simply farmland.
Farmland was much of what you would see in Celina in the past. Now, that farmland is right alongside new construction homes and subdivisions. Self said the goal is to get the right-of-ways acquired preemptively so that structures are not affected in the future.
A portion of the Outer Loop service road is already complete in between Anna and Melissa, running from Highway 75 to Highway 121. Self said they hope to start construction on the service road between Prosper and Celina in the next two years. For Celina native and landowner Rex Glendenning, who reached an agreement with the County for 13 parcels of his land, it is forward-thinking at its finest.
“It’s going to be an attribute to the County,” Glendenning said. “If we don’t earmark those right-of-ways and get those roads under construction, it will be a nightmare.” Currently, the only east-west route in Collin County is U.S. Highway 380, which has an estimated 50,000 cars on it every single day.
Source: Watch the video on NBCDFW