Collin County's planned Outer Loop segment between State Highway 121 and U.S. 380 is headed back to the drawing board, after county staff learned two of its candidate routes would cut through a federally overseen wetland mitigation bank.
Commissioners on Monday, Nov. 9, are scheduled to consider Amendment No. 1 to the county's engineering contract with HDR Engineering, Inc. for the segment, known as Segment 5. The change would add $982,008.50 so the firm can study more alignments and prepare a local environmental document, according to a Nov. 2 memo from Assistant Director of Engineering Tracy Homfeld.
What changed
The county has held two public meetings on route choices: a virtual meeting from Nov. 13 to Dec. 15, 2025, which drew more than 300 comments, and in-person sessions June 3 and 4, which drew more than 240, according to a staff presentation in the court packet. Comments centered on cost, eminent domain, property effects and agriculture.
A comment at the June meetings pointed staff to the Arnold Creek Mitigation Bank, which includes the Lone Oak and Indian Creek tracts. The presentation lists the remaining alignments' effects on the bank at 22.5 acres for the Dark Blue route, identified as technically preferred in 2007, 22.4 acres for Pink and 61.9 acres for Green. An Orange route was dropped after the second meeting.
Blue Ridge passed a resolution opposing Green over its effects on Blue Ridge School and a wastewater plant, and Farmersville opposed Green and Orange as redundant with SH 78.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended avoiding the bank, the presentation says. A route through it would need an individual federal permit, which staff warned could hold up right-of-way purchases for three years or more and could still be denied. Staff put the possible cost of offsetting the bank effects at about $9 million to $30.5 million.
