PROSPER — Residents and town officials here have said they don’t want a freeway cutting through a corner of their small but growing Collin County suburb.

And they want the Texas Department of Transportation to take their concerns seriously. Town leaders passed a resolution Monday night “strongly opposing” plans that could put a potential high-speed bypass near residents’ homes and through a planned high-end residential neighborhood.

“It’s pretty clear that we don’t feel like anybody’s listening to us,” Prosper Mayor Ray Smith said. “Right now, we feel like we’re the chihuahua in the room biting on everybody’s ankles.

The resolution also states Prosper’s opposition to any route that does not keep the freeway on existing U.S. Highway 380. Town staff will now stop coordinating with TxDOT and other entities to preserve rights of way for the possible expansion of existing U.S. 380 into a freeway while the bypass route through Prosper exists.

“I have no intent to deal with TxDOT if they’re going to have this Option B,” council member Michael Korbuly said of the proposed western freeway route through Prosper as residents in the standing-room-only meeting cheered and applauded.

On Friday, TxDOT sent a letter to Collin County Judge Keith Self and eight Collin County mayors asking the cities and county to hold off on passing any resolutions about the proposed routes to U.S. 380 until the state had met with each city and the county.

But by then, Smith said, the town had already made a commitment to residents to consider the resolution.

Prosper resident Ben Pruett addressed the council as residents crowded into Prosper Town Hall to oppose an option for a U.S. Highway 380 bypass. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)

The proposed highway meant to relieve traffic jams in fast-growing Collin County has been controversial from the outset. Proposals about where to build have stirred the emotions of stakeholders, pitting city against city and neighborhood against neighborhood as the answer to what — if anything — will be done to improve U.S. Highway 380 hangs in limbo.

This month, TxDOT unveiled two revised alignments as part of its feasibility study to improve U.S. 380. Neither offers everyone the chance to walk away unscathed.

One runs along the existing highway and would displace or affect hundreds of businesses. The other bypasses U.S. 380 to the north and would destroy or put a freeway next to dozens of homes.

But there's now has another alternative bypass proposal, one that would push the highway west of Custer Road. Under that scenario, the freeway would run through or near rural property owners' land, neighborhoods and a corner of Prosper. But the plan would spare homeowners in McKinney's Tucker Hill neighborhood along U.S. 380.

The west-of-Custer option caught Prosper residents off-guard.

Previously, TxDOT's draft proposals to relieve congestion on U.S. 380 had little bearing on Prosper. Town leaders explicitly stated in a resolution that they ultimately support converting U.S 380 into a freeway and, if necessary, a bypass east of Custer.

“The citizens of Prosper have been denied due process, disenfranchised and their opinions ignored,” resident Ben Pruett said Monday night.

This summer, McKinney and Collin County leaders suggested TxDOT draw up a freeway scenario west of Custer Road.

The push for an option west of Custer also came from a vocal group of McKinney residents and a developer of the Tucker Hill neighborhood trying to keep a potential freeway from encroaching on the neighborhood.

Self, the Collin County judge, has said TxDOT should consider every possible option. During a Commissioners Court meeting in May, he asked a TxDOT official to map a route west of Custer Road.

"They bowed to political pressure from the Prosper City Council and left something out," he has said about TxDOT's original proposed alignments. "I asked them to follow their own policies and consider the option."

Self, who lives in Tucker Hill, said Monday that his personal stake in the route didn’t influence his request to TxDOT to consider an option through Prosper. He also said Monday he’s “not sure it’s the best one.”

He said the Commissioners Court likely will support TxDOT’s decision — whatever that is.

Prosper residents Marcia and Donald Isch talk about the 380 bypass proposal while they look at a map as residents crowd into Prosper Town Hall to oppose an option for a U.S. Highway 380 bypass from the Texas Department of Transportation on Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)

Self has said the freeway is a top priority. Collin County’s population is projected to balloon more than threefold in the next few decades to more than 3 million residents. Money for the highway is included in the county's $750 million bond package on the November ballot.

Commissioner Duncan Webb, who represents the county on the Regional Transportation Council, said the location of the route is secondary.

“I don’t care how it gets across the county, but it needs to occur,” Webb said. “How McKinney gets it across the city is up to them. I’m not pushing an alignment. I’m pushing the improvement.”

Monday night, McKinney City Council members had a chance to ask TxDOT about options through their city. The council hasn’t yet passed a resolution with an official stance on U.S. 380.

The route closest to the current configuration is preferred by many in the city, but to add right of way in tight places and go below grade in some areas to accommodate a freeway makes the option $170 million to $270 million more expensive than two northern possibilities.

This map shows the two revised alignments proposed by TxDOT to improve U.S. Highway 380. (Laurie Joseph / Staff Graphic)

Stephen Endres of TxDOT said the $916 million projected cost for the more direct route through the city was not outrageous.

“All three are viable. ... None of these numbers eliminate an alignment,” he said.

Within the next few months, the McKinney council will be asked to state a preferred route — balancing the impact to homes along the bypass scenarios vs. established businesses and some neighborhoods on the current route.

It would be some 10 to 15 years before any new freeways were open.

“The problem I have with TxDOT is that y’all are always behind. Everything you do is reactive,” said council member Rainey Rogers. “This stuff should have been laid out years ago.”

Council member Chuck Branch extended some of the blame to the Regional Transportation Council, which allots money and directs TxDOT projects. Endres acknowledged that U.S. 380 is not in the RTC’s Mobility 2045 plan.

“There’s no dedicated funding for constructing this,” Endres said. “Hopefully in 10 years, we’ll have one section open. It’s hard to worry about that stuff now. Let’s get to the alignment.”