Regional transportation officials agreed Friday to further study of a highway proposal in Fort Bend and Waller counties that has broad support, while alarming some who worry it could harm the Katy Prairie and affect storm protection from flooding.

The Houston-Galveston Area Council Transportation Policy Council approved a $2 million plan to have the Texas Department of Transportation prepare a draft environmental report of the so-called 36A highway project.

The transportation council in 2014 approved $2 million for a feasibility study of the route, which led to the decision to proceed.

Officials in Fort Bend and Waller counties and business leaders have lobbied for a new highway from U.S. 90A in Rosenberg to the U.S. 290 interchange with Texas 6 in Hempstead. In addition to being a possible freight route, officials touted the highway as a potential hurricane evacuation route that would avoid traveling through downtown Houston via Texas 288.

The route would connect Rosenberg, Brookshire and newly-developed areas between Interstate 10 and U.S. 290.

“This is one of the fastest growing parts of our area,” said Alan Clark, director of transportation planning for H-GAC.

Clark said a $400 million project is already planned to widen Texas 36 from Freeport to Interstate 69, formerly U.S. 59.

More than 600,000 people are expected to live along the corridor in Waller, Fort Bend and Brazoria counties, most of those in Fort Bend County.

That rapid growth, however, has worried supporters of the Katy Prairie and opponents to unfettered growth in rural areas around Houston. It is critical to consider how loss of prairie habitat will affect the region, as officials grapple with traffic congestion, said Mary Anne Piacentini, executive director of the Katy Prairie Conservancy, which maintains about 20,000 acres of land on the Houston area's western side.

“There are ways to meet mobility needs that don’t have to destroy the natural areas that are there,” Piacentini told transportation officials.

She urged officials to consider other ongoing studies and the benefits of the prairie appropriately in a new 36A highway discussion.

“I think we need to look at what’s the difference between expanding a road that is already there and building a whole new road,” Piacentini said.

Clark said the study could conclude no road is needed, or existing roads could be incorporated into a better system. The study, he said, would then be another step in a much longer process where officials would have to consider the demand and then add the project to the region’s long-term transportation plans.

Timing, however, is important, he said, in determining some of the options.

“In five to ten years, I don’t know there will be a reasonable alignment that could be acquired without significant purchase of developed properties,” Clark said.