With thousands of new homes and commercial projects planned in Willis ISD’s boundaries, residents at an Aug. 12 town hall said FM 1097 is already overwhelmed.
However, officials with the Texas Department of Transportation said there is still no widening project currently funded and that large-scale fixes typically take about a decade to install.
“Willis is a case study of unprepared work,” City Manager Sheyi Ipaye said at the town hall. “We are not prepared for this [much] traffic to come in ... and it shows.”
The gist
Residents tied congestion to development in Moran Ranch and the feeder road, which they said will worsen once new homes and subdivisions are fully built out.
Residents described long backups near the H-E-B shopping center and along the I-45 feeder, saying queues on FM 1097 already stretch back toward the freeway and make it difficult to turn into older neighborhoods and new RV parks.
Others pointed to a lack of dedicated turn lanes on FM 1097 East and drivers speeding 20-30 mph over the limit, expressing concern that congestion and safety issues will escalate as more businesses and homes open.
What TxDOT is saying
TxDOT Engineer Abraham Guzman said he would ask TxDOT to study retiming and interconnecting traffic signals along FM 1097, though he noted any changes would still take weeks or months to move through TxDOT’s review process.
Guzman also said the state is reviewing several options for a future railroad overpass on FM 1097, but that any design is still preliminary and unfunded.
“We have nothing planned on [FM] 1097. There’s no plan,” Guzman said at the town hall, adding that even if the state chose a preferred design today, it would be at least 10 years before the construction would begin because of environmental reviews, right-of-way acquisition and public meetings.
Diving in deeper
Members of WISD’s long-range planning committee said demographers anticipate the district to double in size by around 2030, with about 33,000 additional homes projected in the next six to eight years.
Residents asked whether those projections are being factored into traffic planning for FM 1097, which Guzman said he did not yet know but will follow up with TxDOT’s planning staff.
Also of note
Ipaye said Willis has a comprehensive plan, but has historically lacked the funding to build major road projects.
“Because Willis was neglected for a long time, and there was no money ... many of those plans are not put into operations,” he said at the town hall.
However, Ipaye said the city is trying to avoid raising property tax rates or taking on new debt. Instead, he said the city is paying cash to rebuild about six to seven streets per year—such as Longstreet Road, Gerald Street, Janet Street, Willow Drive,, Reese Street and Cude Cemetery Road—while depending on TxDOT and Montgomery County for large-scale work on FM 1097 and I-45.
Looking ahead
City officials said they plan to hold quarterly community meetings on traffic and invite TXDOT officials back to provide updates and hear resident feedback.
