When the city of Colleyville’s new five-year Capital Improvement Plan emerges in September, residents will see Glade Road phases 3 and 4 are no longer in the city’s short-term plans.

At the June 6 City Council meeting, members unanimously passed a resolution that eliminates phases 3 and 4—from Pool Road to Heritage Avenue and from River Bend Drive to Bransford Road, respectively—from a design contract.

Under the current five-year CIP, Phase 3 was set to begin construction in 2019, and Phase 4 was to begin in 2023. Phase 3 plans consist of reconstructing the road to include left-turn lanes as well as an additional westbound lane from Heritage to Roberts Road. Phase 4 plans include new pavement and new left-turn lanes. Both phases include a trail on the north side of the road and a sidewalk on the south.

Mayor Richard Newton said the decision to halt all activity pertaining to Glade’s phases 3 and 4 was made so the city could focus on other transportation projects. He said phases 3 and 4 do not seem necessary at this time, especially when taking into account the amount of money it would take for road reconstruction.

“I always said from day one I think that’s too much money—the whole project was estimated to be $21 million or $22 million,” he said. “I don’t really want to spend that much money on the whole thing. We still have other
priorities.”

Newton said in his opinion, Phase 1, which runs from Bransford to Manning Drive, and Phase 2, which runs from Manning to Pool, are the parts of Glade that need to be fixed.

“Phase 1 and 2 is where the real problems are, and those are going to be completely resolved,” he said. “And for Phase 3, if we could get the Roberts Road intersection fixed, then that would be good because that’s the only issue—the rest of Phase 3 is in pretty good shape.”

The reconstruction of Roberts from Glade to the Grapevine city limits remains in the CIP for a 2018 project, and Newton said the city is looking to potentially combine the intersection work with that project.

2015 election

To address Glade’s increasing traffic, City Council began exploring ways to improve safety and capacity issues in 2012, and in 2014 city staff created a preliminary plan of potential
improvements.

City Council and a group of residents began to clash over the road as more details on the project began to arise through a series of public forums and meetings that were held in 2013-14.

On Oct. 6, 2014, a group of residents led by Bobby Lindamood, who is now a council member, and Elizabeth Zeitlin submitted a petition that contained a resolution that, if passed, would give residents more control over the project.

If passed, the resolution, which was voted on by residents in a May 2015 election, would have allowed the city to reconstruct Glade, but only after getting approval from residents who live nearby before doing any work, such as adding turn lanes and roundabouts.

The resolution failed with 2,908 votes against it and 2,320 votes in favor.

Why the delay?

Most of the council members said the decision to delay phases 3 and 4 of Glade is based on funding and project need.

Council Member George Dodson, who was elected in May, said it was an economically smart decision to remove phases 3 and 4 from the contract.

“I’m perfectly fine with the way things ended up,” he said. “We canceled it because it just didn’t make sense to have them go ahead and design it when it’s going to take a good deal of time, and other things are going to happen [to the road] between now and the future when [Phase 3 and 4] happens. We would have to pay again for engineers to redesign it again.”

Council Member Tammy Nakamura said it is not a matter of politics but a matter of economic feasibility.

“Everyone knows Glade Road has to be fixed,” she said. “That should never be a question. It’s just that I feel we should not spend all of our [Tax Increment Financing district] money on one road. We don’t have a lot of money in our TIF fund, and I feel like we should get as many roads fixed as possible. Phases 3 and 4 are not a top priority in Colleyville.”

Council Member Mike Taylor, however, said he has an issue with deferring the Glade projects because he said he thinks the decision fails to honor the results of the May 2015 election.

Taylor said by residents voting down the resolution, it let the council know that a majority of residents approved of the scope of the project, which was to reconstruct the road from the western city limits to Heritage within the next 10 years.

“The ballot box was used, which to me is the highest authority in the city, and when you ask the citizens [for direction] I think you should honor that,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he believes the decision to delay the last phases of the project is politically motivated.

Although Taylor voted in favor to eliminate phases 3 and 4 from the contract, he said he did so only because the rest of the council was in favor.

During the May 2016 election, Lindamood, Newton and Nakamura ran for council, and all three won their races by wide margins against incumbents.

During their campaigns Nakamura, Lindamood and Newton promised to seek citizen feedback on practical alternatives to improve Glade without using eminent domain.

“You have a council majority that ran their campaigns on not building these [Glade Road projects], so as I understand from them they said they are sticking to their campaign promises,” Taylor said. “Since they had promised people they would not build [Glade] at that cost and to that extent, they set out to change it and make it cheaper. They feel like their election [to council] negates the [Glade election].”

What’s next for Glade?

On Aug. 18, Phase 1A, which runs from Bransford to SH 26, will open to traffic. However, it will be October before the phase is complete, Public Works Director Jeremy Hutt said.

Hutt said Phase 1B, which runs from SH 26 to Manning, may not begin as soon as Phase 1A is finished because the city is still in the process of acquiring right of way. Additionally, Hutt said council is considering extending Phase 1B into Phase 2.

“We are still acquiring right of way for Phase 1B, and we will begin the process of acquiring right of way for Phase 2 later this year,” he said. “It will probably be next year before Phase 2 gets underway.”

Hutt said he believes the entire Glade project will eventually be completed—just not anytime soon.

Hutt said the city can continue to maintain the street in its current configuration because the stretches of road in phases 3 and 4 does not currently pose a safety threat.

“I think what’s important to realize is there are so many projects that need to get done between all the streets in Colleyville and all the other potential projects out there like Cheek-Sparger [Road], L.D. Lockett [Road] are just as important—it’s just a matter of you can only do so many projects each year, and when you plan out five years they can’t all fit,” he said.