Commissioners will work with the county planning board to determine needs and propositions that could potentially be placed on the Nov. 7 ballot. The election must be ordered by Aug. 21, according to meeting documents.
Collin County last called a bond election in 2018, which voters approved. The $750 million bond package funded construction and expansion of high-speed roadways, arterial roads and open space and park projects, according to Collin County’s website.
Commissioner Duncan Webb said he asked for this item to be discussed during a court meeting because the county has needs for road maintenance and court expansions. He suggested directing the planning board to identify county needs, similar to the county’s process leading up to the 2018 bond.
“Maybe this is a great job for the planning board to again do, is to start looking at our needs throughout the county both in terms of facilities and in terms of transportation infrastructure and open space,” he said.
Commissioner Darrell Hale agreed that the county needed to look at funding maintenance on roads in the north part of the county. The roads are being used by residents and construction vehicles and the county will have to partner with its cities to work on them, he said.
“There is higher than what would be normal traffic loads on the county roads,” Hale said. “They just get destroyed.”
Collin County’s Public Works department identified County Roads 398, 557, 407, 168 and 412 as potential candidates for reconstruction. The roads are major arterials that have experienced increased traffic over several years, according to a public works presentation.
In addition to those roads, the department identified several others that have been affected by development occurring nearby, including County Roads 409, 471 and 437.
County Judge Chris Hill said commissioners were looking at a "paradigm shift" since the municipal annexation process was changed by the Texas Legislature in 2017. A lot of roads that were expected to be annexed by the cities eventually and rebuilt to city standards will now have to be managed by the county.
“It’s going to take [a] significantly larger commitment of capital for us to do that and to do it well,” Hill said. “I want to see us prioritize that to make sure that we’re taking care of our responsibilities.”
Commissioner Cheryl Williams agreed that the county will need to identify its county roads that operate as thoroughfares and arterial roads for potential widening projects. She also wanted the county to consider the Collin County Animal Shelter’s needs during the process.
“Frisco just chose not to put [an] animal shelter on their bond and as our population grows so does our animal population,” she said. “We don’t have [the] capacity we need there.”
Since 2010, Collin County has grown about 36% to a population of almost 1.1 million, according to the 2020 census.
