After much heated debate and discussion, the Texas Department of Transportation revealed its plan for easing congestion along U.S. Highway 380 through Collin County.
In McKinney, TxDOT considered several options, including what's known as the "red" bypass and a "green" option that would widen the existing highway.
At a packed public meeting Monday night, TxDOT announced it would move forward with what's known as the "red A" alignment, which includes a north bypass in McKinney that starts between an area west of Ridge Road and east of Stonebridge Road.
TxDOT's deputy district engineer explained that the agency tried to minimize impacts to homes, businesses and future development.
The option would affect fewer acres of planned development, would not go through an existing neighborhood and would not displace ManeGate Therapeutic Horsemanship -- a horse therapy center for veterans and children -- TxDOT said.
TxDOT said it might tweak the plan, but it was close to what would be built.
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"It's been an emotional roller coaster because there have been so many options that have come out," said Janet Anders -- part of a group that has opposed any bypass option.
The alignment picked by TxDOT would spare her Walnut Grove neighborhood in an unincorporated part of Collin County, but Anders said other neighbors would feel the effects of a bypass.
"Personally, I think it is one of the worst options," Anders said. "It impacts so many neighborhoods, not only in the city but also in the ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction)."
Just south of U.S. 380, in the Stonebridge Ranch community in McKinney, the community association board president wasn't happy with the "red A" plan either.
Jon Dell'Antonia said he supported the "red B" alignment, which puts a bypass well past his neighborhood.
"There is no perfect route," Dell’Antonia said. "But that one, appears to us, to be the least disruptive."
Dell'Antonia said the "red A" option comes close to the northern edge of the neighborhood, where he said he worried about traffic cutting through Stonebridge Ranch.
"It appears to us they're going to need to have a major interchange there of some sort," he said. "The traffic and the noise obviously concerns us."
It will be years before construction begins on any U.S. 380 changes. A TxDOT spokesman told NBC 5 that an environmental study would take at least four years and construction wouldn't begin for another 10.
TxDOT plans two additional meeting to prove the same information about its preferred alignment.
The next meeting is Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Princeton High School in Princeton.
The final meeting is Thursday at 6 p.m. at Rogers Middle School in Prosper.
TxDOT will present its findings for approximately 30 minutes, then staff will remain available to answer questions.
