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Urban economist urges county to halt planning for proposed No East Loop, says growth forecasts don't justify it
Summary
Dr. Adam Purdue, an urban and real-estate economist who lives in Brazos County, urged the commissioners to stop spending design money on a proposed No East Loop, arguing that regional forecasts do not support the road and that it would harm eastern rural areas.
Dr. Adam Purdue, who identified himself as an urban and real-estate economist and a Brazos County resident, told the commissioners the proposed No East Loop would not be justified by population and employment forecasts and would damage rural eastern Brazos County without delivering travel-time benefits.
"The growth is just not there to support it," Purdue said, citing regional Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) forecasts that concentrate population and employment south of State Highway 30 and U.S. 159 rather than in eastern Brazos County. He said the primary local growth driver, Texas A&M University, has paused enrollment increases and that MPO forecasts do not show the kind of expansion that would make the loop necessary.
Purdue argued that loops and bypasses reduce local activity where development follows the highway, rather than creating growth for the interior towns. "Roads do not cause economic development," he told the court, adding that, in his view, the county was spending about $13,000,000 on design work for what he called a "road to nowhere." He said the loop would primarily remove rural land and not reduce travel times to College Station or Bryan.
Purdue said he would support the loop only if forecasts showed demand that justified it. His remarks were part of the public-comment period; commissioners did not act on the topic at the meeting.
The county has included the No East Loop in long-range planning discussions; Purdue asked commissioners to reconsider moving design dollars forward until the MPO and other population projections support the project.
