Many residents of Flower Mound hope there is power in numbers in their fight against the expansion of a road there. They held a rally in the town Tuesday evening, to plan a strategy in their fight against the expansion of Morriss Road.
"I moved to Flower Mound because it was quiet and semi rural," said Kim Berg, who lives on a quiet street which runs into Morriss Road.
He is trying to preserve those traits. He and other residents formed a group called "Stopp Morriss 6" to fight the town's proposal to expand the road from four lanes to six.
"You see a lot of activity you don't see on six lane roads," he said of the neighborhood. "I think having a six lane road here would kill the neighborhood feel."
He isn't alone in the fight. The group's online group page has over 1,000 members. Bjorn Vandug, who lives next door to Berg, has seen cars go through his fence. It's a problem he thinks will only get worse with an expanded road.
"The more traffic coming through, I don't see how that's going to improve," he said.
The town cites two traffic studies in the past year, which show that Morriss Rd. can't handle a growing load of traffic, resulting in delays.
"They're been shown to be outside the service level the town finds acceptable," said Tiffany Bruce, Flower Mounds acting executive director of public works.
The first study was done in January of 2017. The second was completed earlier this month, finding morning and afternoon drives to be the worst.
"There are some increases in traffic in some areas, and decreases in others," said Bruce, of the two studies. "So overall it is close."
The town has also proposed two other projects on Morriss Road involving road concrete repairs and water line replacement which could be done without the expansion. Flower Mound Town Board will hold a public meeting on the project February 5.
With power in numbers it's a project Stop Morriss 6 members hope they can stop.
"It's opened a lot of people's eyes," says Berg. "We're very optimistic we'll be successful."
