The Grand Parkway stimulus

NY Times:

Over the years the Katy Prairie has survived the cattle ranchers who tamed its fields, the rice farmers who cleared its wildflowers and tall grasses, and even the encroachment of Houston, some 30 miles to the east, whose spiraling outward growth turned most of the formerly lonesome prairie into subdivisions and strip malls.

Now the prairie is facing a new threat: the federal stimulus law.

Texas plans to spend $181 million of its federal stimulus money on building a 15-mile, four-lane toll road — from Interstate 10 to Highway 290 and right through the prairie — that will eventually form part of an outer beltway around greater Houston called the Grand Parkway.

The road exemplifies an unintended effect of the stimulus law: an administration that opposes suburban sprawl is giving money to states for projects that are almost certain to exacerbate it.

A new master-planned community called Bridgeland is rising on the prairie along the proposed site of the road; once completed, the development is expected to have 21,000 new homes on 11,400 acres. Other developers are eagerly awaiting the new road so they can start building on their empty land, too.

Though the road is welcomed by developers, it is bemoaned by transportation advocates who lament that it will lead people to settle far away from the main centers of employment — locking more people into long commutes.

...

Actually this road will stimulate more than just new homes. The pattern around Houston is to develop business communities and homes together along these corridors. The Woodlands off I-45 north is a prime example and Kingwood off of Highway 59 north is another. One of the first was Clear Lake City where NASA is located. It is really unfair to suggest that people in these homes are going to be commuting to Houston, although some might chose to do so.

This road has been on the drawing boards for decades and it is going to be built at some point anyway. History has shown that this kind of activity stimulates business, jobs and growth which is what the stimulus bill was supposed to do.