By Brian Montini, Mayor, Town of Northlake
As a mayor in one of the fastest-growing regions in Texas, I, and our entire council, see the urgent need for road improvements every single day. We have families that need to get places on time, and hate sitting in traffic. Our residents expect better mobility and infrastructure that keeps pace with our growth. But too often, those priorities are left waiting. Not because the city drags its feet, but because the processes that must happen do not happen as fast as we would like.
In December of 2019, TxDOT and Denton County said, “If you want 407 built, sign an agreement with the town of Justin regarding a route.” The town of Northlake took quick action. On January 2, 2020, Mayor David Rettig, myself as Mayor Pro Tem and Councilor Rena Hardeman met to discuss alignments of FM 407 and FM 1171 with the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem of Justin. After an hour-and-a-half discussion, we came to an agreement supporting the technical alignments of both roadways. We took quick action at the council meeting on January 23, 2020, Resolution 20-3, Item M. approving this agreed upon route and signing the agreement. Two councilors voted against this, Rena Hardeman and Jimmy Lambert.
Four days later, on January 27th, the City of Justin held their meeting. During the Public Input section of the meeting, six residents from 12th Street in Justin came to speak about their concerns as they would be affected by the project. Other residents of Justin also came to speak. The next to the last speaker was Rena Hardeman, who had just voted four days prior in Northlake against this alignment. When she addressed the City of Justin council, she did not speak in favor of the alignment even though the Town of Northlake did pass the resolution. I believe that she was much more concerned about the few residents in Justin that she was not elected to represent than the many residents of Northlake that she was elected to represent. While I feel for these residents in Justin, we are elected to represent our residents, not those in the next town over. This action was a major, destructive blow to the transportation plans in our region. TxDOT saw that we could not get the votes on something so critical to our region that had been previously agreed upon, so they went about working on other projects in the state.
In 2022, in conjunction with our county leadership, I spearheaded conversations with then Mayor Bryan Livingston of Argyle and Mayor Rettig of Northlake and worked on a “Breakout project” for our short section of 407 at 35W. With the help of Judge Andy Eads and Commissioner Dianne Edmondson, we worked to figure out a fix that would fast-track a smaller project that we could get local funding for. This became known as the 407 Breakout project which would expand 407 from Cleveland Gibbs Road in Northlake to Gateway Drive in Argyle, allowing five lanes of traffic under the intersection of 35W and up to six lanes with additional turn lanes around our commercial areas. Planning for this commenced, and our county leadership went about finding the funding for this critical project.
With that said, the 407 Breakout project is now fully funded thanks to our local leaders such as Judge Andy Eads, Commissioner Dianne Edmondson and more. However, TxDOT is holding funding in a future year’s budget due to recent right-of-way acquisition delays that TxDOT only recently shared with us in April 2025.
Hillwood was originally a cooperating member of this project, and they told us, the county and TxDOT that they would happily help with the right of way for this critical project. TxDOT then planned a short 3-month window for right-of-way (ROW) acquisition. Unfortunately, something at Hillwood changed and they contested the ROW which took about 15 months to complete.
During this same time frame, TxDOT first cut districts’ consultant budgets, but we were okay because the county funded the engineering and planning services. Then they cut districts’ ROW budgets, but we were okay because our ROW was purchased. However, that cut in ROW funding also reduced funding for utility relocation. Fortunately we are still okay there because most of the utilities are not compensable.
What had hurt us is the one-year delay that we experienced. It pushed the schedule out from FY25 to initially FY26. Then TxDOT implemented “Level Let” requirements. FY26 was over programmed by $3 billion, so TxDOT District had no choice but to show the project in FY 27. And because of the year delay in ROW and then utilities being pushed out a year… gives TxDOT the reason to list this job in an out year.
Since that time, many council members and I have had over 100 conversations with state reps, state senators and our local and county government officials. This delay was never projected, nor expected. Knowing that this would be detrimental to an already delayed project, I looked for ways to get action and attention regarding these delays to improve the outlook.
TxDOT was just getting started on these relocations and that is where I found a path to accelerate the timeline. I started meeting with utility companies Atmos and CoServ directly, and Upper Trinity Water District indirectly. I stressed to their leadership that this project is critical to the safety of motorists through the corridor. We have successfully helped them accelerate their meetings and plans to make up at least several months in the schedule. My aim is to continue with this pressure and cooperation with our utilities to advance the schedule as much as possible. This, along with additional actions by the county leadership in funding classifications, will help TxDOT potentially advance their schedule and move forward with our project. I would like to thank Judge Eads and Commissioner Edmonson for their persistent support in this effort.
The entire council and I face the traffic pains that you face daily. It frustrates us so much that so many must sit in this traffic, wasting their time. We are all committed to pulling every lever, talking to anyone who will listen, and trying to find any solution possible to speed up this project to help our residents and all that pass through our town.
There are a few creative solutions being considered for interim help and if TxDOT agrees these incremental improvements, I will share those updates if and when they are approved. Our county leaders and the Northlake Town Council know how much we need this project. We are blessed to have county leadership that works very well with us and wants our area to thrive. Together, we will do everything possible to get this moving as quickly as possible.
