Rumors of a James River Freeway ‘loop’ surface in Greene County (2024)

In an effort to dispel rumors around an unfunded feasibility study that would explore the possibility of a new highway corridor, the Greene County Commission addressed a standing room only crowd of more than 300 people at Willard First Baptist Church on Thursday, Aug. 8.

The meeting was largely prompted by a blog post illustrating an imprecise outline of a potential James River Freeway “loop,” extending the highway from Interstate 44 across the northern part of the Greene County, a project the Missouri Department of Transportation believes could “increase economic growth and improve safety.”

Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon says the county government has not identified any potential route for the corridor and that study was just that — a study, and that no such highway may ever come to fruition. Dixon says part of the Greene County Commission’s job is to be visionary.

“I just want to make it very, very clear, and I thought doing it face to face would be best, there is no map that the county has produced,” Dixon said, flanked by associate commissioners John C. Russell and Rusty MacLachlan and state Rep. Bill Owen. “The county has not made a map. That map was actually made by the blogger.”

Map included in blog post based on commissioner’s ‘sketch’

While unofficial and inaccurate, the map was based on a “sketch” MacLachlan made. He said the sketch was done in his personal capacity. MacLachlan hypothesized where a potential James River Freeway extension could go, and later shared his guesswork with the blogger. Dixon and MacLachlan did not identify the blogger, though the post at issue appears to be on the “Love My Springfield Missouri” Facebook group.

MacLachlan said he denied the blogger’s request to photograph his map, reiterating that it was just a “random drawing” and he feared it could “cause an uproar.”

“He, true to his word, did not take a picture of that map,” MacLachlan said. “But he drew one, and he drew one as if it was mine, and he threw that out there. And then two people ran with it, and then they stirred up all this commotion and concern and for that, I sincerely apologize.”

Dixon was criticized for “throwing the blogger under the bus,” for which he also apologized, while MacLachlan was accused of being “irresponsible” for showing the blogger his sketch of the potential highway corridor in the first place.

In response to concerns that the county commission has not been forthcoming about the feasibility study, Dixon said it has been “talked about in a lot of places” — both individual conversations and public meetings — and that MacLachlan’s willingness to meet with the blogger was evident of his openness on the matter.

Study among MoDOT’s unfunded priorities

Dixon said the idea of the “so-called ‘proposed highway’” was brought to the commission several years ago by citizens “who wanted us to invest more in infrastructure and planning in this part of the county.”

With Rep. Owen’s effort in the Missouri General Assembly, the county commission has twice failed to secure funding in the state budget for the feasibility study, which Dixon stressed would not be funded by the county government.

The study is listed among MoDOT’s Tier 1 Unfunded Road and Bridge Needs. Estimated to cost $1.5 million, the scope includes a search for a suitable corridor and an environmental study.

Many in the audience on Aug. 8 were unsatisfied by Dixon’s explanation, and the atmosphere grew contentious. Residents from across Greene County, including many farmers, expressed concern over how the potential highway could impact their livelihoods and the earning potential for their children and grandchildren.

MacLachlan suggested that the best way to protect farmland would be to consider long-term transportation needs alongside the Greene County’s land use plan, which is in the process of being updated.

“Where is the good farmland? Where is the land that we want to run cattle on? Where do we need to most protect, but then also deal with transportation? Does this road need to loop way out past Ash Grove? Does it need to go up into Polk County? I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m not an engineer, and I can’t figure that out,” MacLachlan said.

“But if we take money that typically goes to Kansas City or St. Louis — and recently Columbia — and say, ‘Why don’t you send some of it our way so we can look at how things might look in the next 30 to 40 years?’ then that opens the door for conversations, and it helps us to make decisions that have long, lasting impacts.”

Dixon emphasized that a feasibility study would merely start a public input process involving MoDOT, the Ozarks Transportation Organization and the Southwest Missouri Council of Governments.

“If I went over to my neighbor’s house because I needed to talk to them, and they got mad at me for ringing the doorbell because I hadn’t talked to him first, I would be a little bit confused, because I’m supposed to ring the doorbell before I have a conversation,” Dixon said. “We simply rang the doorbell in Jefferson City. That starts the discussion process.”

Commission opposed to eminent domain

Dixon also sought to ease concerns that the county government could enact eminent domain to make way for a potential highway, promising the current three-member commission would not take such action and urging residents to get involved in the political process to dissuade future commissioners from using eminent domain.

MacLachlan added that the commission “would never entertain the idea of putting a highway through a century farm.”

Under a Missouri law signed while Gov. Matt Blunt was in office, active farmland cannot be blighted for the purposes of condemning it for eminent domain acquisition.

Attendees further inquired over who brought the idea of a western and northern James River Freeway corridor to the county commission, why they were unaware the county sought funding for the study and whether the $1.5 million could be better spent elsewhere. Some suggested ways the county could improve communication with the public, particularly regarding the future of the feasibility study, and others ardently urged the commission to take into account the concerns of farmers in northern Greene County.

“These issues — all of these issues are things we want to hear about,” Dixon said. “But with the transportation stuff, it gets a little bit sticky and confusing, because we’ve got to follow that process that they put in the law if you use those other monies. So we want public input, and that’s why we’re going to do that. I wanted to get out here and just try to dispel the Facebook mirage that’s going on.”

While Dixon largely downplayed the immediacy of any studies or highway projects, he stressed the need for the commission to look well into the future, pointing to the decades of planning that went into the Kansas Expressway extension, the original stretch of James River Freeway and the formation of the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks.

“We have to be visionaries,” Dixon said. “We have to think about what we need now, what we need five years from now, what we need 30 years from now, or we, the three of us, are not doing our jobs. It may not be popular, but that’s not why we’ve offered to serve. But we will make sure everyone is included, every voice is heard in any decision.”