It took 35 years for Jerry and Ollene Shaffer to build their home and what surrounds it in Wylie.
"It's a labor of love… as you might imagine," Mr. Shaffer said.
And sitting in a Dallas high-rise is John Crew, the CEO of Texas Turnpike Corporation. He had to build, too.
"We're the white knights -- use us, we're here to help. But I don't want to go someplace where people don't want us," Crew said.
And that's precisely what happened. Crew runs the private company with eminent domain ability that wanted to bring a toll road from Garland to Greenville. The projected $750-million toll road would have stretched 27 miles and, according to Crew, been the answer for infrastructure needs in the northeastern portions of North Texas.
The North Texas Council of Governments decided against recommending the project to the Transportation Council last month.
"It is a great idea," Crew said. "The problem is, the people don't believe it."
People like Jerry Shaffer and his wife are trying to protect an investment.
"It's our home," he said. "It's not the grandest in the world, but it's our home."
Crew was doing the same thing. He invested three years' worth of planning, studying, and spending $5 million.
"There was this, 'Oh, you're just a greedy corporation!' Well, America is made up of corporations. We're all capitalists," Crew said.
John's idea was not a popular one in areas where proposed routes touched. In September, the North Central Texas Council of Governments held a public meeting about plans for the Northeast Gateway Project, and nearly 1,300 concerned citizens showed up for it.
"This is the really nice story about how the little guy won one against the bullies," Jerry Shaffer said.
Crew said he's not a bully and not a bad guy. He said he's a guy with a solution when public money is hard to come by.
"When you really ask for change, it's frightening to people," Crew said.
He said he has no regrets taking a risk on the project. Crew said a lot of the "groundwork" has already been done, in case communities want to explore options for a toll road in the future.
Crew also says he's been in works with a community in South Texas as well as TxDOT for potential future infrastructure.
