re: Proposed and Conceptual Interstate Corridors in Louisiana

They decrease around an interstate except for when they're directly adjacent to an exit. That's where the politicking and land-snatching comes in. For the BR loop, they tried to use far wider than normal right of ways to confiscate additional land. They then controlled where the exits would be so that the additional right of way could be re-sold to connected developers for pennies on the dollar in exchange for a kickback while the local citizens get the boot, watching their old homesteads get turned into gas stations and Burger Kings.

To make it even more economical, the parish tried to change the zoning of the areas where the loop was going to go by leveling so many regulations that using them for the purposes of building anything or remodeling was impossible, devaluating the land so eminent domain would be cheaper. The zoning would then magically get changed once the transfer of land was completed to the developer.