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Texas
North Central Texas Towns Look to the Future with Land Development Plans Around Projected Fort Worth-Cleburne Commuter Rail Line
The projected commuter rail between downtown Fort Worth and Cleburne about 25 miles south has local officials preparing four cities along the way for higher-density transit-oriented development, with North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) Transportation Director Michael Morris telling them at a meeting in Burleson that they are advancing the project's funding prospects ''by annexing land, buying land, (and) zoning for transit uses.''
The first in a NCTCOG series through the nine-county Dallas-Fort Worth region, reports Cleburne Connection writer Joy E. Cressler, the meeting focused on its Mobility 2030 plan to ensure efficient multi-modal transportation for some 8.5 million people within 25 years. In related measures, the 2006-2008 Transportation Improvement Program ((TIP) has already invested about $887 million in mobility and air quality enhancements, while the ''Clean Fleet'' program encourages companies to reduce their emissions, especially from dump trucks, garbage haulers and other heavy duty vehicles.
Briefing NCTCOG officials on efforts to secure station-area land in the four cities on the future commuter-rail line -- Burleson, Crowley, Joshua and Cleburne -- Burleson Mayor Ken Shetter pointed out that his city has zoned 653 acres as its transit-oriented development district, which prompted a developer request and City Council approval for rezoning another 138 acres nearby for a planned development with 300 upscale apartments.
Envisioned by Dolce Living Development and called Shannon Creek North, the writer reports, the rental complex is expected to attract professionals ready to reduce their driving and commute to downtown Fort Worth jobs by train. The complex will include an amenity center for recreation, fitness program and social activities, an internal street network with easy pedestrian access to the station, and a public trail system and parkland.
The transit-oriented development district nearby, said Burleson Director of Planning and Community Development Clayton Husband, ''is designed to encourage the most appropriate uses of land, permit flexibility to encourage a more creative, efficient, environmentally pleasing and aesthetic design regarding the arrangement of buildings and land uses, open spaces, circulation and transportation patterns.'' And Mayor Shetter stressed, ''We're not waiting for trains to come to Burleson. We're starting our development around it.'' -- Connection 9/25/2006
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