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Texas
Light-Rail Project a Return to Region's Roots for Dallas Suburbs
Launched in summer 2006 thanks to a $700 million Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant, construction of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) light-rail system's $1.8 billion, 28-mile, multi-branch Green Line from downtown Dallas north to Farmers Branch and Carrollton will return the area's car-ruled suburbs to their mixed-use, streetcar and railroad roots, with Dallas Morning News writer Steve Brown finding Farmers Branch and Carrollton leaders and builders already at work on plans for transit-oriented development around old rail stations.
''We really don't have a downtown like most towns. So this is our chance to do that with some urban-style living and shopping facilities,'' said Farmers Branch City Manager Gary Greer about a plan for apartments, townhouses and some ground-floor retail and offices on about 20 acres near light rail.
Both he and Icon Partners President Paris Rutherford, whose firm is readying the development, expect its first phase to be ''in full swing'' next spring and completed before the light rail trains arrive in December 2010.
Carrollton officials, the writer reports, have chosen Trammell Crow Co.'s subsidiary High Street Residential to coordinate development near their three stations, expecting some $1 billion in tax revenue from already proposed projects.
''We are extraordinarily lucky to have three stations,'' said Carrollton transit-oriented development manager Peter Braster. ''Carrollton was there originally because it's where three rail lines joined.''
As DART doubles its light-rail network to 90 miles and ridership to some 120,000 weekday passenger trips by 2013, cities will vie for construction around ''a bunch of new stations,'' observed Carrollton economic development director Brad Mink, not sure if there is ''enough development and capital'' to make all projects successful.
''The aggressive cities,'' he predicted, ''and the ones putting it together properly will do fine.'' -- Dallas Morning News 6/6/2008
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