Across America, people are searching for places with the warmth and feel towns had a hundred years ago. People want places that are vibrant and diverse – where they can live, walk to a park, stores, restaurants and visit with friends along the way. Fortunately, there is a special place like this nearby – Historic Downtown Plano. Once sleepy and nearly forgotten, downtown Plano has reawakened and offers unique shops, galleries, restaurants and two community theaters. Haggard Park, the center of downtown, is a great place for a concert, picnic or romantic stroll. Nearly 500 urban apartments and 40,000 square feet of non-residential space have been built downtown.
Lexington Luxury Builders now has more than 100 for-sale townhouses and condominiums under construction at Lexington Park at Rice Field, a human scale new urban neighborhood in the Downtown Transit Village.
The catalyst for downtown’s transformation was the opening of Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) light rail service in December 2002. DART has made downtown Plano more accessible and visible to the region. During peak service hours, trains arrive and depart at 4-minute intervals. The run from downtown Plano to downtown Dallas takes approximately 35 minutes. With approximately 1,000 daily trips, the downtown station is very successful. Like DART stops at the Dallas Zoo, Southside at Lamar, the West End, and Mockingbird Station, downtown Plano is a destination station that attracts leisure-time riders who come to shop, eat and enjoy cultural attractions. In the mid-1990s, the City of Plano prepared a strategy to maximize DART’s potential benefits. Each station’s development opportunities vary due to their service demands and area context. The Red Line, serving Plano, comes north from Dallas within what was once railroad right-of-way. This heavily developed commercial/industrial corridor has limited opportunities for new development immediately surrounding DART stations.
Some stations have large parking lots and bus transfer bays to serve commuters which typically separate the platform from potential development sites. Other stations, such as downtown Plano’s, have little or no parking and rely on shuttle service, drop-off and pedestrian traffic. These stations often present the best development opportunities. After examining the alternatives, Plano chose to create a transit village through urban infill mixed-use development based on the principles of transit-oriented development TOD.
Download a PDF of A Vision and Stategy For Creating A Transit Village, published by the City of Plano Planning Department.
