Here’s a peek of things that may be to come, courtesy of Dallas.
The A-train commuter railway is more than a year away from rolling into Lewisville, but plans are already in the works for the city’s first transit-oriented development.
Hebron 121 Station will be part of a 427-acre city reinvestment zone on the northeast corner of Interstate 35E and the State Highway 121 bypass. The developer is describing it as the largest transit-oriented development in Texas. Huffines Communities Inc. is the primary developer of the project.
“Most [transit-oriented developments] are in more urbanized areas and are on smaller properties,” said Elizabeth Trosper, economic development specialist for Lewisville. The city will pay for infrastructure improvements on the vacant land through a 30-year tax-increment financing plan.
“We don’t know of any other projects of this size and scope,” said Phillip Huffines, co-owner of the Dallas company that is also developing a mixed-use community in Arlington.
Now imagine the possibilities for Houston and the places that its proposed commuter rail may eventually go. Pretty exciting, isn’t it? Greg has more, including a picture of the area to be developed.
It’s not just commuter train rail, Dallas has some really neat ideas for the downtown and outlying areas as well.
While we only have one running trolley line (http://www.mata.org/) currently running, there are plans to expand this into downtown and areas in other directions as well (http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/10/downtown-only-streetcar-system.html) and (http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/assets_c/2009/10/streetcarroute-thumb-472×652-60017.html)
Pretty cool stuff.