Linda Koop: And Where Are the Promised Developments Around DART Rail Stations?

By Megan Feldman Mon., Jan. 11 2010 at 4:29 PM

Categories: News

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

This is what DART says Walnut Hill Lane and Denton Drive will look like once the Green Line gets that far into Northwest Dallas. OK ...

We attended today's meeting of the council's Transportation and Environment Committee in the hopes of finding out from DART officials where they stood on the second downtown light-rail alignment and streetcars. Instead, the only thing that jumped out was committee chair Linda Koop's concerns about the lack of development near light-trail stations. Because, if you'll recall, back in July, two University of North Texas economics profs looked into their crystal balls and guesstimated that when all was said and done, the 45-mile Green, Orange and Blue line rail expansion would generate more than $4 billion in economic activity between 2009 and 2014.

But Koop today conceded that development efforts around light-rail stations haven't exactly taken off.

"We haven't been able to capitalize at all on development around the stations -- not at all," she said. DART officials didn't have a quick answer for her concerns. That's because there's no easy fix. Look, for instance, at South Dallas, where a St. Louis developer has been called in by The Real Estate Council to evaluate potential for development along the Green Line; results aren't due till later this year. Meanwhile, as we noted in September, 220 acres of land formerly belonging to the Hunt family near the Bush Turnpike Station at U.S. 75 and the G.B.H. sits empty -- and will for a good, long while.

Which is why Koop's itching to start talking about the problem now: She's vowed to add the issue to a future agenda: "That's a good discussion for us to have, because now's the time to plan. There's not a lot of money in the coffers for development right now, even in the private sector, but now's the time to plan."

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I dont get how so many people are missing so many project that have developed since the rail lines started opening in 1996: -Lots of new housing in downtown Plano -Galatyn Park in Richardson -The now-under-construction Bricktown at Spring Valley Station -The still under-construction Park Lane development -Mockingbird Station -The West Village near City Place Station -The redevelopment of downtown Garland -The now-under-construction Lake Highlands Town Center -Southside on Lamar near Cedars Staion -The new housing and retail strip near Baylor Station How many of these projects would have been built (or at least in their pedestrian-friendly current form) if not for the adjacent rail stations?
Um, DallasM, you forgot the OTHER end of the Green Line, the one that goes from South Dallas to Pleasant Grove. Lots of cheap land and a major new artery for all those Mesquite people who don't want DART in their backyards but will drive into the 635 loop to park their cars and ride into Dallas. Obviously people who live in the "southern sector" want developments and DART sees that there are many people who need to get around out here, enough so that they are building a rail line where most developers insist that there aren't enough "rooftops" (people) to build something like a Mockingbird Station. I think the "issue" of TOD is more one about perception. I've been told countless times that there's no way we could ever have a Mockingbird Station-type TOD at the Lawnview stop along the Green Line which happens to be in a nice neighborhood about a mile east of Fair Park in South Dallas but too far east that it's considered Pleasant Grove where nobody wants to develop.
I think part of the problem with the rail lines not encouraging economic development is that in the metroplex, we have decided to build our stations in places that are largely already developed. Which isn't a bad thing, in my opinion. We built our trains to get people places. Look at the New stations coming to be Green line this fall. Victory, Mark Center, Medical District, Inwood and Denton, Love Field, Downtown Carolton. These places are already major developments. Again, building your trains to get people where they want to go is not a bad thing, but we haven't left much room for new development. We haven't chosen to build stations at places with lots of cheep land for a bunch of new Mockingbird stations.
Like some others have noted the commercial real estate collapse is just now getting underway. The magnitude of the CRE bust isn't as huge as residential but I don't think you'll see a lot of new development for a while. http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/01/fitch-us-cmbs-delinquencies-up-peak-not.html
ChevyTexas - Why don't you do a little research before you shoot your mouth off. Where "The Gay" go, can development be far behind? http://carrolltonblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/10/real-estate-agent-foresees-gay.html http://www.cityofcarrollton.com/index.aspx?page=42
Maybe Ms. Koop should check out what other cities (San Diego, Portland, Atlanta, Toronto, San Franisco, etc. etc.) have been doing in trying to implement TOD. It's an age old concept in dozens of countries, living near transportation lines. It's the reason your house is on a street, it's a reason people live within reach of a highway in Texas, it's a major reason some real estate in Tokyo, Seoul, NY, and London, is more valuable than Frisco - access to transportation options as well as other benefits of density. What is surprising is that Dallas has done so little about it and how mass transit is totally disconnected from land development.
There's a big mixed-used (though mostly residential) TOD at Spring Valley station on the red line that is nearing completion.
The problem the UNT real estate profs (they are not economic profs) is that they ignored the fact that almost every single TOD has recieved massive government subsidies. Victory, the Cityplace, and Park Lane have all recieved millions from the City of Dallas. In order for the billions of dollars of development to happen near stations, the City of Dallas has to be prepared to dole out hundreds of millions of dollar subsidies and then wait 10 years (just like Victory).
Seems that the Cityplace station might have actually had the opposite effect. As I recall, crime in the area, especially at the now-closed Loews theater, spiked after the opening of the rail station.
"Yeah...you left out - Park Lane Station Baylor Station Improvements near and around Walnut Hill Station Current developments and in-progress efforts around Cityplace Station..." I would count Park Lane, too. Yes. And I didn't count Baylor because it's not on the Red or Blue line (which is what I specifically referred to). I don't know that the others are necessarily transit-related or directly thanks to the rail line being there (especially City Place where the rail line is so far below ground). For that matter, I don't know that there wouldn't be something developed in many of the developed areas even without the rail line.
Hm, exactly what would you call 'vigorous' development in Old Downtown Carrollton? paved alleys? A giant overhead NYC-style EL? It's as useless a commercial center as it ever was, no DART positive effect. My favorite: Motor Street at Harry Hines, Medical Center on the new line: every nook and cranny of DART and private land developing. Public ROW @ Motor Street, not so much: mud, fuzzy or non-existant curbs, two lanes then one lane, then two again. Who's not developing?
Yeah, JimS, it's Obama's fault. And 9-11 was Saddam Hussein's fault. And the Kennedy assassination (in Dallas) was Castro's fault. Any other fantasies you'd like to throw our way? Oh, wait, you meant that as sarcasm. Never mind.
Carrollton has had a TOD director for years http://www.cityofcarrollton.com/index.aspx?page=1193 The development around Old Downtown Carrollton is vigorous
Why is it that Plano, Richardson, Carrollton and Irving have been successful at TOD projects and not Dallas?
At least the new customers for the cemetery on Walnut Hill can take a train.
One problem is that nobody in the region has the stomach for true TOD. The best opportunity would be downtown Dallas, but you'd have to squeeze the new second alignment in a block or maybe two from the existing one, so that people could live there and actually get around to most of the region by rail and bus. You'd need to put a good chunk of the rail downtown in tunnels so it would be fast. And then you'd have to zero out all the parking requirements in that rail corridor, so that developers could afford to go into the corridor and develop true transit-driven residential. Instead, we string weak-ass slow-running trolley lines that we call light rail all over the map as a way of promoting sprawl (which doesn't even work). The result is the big bunch of nothing that we see on the map around DART stations now -- a stark failure. But you're right, Bob. It's Obama's fault.
Yeah...you left out - Park Lane Station Baylor Station Improvements near and around Walnut Hill Station Current developments and in-progress efforts around Cityplace Station... That's just the red line I know about, I don't generally ride the blue line But yeah other than half the red line, nothing...I love how people use terms like "Transit Oriented Development" as if it's some new revolutionary concept. It's an age old concept in dozens of countries, living near transportation lines. It's the reason your house is on a street, it's a reason people live within reach of a highway in Texas, it's a major reason some real estate in Tokyo, Seoul, NY, and London, is more valuable than Frisco - access to transportation options as well as other benefits of density. The Red line has done pretty well in a relatively short history as a complete line, and the Green Line is off to a fast start. It's unreasonable to expect gaudy gains in this economy.
"Do you think that may have SOMETHING to do with the absence of new developments, including transit-oriented developments?" I was under the impression that the rail lines were older than that. I wonder what I was riding prior to the economic slowdown. DART claims the last Red Line station opened in 2002. Or are you claiming that this particular economic slowdown dates back to before that? If true transit-oriented development happens only sporadically when the economy is booming, how can the new lines be expected to generate $4 billion in new investment in these more austere times? Take a long look at the areas around the Red and Blue lines and while you can rightly point to Mockingbird Station, maybe Galatyn Park and, maybe, those downtown Plano apartments, the bulk of the stations along the line don't seem to have generated the expected economic activity, even before the economy collapsed. Personally, I think the transit-oriented development has been a bit oversold... but I still think the rail lines have been worth it, even just solely as a transit project.
I would sure like to know about that DART D2 alignment and streetcars. Wait, we're surprised that we're not building things, even months after the recession has ended? Look at the few cranes left in the skyline: the one for City Performance Hall and the one for the convention center hotel. Neither are private sector projects.
Hey, heard about the economic meltdown in the United States (of which Dallas is still a part) during the past year? Do you think that may have SOMETHING to do with the absence of new developments, including transit-oriented developments? Foreclosures have been skyrocketing, banks have almost shut down lending, investors have lost 40% or more in the value of their investments, but you thinks private, commercial projects should be abounding on the landscape? What planet are you on? Or what are you drinking (or smoking, or inhaling, or whatever you do to escape reality)?
Transit-Oriented Development or "TOD" -- the urban planing equivalent of EMU oil.