Most Pedestrian-Friendly Project - Suburban (2010)

[Mballar]

Now accepting nominations for the most pedestrian-friendly project in the suburbs. Please chime in with your selection(s) so that they can be added to future poll.

Nominations will be accepted through December 18, 2010.

[Mark Lea]

DART Green Line

[mjblazin]

Travel the circuitous path between Market Center Station and Market Center/Infomart and you might change your vote. I have a hard time believing it passed ADA standards, never mind pedestrian friendly.

[downtownguy25]

Merdain *sp* the new phase in Addison circle. First line of town homes are done and they are breaking ground on the next row. After the townhouse are done, two condo midrises will be built as well.

[cowboyeagle05]

Travel the circuitous path between Market Center Station and Market Center/Infomart and you might change your vote. I have a hard time believing it passed ADA standards, never mind pedestrian friendly.
The thread is about the most pedestrian friendly project in the suburbs Market Center is in Dallas not the suburbs. Besides the Green Line itself is very pedestrian friendly it promotes pedestrian activity just because some sidewalks leading to a DART station is too small or badly incorporated doesn't ruin the nomination for the DART Green Line which doubles the access of pedestrians in DFW without needing a car.

I second the DART nomination.

[mjblazin]

I missed tag line of "surburban". If it was just urban, my comment would still stand. Market Center and a few other of new stations could have used some work on the transition between train door and area that station serves.

[psukhu]

Not sure if the Shops at Legacy qualifies since it has been around a while, but the 75 acres north of Legacy continues to add more apartments, shops and restaurants. It looks like the entire 150 acre development will be out of land by next year at the current rate of development.

[AeroD]

Maybe not 2010, but 2010 is definitely a great year for it...Downtown McKinney.

Downtown McKinney is what all these other "town" centers strive to be, but will never quite be. You feel like you're neither in a big city or suburb, just a nice small town.

The issue here on the forum is not that people hate 'burbs. It is the way the developed, much like large swaths of Dallas, they too forgot their roots.

[Rodger Jones]

Originally posted by cowboyeagle05:
Besides the Green Line itself is very pedestrian friendly it promotes pedestrian activity just because some sidewalks leading to a DART station is too small or badly incorporated doesn't ruin the nomination for the DART Green Line ...

Which GL stations are the most pedestrian friendly? I have taken only one station-by-station tour of the line, but I didn't have time to explore most of them.

I would be stingy with gold stars for some of them, like Deep Ellum, Baylor, Fair Park and Victory. OK, give DART credit for wise placement, but these stations don't require any genius besides that to make them pedestrian-friendly.

What about the others? What connections to surrounding areas have taken shape through imagination? Maybe it's too early to evaluate.

Some of the responsibility falls on the city, and some on developers. Example: Too many barriers exist between the Park Lane station and the new high rises and retail just south of it. That's not DART's fault. The city let the developers get away with one. The new buildings essentially tell transit users to take a hike.

[Rodger Jones]

Brick Row in Richardson has the potential to be one of the few examples of true TOD in this region. Name another one.

I have a hard time qualifying Mockingbird as TOD absent data on whether nearby residents use DART LR. Does anyone know of such data? Has anyone figured out what % of LR passengers got there via bus, car or feet? And how much business do local stores get from people who didn't drive there?

Perhaps downtown Plano is a TOD success story. But still, do the developments depend on passengers, and do the residents depend on rail?

Staying with the suburban theme, I think Brick Row has potential the others don't. The residences -- apartments and David Weekly town homes -- are a short walk from the DART station. I also see a rejuvenation of the nearby old Richardson neighborhood. Owners of the old bungalows have been fixing them up for years, and knock-down replacements have been happening. I think DART's Spring Valley station has had an effect. The area won't be an M Streets, but investment is happening. I think it's attractive to people willing to walk the neighborhood.

The key is for the development to keep afloat through the economic straights. The David Weekly town homes have already been discounted, and the city has been approached about amending the plan to allow more apartments at the expense of condos.

I'm concerned about the viability of retail tenants if housing density doesn't develop and bring in people with disposable income. If Brick Row ends up with empty storefronts, TOD in the suburbs will look like a bad bet in many other areas of the metroplex.

Anyone have an opinion on Galatyn Park in Richardson? Do workers at the new Blue Cross/Blue Shield high-rises use DART, or do most all of them drive? Has the apartment development finally filled up with tenants who are willing to stay there? Is the retail making it?

[OrangeMike]

Anyone have an opinion on Galatyn Park in Richardson? Do workers at the new Blue Cross/Blue Shield high-rises use DART, or do most all of them drive? Has the apartment development finally filled up with tenants who are willing to stay there? Is the retail making it?

I work on the other side of the freeway and ride DART and the Galatyn shuttle. There are a handful of BC/BS employees riding the shuttle. There are probably a few more that walk from the station to their buildings, but I think it's safe to say that the overwhelming majority drive.

I don't have any information about the apartments and retail other than noticing a dearth of pedestrian activity around those buildings and in the giant plaza most days. There is not much that is transit-oriented about the development that has taken place at Galatyn Park. Perhaps when the parcel across the plaza from the Renaissance Hotel is developed, that may change.

That said, I'd prefer to work on that side of Central than where I do, in one of the two Palisades buildings that are surrounded by wind-swept parking lots and acres of empty land.

[homeworld1031tx]

I'm going to go ahead and say the full extension of the promenade around Lake Carolyn in Las Colinas is the most pedestrian friendly project so far. The extension to finish off the loop was completed in 2010