Commuter rail and transit-oriented development

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.

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One Response to Commuter rail and transit-oriented development

  1. Alex Rotenberry says:

    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.

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