With so much going on around Dallas right now — Trinity River toll road, Deep Ellum renaissance, Trammell Crow obliteration — we've collated some of the highlights of the week for handy digestion.
Can Dallas get out of having to build a toll road on the Trinity River?
City officials previously stated that we were bound by a contract with the North Texas Tollway Authority to build the Trinity River toll road, but an August 5 memo from city attorney Warren Ernst obtained by the Dallas Morning News seems to imply that we can get out of it. "There is no commitment of future council approvals for funding, nor would any such agreement be enforceable," Ernst says in the memo to Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs.
Deep Ellum is getting a new multi-use project.
The Dallas City Council approved an expenditure of $3.5 million for the Deep Ellum Crossroads project, a multi-use complex by developer Scott Rohrman going in on Main Street between Good Latimer and Crowdus. The project is planned to incorporate a "diverse, mutually supportive combination of urban uses that include local/micro-retail, restaurants, services, walkway and seating into one continuous public realm to be used throughout all times of day and evening."
City of Dallas contractors are trashing the Great Trinity Forest.
Dallas is building a facility called Texas Horse Park in the Great Trinity Forest, as well as two golf courses, because the Great Trinity Forest is so beautiful and all. In their building of these facilities, city contractors drained a natural pond so they could use the water for "dust control."
Contractors have also bulldozed trees and excavated a massive amount of soil for the golf course, leaving behind a hole that Jim Schutze described as "the size of the 'lakes' the city plans to create along the river closer to downtown." Assistant city manager Jill Jordan oversees the city's Trinity corridor operations.
Trammell Crow is building another high-rise.
High Street Residential, Trammell Crow's residential subsidiary, announced plans to build a 20-story residential tower at 3230 McKinney Ave., where Cafe Express currently sits. If there's one thing Uptown Dallas needs, it's another residential high-rise. In addition to 271 residential units, the building will offer ground floor retail, anchored by a new Cafe Express. The building would be across from the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA) trolley barn and headquarters; High Street will dedicate the southwest corner of the ground floor to a new trolley barn and MATA museum.
What Uptown Dallas needs more than anything is another high-rise.
