Council, DART agree to study idea to bolster economic development

11:57 AM CST on Tuesday, December 14, 2004

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS -- As revolutionary as they are retro, streetcars should play a starring role in downtown Dallas' economic redevelopment, some city officials say.

Specific plans and cost estimates for lining downtown streets with rails, as they were decades ago before burgeoning automobile use prompted their demise, are very preliminary. A proposal presented by supporters to the Dallas City Council's transportation and telecommunications committee on Monday suggested a three-line system linking with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail system and administered in part by DART.

City Council and DART board members agreed to investigate the idea, which might lead to the formation of a public/private streetcar investigation committee – or a more powerful, semi-private "local government corporation" – under the name Dallas Streetcar Inc.

"We're not asking the city to give us money," said Miguel A. Del Valle II, chief executive officer of Pegasus Parking Ventures, who with Raymond E. Stanland of the Dallas-based Stanland & Associates urban design and planning firm presented a 14-page streetcar plan to the council and DART members.

"The only critical thing now is to get a high-level policy group in place that we can work with. We're not asking anyone to buy a pig in a poke here," Mr. Stanland added.

Skepticism among some DART officials lingered, however.

"Dallas is not a tourist city downtown, although I'm willing to look at exploring it. But at what expense?" DART board member Beatrice Alba Martinez said. "I know you're not asking for money – now. Everything costs money."

Said DART board member Terri Adkisson, "I wouldn't want to commit DART to it unless I know we could do it right."

The lone active streetcar system in Dallas runs along the Uptown section of McKinney Avenue to the northern edge of downtown.

The new system suggested in the streetcar presentation would connect with the McKinney Avenue trolley line and might circulate throughout downtown's arts district, down Ross Avenue and back up San Jacinto Street and along Main Street.

Like the McKinney line but unlike DART light rail trains, Mr. Stanland and Mr. Del Valle said, the streetcars would share roads with automobile traffic. The streetcars themselves may also look similar to DART trains, as opposed to the McKinney line's vintage streetcars.

Federal transportation grants, parking meter fees from private auto garages and money from downtown business owners are potential funding sources, Mr. Stanland and Mr. Del Valle said.

Council member Bill Blaydes, for one, is sold.

"If DART doesn't want to do it, the city of Dallas better darn well sure get into the middle of it and get it done," Mr. Blaydes said.

To get from one side of downtown to another, Mr. Blaydes said, he's forced to drive, then search in vain for parking.

"I'm a fat white man who doesn't like to walk," he said jokingly. "For people living and working downtown, it is a need now, and we need to get it done as quickly as possible."

Transportation and Telecommunications Committee Chairwoman Sandy Greyson described the proposal as "intriguing." Council member Lois Finkelman called it "exciting."

But Ms. Finkelman cautioned against creating a local government corporation to explore streetcars, especially because the council is already considering such an entity to coordinate general downtown Dallas redevelopment efforts.