Low-speed parkway wins praise
A Trinity tollway may inhibit development, consultant says

To get the biggest bang for its buck in the Trinity River corridor, Dallas would have been better off to stick with its original vision of a low-speed parkway along the levees rather than the high-speed tollway now being studied, a consultant hired to consider the project's economic impact said Saturday. "A true parkway probably would have the optimum beneficial impact on adjacent land values," Patrick Phillips of Economic Research Associates said during a community workshop on the city's Trinity plan.

The switch from parkway to tollway was an attempt to speed the road's construction by making it a project of the North Texas Tollway Authority. The tollway agency determined that the road would not generate enough money to pay for itself unless it was a high-speed, limited-access highway similar to other regional toll roads. But motorists would not be able to turn off such a road directly into the park the city plans to build between the levees near downtown. Instead of providing entry into the park, the tollway would be a barrier between adjacent neighborhoods and the park, critics contend. And that, they say, would make the land on either side of the river less attractive for residential, office, entertainment and retail developments. Although that view has validity, the equation is not simple, Mr. Phillips said. In some areas, particularly near entrances and exits, the tollway might spur economic activity. In others, it might inhibit development by making the park less accessible. The net impact has not been determined, he said. "We're still wrestling with the issue of whether the road adds value," he said.

That would depend partly on exactly where it goes. Five possible alignments are under consideration, and each would affect the river corridor differently. The option preferred by a previous City Council has four lanes on either side of the river, on the inner slope of the levees. Other options would put all eight lanes on the downtown side, inside the levee; four lanes on either bank, on the outside face of the levees; eight lanes, plus service roads, where Industrial Boulevard now runs; or eight lanes elevated above Industrial Boulevard. The Industrial Boulevard options would not impede access to the riverside park, but they would be nearly twice as expensive to build because they would displace many existing businesses. What Economic Research Associates has not determined, Mr. Phillips said, is whether the long-term economic benefits of an Industrial alignment might outweigh the higher initial costs - and how long "long-term" is. "What we're thinking about now is the timing of the pay-out," he said.

The park's potential economic benefits are relatively clear, he said. "A major linear open space is a huge value generator, huge," Mr. Phillips said. "Those become the highest-dollar residential areas and office addresses." As examples, he cited Storrow Drive in Boston, Rock Creek Parkway in Washington and Lakeshore Drive in Chicago - greenbelts directly accessible from low-speed roads that parallel them. A high-speed tollway's primary benefit, Mr. Phillips said, would be rather different: improvement to traffic flow throughout the region. In the end, he said, the City Council would have to decide what it values more: regional mobility or local economic development. "It's not the role of the economic consultant to make that political decision," he said. "That's the council's role."

Economic Research Associates is among a team of consultants, headed by the Dallas office of the engineering and planning firm HNTB, that is studying the economic and land-use implications of the river project. Another firm, Halff Associates, is analyzing the environmental consequences of the various tollway alignments. The goal, said Mark Bowers, project manager for HNTB, is to bring all the information together by the end of the year so the City Council and the tollway authority board can decide which alignment is best. The council will vote on the matter, but the decision ultimately will rest with the tollway agency.