Frisco | September 2023

From the cover

Frisco aims to attract new visitors to Rail District

Funding the projects

Two minute impact

One of the biggest stand-alone projects planned for the new downtown layout is a bond-funded parking garage to replace the loss of street parking. Frisco residents approved the project’s funding as well as money for surrounding road developments in a May election. “Frisco voters approved a $20 million bond for a downtown parking garage to meet the future need for parking,” Lettelleir said via email. “This additional parking is critical to the Rail District’s success.” Once completed, the new parking garage will provide more spaces than what is being removed from Main Street, Lettelleir said. City ocials began selling some of the voter-ap- proved bond funds in July. “Design of Main Street and ‘the plaza’ has been underway for several months,” Knippel said via email. “The voter-approved downtown parking garage … adds another element and is needed sooner rather than later. We think it’s important to build the garage, Main Street and ‘the plaza’ within the same general time frame.”

With roadwork projects already underway on Elm Street and expected to nish before the end of 2023, work on the nearly $50 million in projects designed to make the Rail District more pedestrian-friendly is in full gear. Finishing Elm Street rst is expected to allow for an easily accessible detour path when construction shuts down Main Street to replace the on-street parking spots with wider sidewalks. “It’s a challenge to cross Main Street,” Mayor Je Cheney said. “[This project is] making it an easier distance to cross [and] more inviting for the pedestrian.” Increasing foot trac should help the Rail District’s businesses see more customers, host more events and create new experiences for visitors, Cheney said. “We’d be able to walk around to all the dierent places and just really experience that rather than having to park at each place,” said Aubrey resident Marianna Cortes, who often visits the Rail District. As of late August, the city’s capital improvement website listed an estimate that construction on Main Street and the Fourth Street Plaza will nish by 2025. A revised schedule with concrete dates is expected to be released in October, Director of Engineering Services Paul Knippel said in an emailed statement. “The ‘plaza’ will be a critical component in providing a central place for people to gather for social events, including live performances,” Director of Development Services John Lettelleir said.

Early designs for Fourth Street Plaza were rst approved in 2022.

COURTESY CITY OF FRISCO

Changing it up Prioritizing walkways in the Rail District involves multiple projects in the coming months. 1 Elm Street improvements 2 Wider sidewalks on Main Street

3 Parking garage 4 4th Street Plaza

$20 million for the parking garage

$5.1 million for Elm Street

FRISCO SQUARE BLVD.

$20.4 million for Main Street and the 4th Street plaza

SOURCE: CITY OF FRISCOCOMMUNITY IMPACT

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