Two Years Later, City Council to Get Peek at Southwestern Medical District Area Plan

Actually, it's the "Stemmons Corridor-Southwest Medical District Plan," which has been simmering since 2008 as officials from UT Southwestern, Love Field, Crow Holdings, Parkland and so forth worked with area residents to hash out the (transit-oriented) development details. Nothing's final yet -- that's a few months-plus off -- but tomorrow, the council's Economic Development Committee will be briefed on what's what thus far. In short, the city wants to turn Stemmons into the "signature gateway corridor into Central Dallas" while transforming the rest of the area into some mixed-use combination of Victory Park and the West Village, if I read my briefings right.

Whatever the plan's end result, it'll be a mammoth undertaking divided into four parts labeled, respectively: the Inwood/Denton DART Station Area, the Southwestern Medical District/Parkland DART Station Area, the Hi Line Corridor: Victory-Design District Connection and the Wycliff/Sylvan Trinity Portal Area. Among the improvements identified as necessary: "Implement complete street design improvements on Inwood and Maple to foster pedestrian and bike between between the DART station, area destinations and trails"; "use TIF incentives and urban design standards to encourage mixed use development south of Medical District with street activating ground-floor uses along Medical District Drive and Bengal"; "establish a linkage from Design District to Victory along the Hi Line Trail connector from Katy Trail to Trinity Strand Trail"; and "explore feasibility of a streetcar route along Irving Boulevard linking Trinity Meanders to Downtown."

And ... solar-powered water taxis!