Match Game: Before Council Takes NCTCOG Development Funds, a Peek at the Projects

At its August 25 meeting, the city council will be asked to sign off on taking close to $14 million from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which, in June, agreed to dole out exactly $13,474,712 that'll go toward nine Dallas infrastructure projects and a few hundred thou more for a trio of studies. Among the projects: the Hamiltons' Atmos Complex redo, the long-studied Routh Street Underpass in the Arts District, the long-awaited Lake Highlands TOD Multimodal Connectivity Project and Project Paseo (which calls for spending close to $3 mil improving "sidewalk, landscaping and burying electrical systems along Lamar between IH-30 and Wood Street" -- otherwise known as the Dallas convention Center and under-construction Omni).

This afternoon the council's Transportation and Environment Committee will sneak peek the projects in advance of the vote; you can see the whole list here -- necessary for council inspection because NCTCOG's money only goes so far, 80 percent of the way. Some things on the to-do list (like, say, Atmos or the so-called Edison/Hi Line Stemmons/Rail Transit Underpass Connection) will be done with private funds. The where-from funding for others is still in doubt -- like the convention center thing, where it says another half a mil will come from "private funds and/or City 2006 bond project" (well ...?).

NCTCOG has also agreed to partially fund three Sustainable Development Planning Projects totalling $305,000: the Santa Fe Trail Corridor Study (which will look at linking "Deep Ellum to White Rock Lake and pedestrian connectivity including determining trail access points, security, wayfinding, landscaping, furnishings, rest areas"), the Building Blocks Sustainable Development District (needed to "study transit and pedestrian connectivity, land use and context-sensitive design to create a sustainable development district in the Southern Sector of Downtown Dallas, from the Farmers Market to the Trinity, Young Street and IH-30") and LBJ/Skillman Urban Planning Initiative (which is self-explanatory). Dallas -- we loves us some studies.