With about 400 football fields of retail space, Plano has no shortage of shopping. The question now is whether the city has too much.
The quandary has existed for years but gained new life in September when residents spoke out against a proposed shopping plaza on the corner of the Haggard Farm property at Park Boulevard and Custer Road.
Many touched on what city leaders acknowledge is a fundamental problem: Plano already has an overabundance of retail, particularly at major intersections, a layout common to suburbia and known in zoning speak as “four corners.”
“Four-corner retail was a bad idea,” Plano Mayor Phil Dyer said. “It’s hard to fault the city at that time [the master plan was drafted]. We needed time to build that tax base. And we were the edge of the [suburban] universe at that time. But in hindsight, we’ve got too much of it now.”
Four decades after city leaders began designing a community centered on the four-corner concept, Plano finds itself in need of a zoning makeover. Almost one-third of the city’s land is zoned for retail, commercial or industrial space, a higher ratio than many peers.
Plano, of course, is hardly the only aging suburb to rethink its course with an eye toward revitalization. In 2001, Plano joined with neighbors Richardson and Carrollton in a study that found all three communities suffered from what researchers called “retail over-zoning.” Garland has targeted 13 key retail-heavy spots, primarily around intersections, for revitalization. That city is in the midst of a several-year review of its comprehensive plan.
“Cities are at a crossroads,” said Steve Williamson, a Dallas real estate developer involved in the Haggard Farm retail proposal. “How do we encourage growth and yet deal with existing planning that was done years ago?”
Plano’s layout came together gradually in the 1970s and 1980s, with city leaders and planners opting to gear thoroughfares and zoning toward an automobile-centric society. It called for a grid of six-lane thoroughfares, with most intersections serving as retail hubs. The efficiency helped fuel the city’s skyrocketing growth in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, during which time Plano’s population more than doubled to 265,000.
But it also ensured copious amounts of shopping, parking and traffic, as well as a similar look to many of the city’s thoroughfares. By some estimates, Plano now has at least twice the amount of retail space per capita (over 80 square feet per person) as the national average.
As Plano has matured, commuting, shopping and living habits have changed, in some cases radically. Big box stores and chain restaurants along major highways have eclipsed the four-corner shopping plazas that dot Plano and other North Texas suburbs today.
And empty nesters and younger residents and families have gravitated to urban-style communities like Plano’s Shops at Legacy or Southlake’s Town Square, which offer living, shopping and office space all within close proximity.
The arrival of the DART rail line to Plano in 2002 underscored changes in commuting attitudes. The economic downturn, meanwhile, has helped hasten the decline of strip centers and shopping malls both old and new.
Pat Evans, former Plano mayor who also had a hand in drafting the city’s master plan in the 1980s, said leaders miscalculated how radically tastes and lifestyles might change.
“We thought the car would rule forever and that we would pave the world,” Evans said. “It was just such another lifetime ago. That theory just didn’t work.”
She and others believe reviving Plano’s four-corner intersections is key to future health since those spots are hubs for a majority of the city’s neighborhoods.
A number of city-initiated planning studies, including the 2001 tri-city review, have recommended additional transit options and a more balanced blend of zoning, mixing retail, residential and office space, all within walking distance.
But overhauling ailing shopping centers, particularly in central Plano far from highways or DART rail, may be easier said than done. Developers in recent years have proposed several projects only to draw neighborhood complaints, lose their funding or hit snags in the zoning process.
The Haggard Farm retail project sparked opposition despite efforts by the developer to tout the proposal as a walkable Shops-at-Legacy-style design. Developers recently abandoned the retail portion of the project. Plano’s City Council is expected to approve a proposal for housing at the Haggard Farm on Monday.
Alan Shor, a Dallas-area retail consultant, thinks Plano City Hall will play less of a role in revitalizing the city’s intersections. The marketplace will balance itself.
He noted that older intersection-based shopping plazas in established communities like North and East Dallas continue to thrive, in large part because the residential neighborhoods around them remain strong. Shor also advised against rezoning too much land since radical changes can scare off builders and upset neighbors.
“Eventually, the market will take care of itself,” said Shor, who also teaches real estate and urban land economics at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business.
“Yes, some of the retail will not be able to survive,” he added. “But then the retail space will get redeployed to some other use, whether its medical, government-related, education-related or green space. That’s the evolution.”
In an effort to limit neighborhood opposition, Evans, the former Plano mayor, said leaders should target shopping areas needing the most help, particularly in the city’s oldest sections.
“It’s surprising what people resist,” Evans said. “We’ll have to pick our spots. But it’s a new century. We’re going to have to step up and try something different.”