As Toyota Prepares for Its Big Move, the Auto Giant Already Is Reshaping Plano

Editor's note: Starting May 15, Toyota begins moving about 250 employees a week into its new corporate campus in Plano. Throughout this week, The Dallas Morning News examines the impact of the highly-anticipated move on Plano, traffic, housing and charitable giving.Harry LaRosiliere didn’t know who was asking, but he knew the answer.When he took office as mayor of Plano, LaRosiliere told his city manager he wanted to “run with the big dogs.”He wanted to compete with the nation’s largest cities for the highest profile corporate relocations. The kind that make headlines. That put cities on the map.Now -- although the company’s identity was shrouded in the level of legally reinforced secrecy you might expect for the names of Beyonce’s twins -- one of those big dogs had come sniffing.“Their real estate broker [called] and said, ‘We’re representing a company. They’re looking for 100 acres, a million square feet, 4,000 employees. It’s a global 25 company, U.S. headquarters, a median salary of $100,000-plus,’ ” LaRosiliere recalled.“Are you interested?”That was three years ago -- shortly after the six-year councilman was elected to lead the suburb that had staked its rise to its status as a corporate job hub where highly paid workers could raise their families in a safe community. In recent years though, Plano was starting to lose some of its sheen as the path of growth continued its northward march, into Frisco and McKinney.  Continue reading...