New debate is broiling as DART moves forward with a Cotton Belt rail transit project, which has been in DART plans since 1983.
A Dallas City Council Resolution posted for a vote Wednesday asks DART to construct sound walls and other noise mitigation measures for neighbors who are directly along the path between Plano and DFW Airport. It would come in return for cost savings from eliminating two proposed North Dallas Cotton Belt stations at Preston Road and Coit Road.
North Dallas City Council Member Lee Kleinman supports the resolution and the Cotton Belt line.
“We need transit in North Dallas just as much as we need it in Downtown and Southern Dallas and all parts of Dallas. There’s no reason to doom them to a life of driving cars,” Kleinman said.
Downtown Dallas City Council Philip Kingston said the Cotton Belt was the lowest priority in a 2016 City of Dallas resolution. That City Council vote put a new downtown subway and better bus service first.
“They’re going to do it anyway. We told them it wasn’t the top priority for us and they made it the top priority of the agency so they’ve already told us exactly what they think of our opinion,” Kingston said. “The Cotton Belt is absolutely slowing down all the other projects DART needs to do, and it is endangering the funding for those projects.”
Kleinman, the Chairman of the Dallas City Council Mobility Committee, said the new resolution was the result of discussion with North Dallas neighbors who do not want the Cotton Belt project, but at least want more protection if it must be built.
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The City of Plano passed a resolution Monday asking that the Coit Road station not be dropped, contrary to the Dallas measure.
Current DART plans call for completing the $1.1 billion Cotton Belt line in 2022.
DART officials have said that better bus service and the so called D-2 Subway are also moving forward.
