Since 1969, when his father bought Plano Barbers on 15th Street in Plano, James Russell has seen the city’s downtown area evolve.
Russell, who took over the business in 1992, said he even played a part in that evolution about 20 or 25 years ago. Downtown was suffering greatly, he said. Vacant buildings lined the streets. So Russell pushed for the widening of 15th Street. Former Plano City Manager Tom Muehlenbeck and other leaders worked to make that vision happen.
“As soon as we widened it, downtown began to flourish again,” Russell said.
He fears Plano’s Thoroughfare Standards update will erase that progress. City leaders say they want to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment downtown by reducing travel lanes and adding on-street parking, wider sidewalks, street trees and bicycle facilities. These changes all support the direction in which downtown is headed, officials say, but shop owners think they will slow traffic, hurt property values and slow business, 95% of which Russell said comes from outside of the area.
“I’ve been looking out that front window for 54 years,” said Russell, 61. “Who do you think knows more about downtown?”
The Thoroughfare Standards is a document that outlines the rules for transportation infrastructures — how streets, sidewalks, traffic calming and other street elements are designed. Plano is updating standards that had been in place since 2009, according to Michael Bell, comprehensive planning manager.
City leaders began to reassess how it designed select streets in the context of their land use, Bell told The Dallas Morning News. For a while, all streets, regardless of their context, were held to the same standards. Bell said city officials looked at the city’s Thoroughfare Plan and discovered that the old citywide plan doesn’t work in the downtown area.
“The streets are generally much wider than we have available right of way, so we said we need to come back to a specific plan for downtown that’s detailed and customized, tailored to the needs of downtown,” Bell said.
Following the advice of traffic engineers, Bell said downtown doesn’t need the amount of lanes currently present on 14th and 15th streets, and that introduces opportunities for street and intersection improvements. As for slowing traffic, Bell said, that is part of making the area more walkable.
“Right now, if you walk on 14th Street, they are zipping right by you,” Bell said. “... We’re trying to make downtown a destination that you go to, not that you just drive through.”
Years ago, the city altered K Avenue in a way similar to what is now being proposed for other downtown streets, Bell said. The street used to be three lanes and was narrowed to two. On-street parking was added to both sides. Bell said those changes have been successful for downtown as it grows and develops.
Plano still needs eyes on storefronts, however, and making downtown more attractive will achieve that, Bell said.
But Connor Chaddick, president of Chaddick Corporation and owner of two buildings downtown, said the city has not communicated well about the project.
“They don’t want to say what the design criteria is,” Chaddick said. " … I find out from council that what’s being stated to the council and what we’re actually seeing down here sometimes are two different things. …They want to say ‘Oh, I got community input.’ … But they don’t do it.”
Bell said the city has been in communication with the business owners on 14th and 15th streets. He said the Planning and Zoning Commission held several meetings to work through ideas, held a public outreach meeting in March to provide more details about the plan, and met with the Historic Downtown Plano Association, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the downtown’s history and embracing developments downtown.
“From that, we heard some concerns, so we’ve been meeting individually with folks. ... We’re doing our best to reach out as much as we can,” Bell said. “There’s a wide variety of views about this, so we’re trying to take in all inputs.”
Chaddick said he’d rather the city not rely on Historic Downtown Plano Association because “those are merchants groups and owners associations for beautification” that don’t represent the downtown owners. “That’s not their mission or goals, so I don’t want to say we got community input from this.”
The business owner said he received the first draft of what Plano’s Street Design Standards would look like in March.
Based on a May 23 draft of Plano’s Street Design Standards that the city shared with him, Chaddick created a list of questions about the plan and presented it to June 1 during a meeting with city officials.
The city presented an entirely new draft at the meeting, he said.
“I was expecting our meeting on June 1 to be over the [May 23[ draft,” Chaddick said. “It wasn’t. It was on a new plan, which is different. And it was a thoroughfare plan.”
Chaddick and Russell said other downtown shop owners have told them that they’ve not been made aware of the plans and that no one has contacted them.
A longtime resident with family roots in the city, Chaddick said he respects Plano’s leaders and wants the city’s east side to flourish and grow.
“But I want to do it to the point that the people that built this community are rewarded for it, and that’s not what I believe is transpiring by their approach here.”
Russell said he feels similarly.
“We the business owners and the building owners and property owners down there have built downtown,” the barber said. “Now, I’m not to say the city has not helped, but when it comes to getting us more parking and keeping things vibrant down there, that’s been up to the business owners and the building owners.”
