Plano residents who live near the proposed Dallas Stars arena near Willow Bend grilled two city council members about the proposed stadium at a town hall meeting Tuesday.
The local lawmakers didn't have many answers.
Throughout the three-hour meeting, City Council members Vidal Quintanilla and Bob Kehr were peppered with questions about quality of life, including concerns about traffic and parking around the arena.
“What are you guys going to do to stop people from parking in my neighborhood, short of putting a gate up?” asked Blair Partlow, who lives near the proposed arena.
“We're just interested in hearing what's going to be done for all the streets, the infrastructure,” said Camille Hall, another Plano resident who lives close to the project.
The city is still studying traffic data and looking into parking options, the council members said at the town hall.
The city council approved the first traffic study for the project last month. Results should be available sometime in mid-October, Kehr said.
“You want information that takes a while to collect, that takes a while to present,” Kehr said.
The city is also having conversations with DART about public transportation options, another issue residents shared concerns about on Tuesday.
The Dallas Stars announced plans for the project on June 2, one day after the Dallas Mavericks announced the site of their potential new arena in North Dallas. Their leases with the American Airlines Center end in 2031. The announcements from both teams come at a time when companies are starting to depart the business district in Downtown Dallas.
City Council members approved a series of measures to support the development in June, including signing a nonbinding letter of intent for the development with the Stars.
The project would redevelop the aging Shops at Willow Bend, a 1.4 million-square-foot shopping mall located off Dallas North Tollway and George Bush Turnpike that has experienced several tenant departures in recent years. In addition to the six-acre arena, the 90-acre development would include shops, restaurants, residences, offices and more, said Steve Levin, the founder of Centennial, the real estate firm that donated the land for the project to the city.
The deal with the Stars isn’t final, said Kehr, who also said he’s still making up his mind about the project.
The city council wants more input from citizens and data, he said.
“We're here to not only listen about where your concerns are and to understand where we can mitigate things, but we have to really understand the whole picture before we can make decisions,” Kehr said.
That lack of certainty over the deal's future is a concern to residents like Karen Dubrow, who lives near the proposed arena. The Stars, Dubrow said, are looking out for their own financial interests, and she worried her tax dollars would be wasted if the project fails.
“They do not care about what makes financial sense to the city,” she said. “That’s what I care about.”
Funding for the Stars arena and surrounding entertainment district would come from a tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, which uses sales tax dollars to help finance the project. The city has also called for a $700 million bond election in November.
The bond election is only about funding for the project — not on the project itself. If voters reject it, the city could still pursue other funding streams and move forward anyway, the council members said.
Asked by a resident whether Plano voters should be allowed to approve or reject the project, the council members said that’s not how city government functions.
“Y’all entrusted us as local officials to make these decisions,” Quintanilla said.
Not everyone was against the proposal — some residents said the potential economic and entertainment benefits would help the city compete with others around the region.
Plano would own the arena and the surrounding shopping and entertainment district — something that would bring tax revenue to the city, said Allan Samara, a resident who attended the town hall.
“We have virtually no entertainment facilities in the city except restaurants,” Samara said. “Frisco, on the other hand, has gone ahead and built three different stadiums. So, this is good for Plano, and it's going to be good for our tax base.”
But others were concerned about how investing in the sports arena would impact the city’s suburban character. Dubrow wondered whether building a hockey arena goes against Plano’s Comprehensive Plan.
The plan, which was created in 2021 after a legal battle between the city and residents, included provisions to manage growth while maintaining Plano’s suburban character.
“An arena is not suburbia," Dubrow said. “If I wanted to be next to an arena, I would have lived in downtown Dallas.”
Samara, who was a member of Plano’s planning and zoning commission when the comprehensive plan was approved, said it doesn’t apply to entertainment facilities.
The city, he said, needs to keep up with neighboring cities like Frisco and McKinney.
“Plano needs to get on the ball with something other than what we have right now,” Samara said.
Caroline Love is KERA's Collin County reporter. Got a tip? Email Caroline at clove@kera.org
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