It’s a cool, windy day at a ribbon cutting ceremony for EVIVA at Trinity Mills – one of the newest housing complexes in Carrollton.
The 436-unit development is located just steps away from Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s Trinity Mills station on the Green Line.
“This project is beyond housing or commercial space, it represents access and opportunity," said DART CEO Nadine Lee, who helped cut the ribbon for the newly completed development.
Inside the apartment lobby, Carrollton Mayor Steve Babick said it’s an example of the city’s investment in public transit — and more businesses could be on the way.
“It is a live, work and play transit-oriented development,” Babick told a crowd of city officials, developers and reporters. “Multi-billion dollars.”
Transit-oriented developments, or TODs, might sound wonky, but they're basically new apartments and businesses built around light rail and other transit stations to encourage density.
“It's essentially just an economic development strategy that kind of opens up areas and provides transportation between a number of projects," said Michael Carroll, director of the Economics Research Group at The University of North Texas.
Carroll looked at the financial impact of TODs across North Texas in a study published in November. He said just the construction around TODs near DART stations brought in $1.9 billion dollars between 2022 and 2024.
TODs also create more walkable, less car-reliant communities. Residents at EVIVA can take the train to downtown Dallas or DFW Airport. They can also travel to downtown Denton on Denton County Transportation Authority’s A-Train.
DART is working with cities to plan or build more TOD's across the region. A new development at Mockingbird Station in Dallas is currently under construction with a groundbreaking ceremony planned for Thursday. The town of Addison is planning another one next to the suburb's new Silver Line station.
“It really ticks a lot of the boxes in terms of economic development," Carroll said. "It creates jobs, it creates, you know, a conduit for moving people around.”
North Texas’s population is projected to grow from 8 million to 12 million people by 2050. Planners say much of that sprawl will need to be placed along transit routes.
“That's why we we really need to be thinking about this at a regional level,” Carrollton Mayor Steve Babick said.
While DART is in the process of building or planning more robust TODs across its system, upcoming withdrawal elections could derail those plans.
Five member cities will vote this spring to possibly leave the agency. Carrollton leaders haven't taken an election off the table in their negotiations with DART.
Carroll, the researcher at UNT, said that could be to the detriment of TODs and the region as a whole.
“It’s a system-wide strategy," he said. "You may have the effects felt not just in the areas where the stations are shutting down … you'd have them felt all the way throughout the system.”
On the other end of the Green Line in Pleasant Grove, another TOD is being built at DART’s Buckner Station.
Developers of Palladium at Buckner, as well as residents and city leaders in Dallas, hope the project will help revitalize the neighborhood – 80% of units will be below market rate.
Christian Marquez lives in Pleasant Grove and teaches financial literacy to low-income residents.
“This is a way for people to, you, know, find something affordable, maybe even rent out for six months to a year," Marquez told KERA. "Usually the terms are for a year and then kind of save ... for a down payment, right.”
Marquez said Palladium at Buckner will also connect residents to more accessible transit.
“I think it's gonna bring different types of income, family households to the community, also bring safety,” Marquez said.
Hopefully, he said, it will encourage people to stay in the neighborhood.
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org.
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