Argyle Town Council, the planning and zoning commission and the comprehensive plan advisory committee met Jan. 15 to discuss plans for future commercial development at the corner of FM 407 and US 377.
No action was taken to move forward with a development plan, and discussions will continue to take place.
What happened?
Town Manager Mike Sims brought forward an idea for a potential Main Street to be added from Cook Street to Village Green Drive near the Waterbrook neighborhood. The street would wind through trees and include several commercial retail buildings on its path, including the future Argyle Marketplace, Branded Bowls and the town’s property, which will include a municipal building, new police building and, potentially, some businesses.
“We don’t have room for a big street,” Sims said. “That’s a two-lane road that can be closed off and used for pedestrians. It needs to have good sidewalks and good canopy tree cover.”
Sims also discussed plans to develop town standards that allow for this kind of development if the committees and council want to move forward with this plan, he said.
The discussion
Members of council, the planning and zoning committee and the comprehensive plan advisory committee presented their own ideas for this Main Street concept and stated concerns about more development in Argyle leading to further traffic along the major roads.
“I think we can hear everyone, I think we can accommodate most, if not all, [of committee and council member ideas], but somehow we’re going to have to come together and make this into reality,” Schmidt said.
Planning and Zoning Commissioner Michael Udovic questioned why the town would want to add a Main Street and invite more development.
“I’m not pro-developer,” he said. “I’d rather keep them all away from Argyle, except we need them on I-35W.”
Council members Martin Brading and Cynthia Hermann both approved of the Main Street concept.
“I think we just have to move down this path,” council member Martin Brading said. “It really could be a gem."
Diving deeper
Sims suggested making adjustments to the city’s master thoroughfare plan, which is a plan for specific roadway projects and improvements the town intends to pursue, to ensure it is possible for FM 407 to be pedestrian friendly.
“We’re going to have to work through that process to make sure that we’re recommending to [the Texas Department of Transportation] a version of FM 407 that we think is as good as possible for our town center development,” Sims said.
Sims also suggested updating the master park and open space plan, which hasn’t been updated since 2009, so that town officials can use the plans to apply for grants.
“If we see the importance of this, we have to be proactive,” Mayor Ronald Schmidt said. “If we wait, and somehow this thing happens organically, we don’t know what we’re going to end up with.”
TxDOT plans to expand US 377 and FM 407 from two lanes to six lanes, according to previous reporting. This brought up concerns about how Argyle can manage traffic and keep the town pedestrian-focused.
“I’m concerned about traffic,” said Bridget Brandon, a member of the comprehensive plan advisory committee. “Is there a way to design [FM 407] so we can start at four lanes [then] go to six lanes and pedestrian traffic [can] go underground [through a tunnel], or we build a bridge and pedestrian traffic goes over?”
Town staff is looking into how much traffic will be coming into Argyle, and will bring the data to the town committees and council to discuss how town officials would like to handle traffic, then bring their ideas to TxDOT for consideration.
Looking ahead
In addition to continued discussions with the committee and council members, next steps include:
- Updating the thoroughfare plan and small area plan, which will help create a vision of what Argyle council wants to see for future development
- Finalize the small area plan to ensure it is consistent with all other town plans
- Create a park board and update park and open space plan
- Detailed planning of Main Street concept
- Move town buildings, including the police station and municipal development buildings, to final design and construction stages
- Update details, town standards and town regulations to match the small area plan
“There’s a lot of consideration here,” Schmidt said. “We don’t want you to stop thinking ... and hopefully there will be other meetings and we’ll have more of the details that folks are looking for. But we felt it was important ... to share the vision.”
