The city's original master thoroughfare plan was adopted in 1968, according to meeting documents. A revised plan was adopted in 2004 and received updates in 2006 and 2017. During the 2017 update review process, city staff was directed to take a comprehensive look at the current plan and bring back proposed changes to the council for its consideration.
Beck presented the following changes for the council:
- remove Wall Street from the master thoroughfare plan;
- re-align Southwest Grapevine Parkway from SH 26 to Mustang Drive;
- downgrade Park Boulevard from six lanes to four lanes from Northwest Highway to Dove Road;
- downgrade Dooley Street from four lanes to two lanes from Dallas Road to Northwest Highway and four lanes to three lanes from Northwest Highway to terminus;
- upgrade Fairway Drive from two lanes to three lanes from Northwest Highway to the dam;
- downgrade Euless-Grapevine Road from four lanes to three lanes from Glade Road to Hughes Road;
- coordinate with adjacent jurisdictions' plans; and
- reduce roadway classifications from eight to five and update roadway cross sections.
"Staff feels the proposed plan is simpler, easier to administer, and more consistent with both the built environment and the future needs of the city," meeting documents stated.
Roads would be widened or removed based on traffic studies and the demand for wider roads, Beck said. In some cases, such as Park Boulevard, the width of the road exceeds the demand, and drivers tend to speed on wider roads, Beck said. He suggested existing roadways could be downgraded by changing a lane into a bike lane.
Mayor William D. Tate raised a concern. He said although he had no foreseeable problem with the updates, the best thing to do before the update is approved is to get feedback from the residents. He said people who drive the roads every day might have concerns about the roads changing.
"Cutting down four lanes to three, I don’t think people will see that as a positive thing," Tate said. "[The public] might have some suggestions."
Beck agreed and said the updates to the plan would not immediately change the roads. Rather, the updates would serve as a guide so that as funding and opportunities became available in the future to accomplish the projects in the plan, staff would move in that direction.
Following additional similar statements from the council, City Manager Bruno Rumbelow suggested the council table the updates to the master plan.
"We’ll go back and advertise this to the community for the proposed master plan changes," Rumbelow said. "We’ll get that public comment; we’ll bring it back to y’all, and then y’all can adjust from there."
Below is a map of the proposed updated master thoroughfare plan.
