Retro-fitting the Boomburbs

» DMN: Plano leaders brainstorm on taking east side from tired to trendy

Meet the suburbs of tomorrow ...

With land fit for new construction growing scarce, the city that helped define suburban sprawl is headed for an extreme makeover, starting with its older neighborhoods.

Plano's new direction became clearer at a work session last week as its City Council, along with planners and consultants, brainstormed recipes for renewal.

City planners have grappled with the challenges of age for some time. But at the Nov. 18 meeting in downtown Plano, leaders discussed the future candidly and in broad strokes: What is next for an aging suburb nearing build-out?

"We've got the core elements. We've got the basic structure. Now we just need to put the exterior on it," Mayor Phil Dyer said.

Retrofitting the city is likely to take years, even decades. And what works for one neighborhood - or even one block - may not work for another.

Generally, urban-style main streets, access to trains and buses, and more green spaces will supplant aging shopping malls and subdivisions.

Planners say those and other elements will fuel the Plano of tomorrow and help purge the sprawl out of suburbia.

"Plano is changing," said Phyllis Jarrell, the city's planning director. "The style of development is going to change as well."

... they'll look an awful lot like the big cities of today.

Part of the reason I've never seen the merits of the "bash the suburbs" mindset is that any inhabitable location undergoes a metamorphosis. Recall that, here in Houston, the Heights used to the be the suburbs. Humble and Kingwood used to be East Texas. And The Woodlands did not exist. They became what they are today based on a response to what existed around them. In these instances: a relatively welcoming subdivision encompassed by a growing city; a defensive last boundary for an encroaching city; and an escape route for those who could afford it.

Let 'em grow and let 'em evolve, I say. Besides, they're increasingly home to some very friendly voters.