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Las Colinas

 

            
             The highly commercial town of Las Colinas has decided to switch its focus to residential areas for future growth. Back in the 70's, during the construction of nearby DFW Airport, John Carpenter decided to turn his 12,000 acre ranch into a flourishing business area. Developers deemed this a "soft" area because development in that area would be quite desirable from a commercial and residential perspective. The original plan for Las Colinas was a high tech urban area, with early drawings resembling the Hong Kong skyline. Many businesses flocked to the area. As stated in chapter 10, "Many businesses prefer a business park location because it permits the sharing of common facilities like parking and telecommunications and because a well designed development gives an "upscale" image that impresses clients and customers." Today almost $5 billion of properties reside in Las Colinas, but now the planners have switched the development focus to residential.
             The early residential plans call for high rise apartment buildings, parks, schools, and shopping centers, all of which fit under the typical neighborhood concept in chapter 10. The plans also call for a town center and a 40 acre lake so that residents encounter each other in ways that promote social relationships. The plan is said to have an intimate and traditional feel. The building block for this development is the establishment of $25 million worth of infrastructure. Famous planner Andres Duany says among other problems in suburban planning, there is an overemphasis on planning for the automobile. This was taken into account for the Las Colinas plan and to counteract the problem, a DART light rail line will be integrated into the new area. .
             All in all, this plan will make Las Colinas less of an "edge city" than before. By the definition of an "edge city" by Joel Garreau, Las Colinas already has 5 million square feet of office space, 600,000 feet of leasable retail space, and more jobs than bedrooms which in his terms, makes Las Colinas a typical edge city.


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