Community support for Dallas Stars’ Plano arena still work in progress

PLANO — Recently retired Centennial CEO Steven Levin stood Tuesday night surrounded by a semicircle of Plano residents in front of him and posters with shiny, new entertainment district renderings behind him. 

It was the second open house at The Shops at Willow Bend for the Dallas Stars’ redevelopment of the mall into its new arena, and the residents ranged in attitude from lightly concerned about traffic to threatening to move out of the city entirely because arena attendees might park in their driveway and urinate on their lawn. All of them peppered Levin with questions as the minutes ticked down to 8 p.m., when the event ended.

“Give it a year,” Levin implored the person who wanted to move. And if they still wanted out of their home near the proposed arena after that, “You’ll make more money on your house.” 

The crowd laughed at the joke and eventually dispersed, having epitomized the hard work ahead for the city of Plano, the Stars and developer Centennial in getting locals on board with the redevelopment. 

“It’s a lot of talking, and that’s not my favorite thing to do,” Levin said of his experience working both open houses. “But it’s the right thing to do.”

Related story: Can the Dallas Stars’ planned arena be a good neighbor? Plano residents weigh in

The open house was structured as a walking tour of various rooms, each tackling a different city planning issue and manned by representatives from the project’s stakeholders to answer any and all questions the public may have about the arena project. A similar event was held during the day on July 8, while the second was held from 6-8 p.m., and, by the accounts of city officials, the evening event was better attended. Attendees were asked to fill out a survey at the end of the tour, which will be turned into a report to be presented to City Council in August.

At issue is the Stars’ forthcoming arena and a surrounding entertainment district, which will take the place of The Shops at Willow Bend, a dying mall, by the time the hockey team’s current lease at Victory Park’s American Airlines Center runs out in 2031. The project has a price tag of $3 billion, supported by $700 million in public funds. 

“One of the best things we’ve learned is just how much interest there is from the community,” said director of planning Christina Day. “Our daytime event had 256 attendees, and we’re seeing [tonight] what I think will break that turnout. We host neighborhood meetings and don’t generally see this type of turnout. I mean, we’re thankful if there’s 50 attendees.” 

Most representatives, even the ones not in the Traffic and Parking rooms, testified that the top question they got last week and this week was about traffic and that attendee’s attitudes toward the project were “mixed.” Still, many attendees wanted more clarity than the representatives could give them, asking specific questions about impacts and what the project would look like when final plans haven’t been submitted yet. 

“’How are you going to add 10,000 cars to the Tollway? ‘ I’ve heard that very question several times, and we knew that would be one of the key questions before, but the study hasn’t started yet,” said Josh Peterman, a principal with the consulting firm conducting the traffic study, Fehr & Peers.

Peterman said that about a third of attendees at last week’s event were against the project, while a third were for it. This week, he characterized about half the crowd, “not against the project, but they have serious concerns.” The missing third last week, and many this week, he said, simply wanted to learn more. 

Related story: First look: Here’s what Dallas Stars’ new $3B Plano arena district could look like

Such attitudes could be overheard as dozens of people crowded around representatives to talk. In the Noise room, city officials said many residents were surprised to learn that noise studies were things city planners were capable of. In the room named Neighborhood Quality of Life, Bhavesh Mittal, the Plano planning department’s heritage preservation officer, said that rather than asking about the Stars or the arena, people were instead interested to know more about the Neighborhood Conservation District, a resident-driven zoning tool that can protect the physical characteristics of older neighborhoods.

Stars chief revenue officer Matt Bowman chatted with one resident about the possibilities for the Stars’ arena, explaining that the Detroit Red Wings’ practice facility, which is in the basement of Little Caesars Arena, allows the players to use just one locker room. Another couple anxiously asked him whether the Italian restaurant Maggiano’s would stay open at Willow Bend. As still another explained their fears of what an arena would do to their neighborhood, Bowman asked, “Is there anything I can help with to put your mind at ease?” 

“They’re all a bunch of citizens that are very concerned about what this is going to mean for them and their lives, but they also seem to be very excited,” he said. 

Still, the open house was far from sufficient to get residents on board with the project, and the results of the survey will inform future dialogue between the city, the Stars and the developer. Attendees leaving the event largely did not get all the answers they wanted, with some departing in the same state of light concern they entered in, while others left even more frustrated than before.

Attendees from outside Plano, like Catherine Fontaine, who lives in the section of Dallas that’s in Collin County, and Zach Brown from Denton County expressed that they wished surrounding areas, not just Plano, were a larger part of the conversation. Plano taxpayers, meanwhile, remained skeptical of how the city was writing its $700 million check for the project and frustrated that City Council unanimously approved the incentives package despite vocal pushback from residents. Another common complaint was that the sites planners were using as case studies — like Legacy West and Toyota Stadium — were not sufficiently residential nearby to be comparable to Willow Bend. 

“[Coming in I was] open-minded but leaning against … and getting to see some of the renderings I’m definitely more opposed, when we realized that we’re actually going to be able to see the high-rises they’re planning on building from our front yard,” said Plano resident Nathan Morefield. “I think the city’s probably doing the right things, at least, planning on doing the right analysis, but they didn’t have answers for us yet. … I’m hoping they realize that they can scale it down quite a bit and still be successful.”

“We’re grateful to the city for letting us give input, but we’re not satisfied,” said Lyda Baro. “We hope that, for the future, they establish a citizen’s committee, so we can have input into that. We’ve done that in the past, and we want to be involved, because it’s our homes. These are our biggest investments for most of us, so when something comes in and affects that, we’re going to have a problem.”