Texas Transit Association

Collin developer takes a regional view; Craig Ranch benefits will ripple through county

McKINNEY – David Craig has been developing land around the globe from his E. Davis Street office near downtown McKinney for almost 23 years. Mr. Craig’s plan for Craig Ranch is to create a pedestrian-friendly, “new urbanism” development – sort of a second downtown for McKinney – that could add up to $2 billion to the city’s tax base.

03/31/2003
By STEVE QUINN / The Dallas Morning News

These days, Mr. Craig’s attention is focused closer to home. His latest project, and one of his most ambitious, is a 2,000-acre, mixed-use project at State Highway 121 and Custer Road that is just 2 miles southwest of Craig International’s headquarters.

Work has begun on a golf course – the Tournament Players Club at Craig Ranch – that is expected to become a major tournament site along the lines of the Byron Nelson Classic in Dallas and the Colonial in Fort Worth.

Arlington-based D.R. Horton Homes also has started a Craig Ranch subdivision on the development’s Custer Road side, and youth baseball and soccer fields are going up along Highway 121.

The development’s impact, however, will ripple across Collin County, Mr. Craig said.

That’s because Craig Ranch anchors the northeast corner of what is emerging as Collin County crossroads, the intersection of Custer and Highway 121, where the county’s four largest cities – Plano, McKinney, Frisco and Allen – meet.

“Ultimately, all of these cities will grow together,” said Mr. Craig, Craig International’s president and chief executive.

As commercial and residential development continues its march north through what was once prime Collin County farmland, Mr. Craig said, it’s time for area leaders to combine efforts in planning and marketing.

“In order for cities to be successful and in order for developers to be successful, it is essential that they are in fact regional thinkers,” he said.

Mr. Craig spoke this month with staff writer Steve Quinn of the Collin County Bureau about the region’s development, about the Dallas Burn, Dallas Stars and Frisco RoughRiders projects in Frisco and about efforts to get McKinney, Allen and Frisco to join Dallas Area Rapid Transit.

Question: What are some ways that regional planning can be accomplished?

Answer: The one example where the cities had an opportunity to do that was Boeing Co. [The aviation-manufacturing company considered moving its Seattle headquarters to the Dallas area in 2001 but chose Chicago after a well-publicized three-city competition that included Denver.]

When their CEO [Phil Condit] came here to speak last year, he said if there is any advice he can give for the future, it’s when there is a large potential employer thinking of coming here, the cities need to get together and give a unified effort to bring that employer.

In this case, it’s bringing that employer to Collin County regardless of whether it went to Plano, Frisco or Allen. You can submit your sites individually, but it would still be a unified effort because everyone benefits.

There is a ripple effect. Regardless of which city the company goes to, residents will move to McKinney and they will move to Frisco and to Allen even if the company moved to Plano. When you have new rooftops and the right employment base, that creates the demand for the commercial components and the sales tax that follows.

Question: As far as transportation, what will Collin County need as the growth continues to move to the north, perhaps rail extending north from Plano, which is a DART member?

Answer: When we talk about mobility in the future, there’s DART as something we should consider for all the municipalities.

In the short term, I don’t think so. That’s because we are not urban enough yet. If you have vision and you are a forward-thinker, then you have to take that into consideration.

Mass transit will play a key role at some time for the mobility of residents in Collin County because the infrastructure and roads can’t keep up. What we build today – by the time we finish the service roads, for example, we will need the main lanes. There will be a lag between that time and when the main lanes are built.

We are generally behind. Think 20 years from now. There are some who think to talk about DART is really advocating taking employment out of their municipality to another municipality. I understand that, but from a mobility standpoint, at some point and time, it’s needed. And if you are not planning for it, then I believe it’s a bit shortsighted.

Question: What about airport development?

Answer: That’s another example of regional thinking – McKinney Municipal Airport. When Frisco, Allen and McKinney are selling their city, they are using one of McKinney’s amenities as an airport. It will become the regional airport, regardless of its name, whether it’s the Collin County Airport or something else. But it’s logical to think and believe that you will have regional flights out of this airport.

Question: What concerns do you have as business development continues?

Answer: A balanced tax base. You can’t overburden the residential sector with taxes. They only way you can remedy that is planning for the appropriate mix of commercial and residential. It’s prudent that you monitor that on an on-going basis.

Speaking of burden on taxpayers, Frisco and McKinney have courted professional sports teams [the Dallas Burn soccer franchise, the Dallas Stars hockey team and the Frisco RoughRiders minor league baseball club] to bring facilities to their cities. Each offered to fund the projects with either sales or property taxes. How much financial burden can a municipality bear?

In the end, both projects – the Frisco RoughRiders and the Dallas Burn – went to Frisco rather than selecting Craig Ranch. [The Dallas Stars also is building its training center next to the RoughRiders’ stadium. Both teams are owned by Dallas businessman Tom Hicks.]

Question: Who else benefits from those projects?

Answer: At the end of the day, it’s still in the independent school district. If the Burn were to go away, the school district would still have a stadium, which can serve not only for football, but for concerts, graduations, boys and girls soccer.

In McKinney’s case, McKinney didn’t have that because … [Craig Ranch is] in the Allen Independent School District. To me [Frisco’s efforts] sound like a prudent decision that will prove to be successful for the city of Frisco, but it will still benefit McKinney.

Was I disappointed that it didn’t come? Yes. It doesn’t behoove me to talk negative about it. Nothing good comes of that. I’m not interested in saying things that are negative about the community that I love.