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‘Never been about us’: Residents say Highway 5 deck park plan pushes aside East McKinney

Some are concerned the proposed project will cause delays to improvements at other crossings

In the past five years, seven pedestrians have been hit by cars while trying to cross State Highway 5 between North Smith Street and Elm Street in McKinney, according to data collected from Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Reports processed by the Texas Department of Transportation.

In the past 10 years, there have been two pedestrian fatalities on the stretch of Highway 5 that runs through McKinney, according to McKinney police records.

“I’ve been concerned for years about the intersection at Smith Street,” said Jennifer Hollins, 62, who grew up in East McKinney. “I talked to several people asking them why can’t we get a signal light there. It needs to be updated.”

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As a kid, Hollins would walk across the then two-lane highway at the intersection of Smith Street to go to school or pick up snacks from the grocery store. Sometimes, she’d grab a snow cone from Ms. Pauline’s stand that sat on the edge of the highway.

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Now, five lanes of asphalt give way to cars that speed past tire and muffler shops on the road’s edge.

Jennifer Hollins stands alongside State Highway 5 near Smith Street in McKinney, Texas, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Hollins grew up in East McKinney used to cross State Highway 5 by foot on a daily basis.(Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer)
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Maria McKinzie, 63, also says east side residents, those impacted the most by the danger, have asked for safer crossings along the highway that has long divided the predominantly Black and Hispanic legacy neighborhoods from the rest of the city.

“I’ve crossed that road so many times, and we’ve asked for road improvements, we’ve asked for curbs,” said McKinzie, who has lived in East McKinney all her life.

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Now, TxDOT is working to make improvements along the highway, including the stretch that runs through downtown McKinney. The reconstruction of Highway 5 by TxDOT is about 60% designed and is anticipated to be awarded in late 2025 pending construction funding, according to Madison Schein, spokesperson for TxDOT.

In addition to TxDOT’s project, council has directed city staff to move forward with plans for an inverted deck park that would create a pedestrian connection across the highway at Louisiana and Virginia streets to facilitate a safe crossing, connect communities east and west of the highway and enhance the downtown McKinney cultural district, said Assistant City Manager Kim Flom.

However, east side residents worry the ambitious project will slow TxDOT’s plans for the much needed improvements at other intersections, and while city staff has coined the park as a bridge that will stitch together East and West McKinney, many east side residents see it as downtown encroaching on their community and seeping into their neighborhoods to eventually replace them.

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“It’s never been about us,” said Maegan Escamilla who grew up and still lives in East McKinney. “It’s never been about making it a safe, comfortable place for East McKinney residents to visit and enjoy and be safe. It’s always about bringing tourists, bringing the west side over the highway to take over our space.”

Shannon Van Zandt, a professor of urban planning at Texas A&M University said the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 created the nation’s interstate system, and in many cases those interstates were purposefully put through cities to reinforce segregation that was already happening because of redlining — a discriminatory practice in which financial services like mortgages and insurance loans were withheld from potential customers who resided in neighborhoods with a significant number of racial and ethnic minorities and low-income residents.

“A physical barrier,” Van Zandt said. “Yes, you can walk across it, but not safely or easily.”

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Van Zandt added that while projects like this can be attractive for the city as a whole, mirroring nationwide efforts to increase investment in connectivity and other ways to reunify communities that may have been historically separated intentionally or otherwise, she worries about the potential for gentrification around the area as East and West McKinney are reconnected.

“On one hand, I can see how the city might feel that they’re bringing new businesses to East McKinney in an area that might otherwise be depressed, but if those businesses aren’t geared towards the community that’s already there, then they’re going to have the impact of attracting people from West McKinney, not to live in East McKinney but to come to East McKinney to enjoy those amenities that are for them and not necessarily for the community that is there already,” Van Zandt said.

Expanding downtown

Many longtime east side residents do not use the crossing at Louisiana and Virginia streets because it leads into downtown where shops and restaurants are mostly unaffordable. The median household income in East McKinney in 2021 was $66,086 with a poverty rate of 12.3%, compared to the city’s overall median household income of $106,437 and poverty rate of 6.6%, according to census data.

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Instead, residents often cross farther down the corridor at Elm Street to the south or Smith Street to the north to access things like gas stations, dollar stores and El Rancho Supermercado. District 1 City Council member Justin Beller said there are about six intersections along the corridor that need pedestrian protection. Elm Street is the only crossing with a stoplight outside of downtown between Industrial Boulevard and U.S. 380, but sidewalks to access it are crumbling.

“Priorities are elsewhere,” Escamilla said.

Conversations about the deck park come at a time when growth and development is coming to East McKinney.

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The inverted deck park would go underneath the highway and cover about 2 acres, seamlessly connecting the historic downtown with development projects that are underway on the east side, including TUPPS Brewery and the new City Hall plaza. People could walk from downtown to these facilities without getting in a car and without crossing the highway.

Highway 5 downtown pedestrian Connection Deck Park inverted deck park design.(City of McKinney)
Construction continues at the new TUPPS Brewery location in McKinney, Texas, Wednesday, May 3, 2023.(Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer)

“They never were interested in anything on the east side until City Hall started being built,” McKinzie said of city officials.

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The project — expanding the footprint of downtown in a pedestrian friendly way — would cost $40 million to $45 million with annual operations and maintenance costing up to $2.5 million. The North Central Texas Council of Governments has committed up to $30 million for the inverted park option.

“We have more than just a square. We have the flour mill, cotton mill, the old mill district, there’s a lot of legacy, a lot of history in our city that’s on the east side of Highway 5,” said Mayor George Fuller. “My pushing for this project for the last five years has been that we have an opportunity to expand what people perceive right now as our downtown.”

Pushed aside

Some east side residents who have moved to the area more recently see the development and the deck park as a way to help the value of the neighborhood grow and hope development will bring grocery stores, banks, pharmacies and movie theaters to the mostly industrial area.

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“If a new movie theater or grocery store gets built, it’s always like closer to the 75, and then what gets built over here is like a storage facility,” said Mark Thibodeaux, who moved to East McKinney with his wife, Jessica, from California five years ago. “I really hope [the deck park] becomes a bridge and gets rid of the wall stigma of the 5.”

But during a City Council work session on April 18, Beller voiced his concern about the park project slowing TxDOT’s planned improvements for intersections along the entire corridor.

“We’re not fulfilling this basic service need that exists out there,” Beller said. “We have bigger problems along this entire corridor that need solutions, and I don’t see this as a solution to any of those problems that we have. I see it as a good development, as it helps downtown and helps the east side, but it’s not environmental justice, it’s not restitching a community.”

Cars travel along State Highway 5 at Louisiana Street in McKinney, Texas, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. The city plans to build an inverted deck park across State Highway 5 that would connect the historic downtown with East McKinney.(Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer)
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Flom said the deck park project does not diminish or change the city’s efforts in working with TxDOT to improve pedestrian connectivity along the corridor.

“We fully anticipate that pedestrian connectivity will be improved up and down the corridor. That was always the plan,” Flom said. “The deck park was an add on and a way to increase public open space in the downtown portion of the corridor.”

Even though city staff do not anticipate the park project will slow TxDOT’s projects for safer crossings along the entire corridor, longtime east side residents say they feel forgotten, that their needs have been pushed aside and that the park does not break down a barrier as much as it extends it, especially as the developments coming across the highway don’t cater to the community.

“It is the council’s mission to get this done so that at the end of their terms, they can say this is what we did to contribute to the city of McKinney, and look at how it’s bringing both sides of the highway together,” Escamilla said.

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“I don’t see that happening with this project.”