The 3,400-Acre Residential Community is Planned for Wise County
A huge residential development planned northwest of Fort Worth will have room for 10,000 homes. Dallas-based PMB Capital Investments has bought more than 3,400 acres of land for the project near the intersections of State Highway 114 and U.S. 287 in Wise County. Parts of the property are in the towns of Rhome and Newark. The property is known as the Rolling V Ranch. The sprawling development is expected to cost more than $3.5 billion to build by the time it's completed, making it one of the largest residential communities in North Texas. The property is west of the huge AllianceTexas development north of Fort Worth and Texas Motor Speedway. "PMB Capital partner Peter Pincoffs said in a statement. "This is a long-term bet on the demand for reasonably priced single-family homes in D-FW. "We are working hand in hand with city staff in Rhome and Newark on entitlements and infrastructure to serve the project and look forward to starting construction on our first phase in 2020." Home prices in the new development are expected to range from more than $200,000 to above $500,000. The developers plan to set aside 800 acres for open space and build a trail system around existing lakes, creeks and natural springs. The area north of Fort Worth has been one of North Texas fastest growing residential markets in recent years.
Soil testing and right of way acquisition has begun
The DART 2030 Transit System Plan (TSP), approved in October 2006, identified the Cotton Belt Corridor as a priority project. In 2016, DART advanced implementation of the Cotton Belt to the year 2022 in its FY2017 Twenty-Year Financial Plan. The project will be financed through a new federal loan program called Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF). The project assumes a phased approach to implementation that would initially include mostly single-track operations. The 26-mile Cotton Belt Corridor extends between DFW Airport and Shiloh Road in Plano (see map above). The alignment traverses seven cities: Grapevine, Coppell, Dallas, Carrollton, Addison, Richardson and Plano. The Cotton Belt Project's primary purpose is to provide passenger rail connections and service that will improve mobility, accessibility and system linkages to major employment, population and activity centers in the northern part of the DART Service Area. The Cotton Belt Project would interface with three DART LRT lines: The Red Line in Richardson/Plano, the Green Line in Carrollton and the Orange Line at DFW Airport. Also at DFW Airport the project would connect to Fort Worth Transit Authority's TEX Rail Regional Rail Line to Fort Worth and the DFW Airport Skylink People Mover.
DART is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to assess the impacts and benefits of rail passenger service on the Cotton Belt Corridor. Soil testing and right of way acquisition has begun. Project oversight will be conducted by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) in cooperation with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).