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Grand Prairie staff brief commission on request to remove planned collector road near I‑20
Summary
City staff told the Planning and Zoning Commission that an applicant seeks to remove a two‑lane collector roadway shown on the city’s thoroughfare plan; staff prefers keeping the road but the applicant’s traffic model found little projected difference if the road is removed.
Cheryl Smith, chair of the City of Grand Prairie Planning and Zoning Commission, opened a staff briefing Sept. 9 on a proposed amendment to the city’s thoroughfare plan to remove a two‑lane collector roadway just south of the I‑20 eastbound frontage road and west of Belt Line Road.
City planning staff said the applicant requested removal of the collector as part of development of the subject parcel. Staff presented results of a traffic impact analysis that used the North Central Texas Council of Governments regional travel demand model to compare build and no‑build scenarios. The consultant and staff reported the modeled change—removing the collector and shifting traffic to Belt Line and the I‑20 frontage road—did not noticeably increase traffic on surrounding roads in the model.
The briefing emphasized that the planned collector was originally intended as a relief route once the future Westchester Parkway extends east to Belt Line, a connection identified in the city’s thoroughfare plan. "Our staff believes this area would be better with the road," a staff presenter said, while noting the applicant proposes an internal 30‑foot access drive through the property that would be built in phases and would ultimately provide an internal connection. That drive, the presenter said, would be private but recorded with a public access easement to remain open to the public.
Commissioners raised concerns about removing the higher‑standard collector and replacing it with a narrower private access drive. One commissioner noted local traffic on Belmont/Belt Line is already heavy and said the proposal "seems kind of suspect to me," while another commissioner asked whether the internal drive would function more like a shared parking‑lot circulation lane than a full public roadway.
Staff described the access drive as intended to allow movement between future developments on the parcel ("something like the drive that you see going in front of Walmart," the presenter said) and said portions of the access drive would be built by the applicant while other segments would be completed by others as development proceeds.
No formal action or vote was taken during the staff briefing portion; staff said open hearings and any formal actions would occur during the regular meeting later that evening. Staff recommended that, in related site‑plan review, the applicant either construct the required connection or escrow funds to ensure the continuation of the 30‑foot access drive to the future Westchester Parkway right‑of‑way.
The discussion flagged two unresolved issues for later consideration: whether the change would create long‑term connectivity problems if adjacent parcels do not develop as anticipated, and how emergency access and traffic operations would be addressed at the nearby intersections if the collector is not constructed.
