The future of Dallas Area Rapid Transit across multiple cities in and around Dallas could come down to crucial votes this week, beginning tonight in Plano.
The Plano city council will be the first city to consider whether to accept DART’s new funding proposal that would require Plano to rescind its upcoming special election to consider withdrawal from DART.
Looking to reconcile fractured partnerships with six member cities, the transit agency’s board of directors on Friday approved an ‘interlocal agreement’ to return a growing share of sales tax contributions to 13 partner cities over six years in exchange for canceling planned elections to withdraw from DART.
Former Plano city council member and current Plano representative on DART’s board, Anthony Ricciardelli, voted in favor of the funding deal but argued it doesn’t go far enough.
“I think this deal is much closer to the status quo than what could happen if pull out elections go forward,” he said. “Using the EY numbers from 2023, the six cities that have called pull-out elections contribute more than 30% of DART’s sales tax revenue, but under this deal the maximum percentage of sales tax revenue that would come from DART would be 7.5%.”
Ricciardelli agreed that “something is better than nothing,” but expressed disappointment at the proposal.
Regardless of DART’s future in Plano, the city intends to add a new transit provider altogether.
The city had been preparing for a May special election where voters would decide whether to leave DART.
If voters decided to leave DART, the city says services would immediately stop and they would have to be ready to provide ‘alternative transit services’ the day after the election.
Plano Mayor John Muns told NBC 5 last week that the city has been seeking another service provider for areas not currently serviced by DART.
“Our residents want to be able to know that they can use DART to go on one side of Plano to the other and right now it becomes very difficult to go five, six, seven miles just to go to the doctor’s office or grocery store,” he said.
If approved on Monday, the city’s second choice among prospective vendors, Via, would be contracted for an initial term of six months with three one-year automatic renewals in an initial term expenditure of almost $4 million.
A company representative provided NBC 5 with a statement saying, ‘Via has been proud to partner with transit agencies and municipalities across the Dallas-Fort Worth region since 2018, and we’re grateful to be considered by the City of Plano.’
Via would also be contracted to gather ridership data across Plano, which the city says is something DART officials have not been able to provide.
Other city council meetings that will be taking up DART partnerships include: Addison and Farmers Branch on Tuesday, and Irving on Thursday.
Ricciardelli cautioned the board that the challenges facing the agency are far from over.
“Even if the pull-out elections are canceled, our work is not done,” he said. “If we pass this deal and the member cities accept it, we still have a long way to go to create a regional transit system that works for everyone.”
The Plano City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. and is live-streamed on Plano’s website at www.planotv.org, YouTube.com/cityofplanotexas and Facebook.com/cityofplanotx.