{"id":55260,"date":"2025-11-18T23:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/55260\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T23:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:00:11","slug":"plano-submits-proposed-rail-only-deal-to-dart-ahead-of-may-special-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/55260\/","title":{"rendered":"Plano submits proposed rail-only deal to DART ahead of May special election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPlano officials have formally asked the Dallas Area Rapid Transit<\/a> agency to consider a six-year, rail-focused transit agreement with an election on withdrawal from the system looming.<\/p>\n

Plano residents will vote on whether the city should stay with DART on May 2, 2026, unless an agreement between the city and agency is met prior to March 18.<\/p>\n

The proposal was formally submitted to DART on Nov. 14, according to a city spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Some context<\/p>\n

Plano City Council voted<\/a> to call a special election at a Nov. 5 special meeting, joining other DART member cities, including Highland Park, Irving and Farmers Branch.<\/p>\n

Approximately $251 million in annual sales tax contributions to DART could be impacted by the four cities considering a special election, according to the agency\u2019s budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DART\u2019s 13 member cities contribute 1% of sales tax revenue to the transit agency.<\/p>\n

What you need to know<\/p>\n

The proposal details a six-year agreement under which DART would continue providing rail service and express buses in Plano but discontinue \u201call standard bus, demand-response and other non-rail transit services within the city\u201d by Jan. 1, 2029.<\/p>\n

However, the city is \u201copen to discussing\u201d how to provide paratransit services to stay in compliance with federal law, according to the proposal.<\/p>\n

Under the proposal, DART would return a phased proportion of the city\u2019s sales tax contribution back to the city through a general mobility program with quarterly payments, including:<\/p>\n

2026: 25% return2027: 35% return2028: 45% return2029-2031: 50% annual returnThe returned funds would be used for transportation and mobility improvements in Plano, according to the proposal.<\/p>\n

If the transit agency agrees to the proposed changes, Plano officials will agree to \u201ccease any legislative efforts to alter DART\u2019s governance or financing and to stop pursuing withdrawal from DART during the agreement period,\u201d according to the proposal.<\/p>\n

\"tableAdditionally, Plano officials will rescind the order to call the special election within 72 hours of finalizing the agreement and will remain a DART member city.<\/p>\n

How we got here<\/p>\n

Plano Director of Government Relations Andrew Fortune said Plano officials have \u201crepeatedly\u201d tried negotiating to receive more Plano-specific services, submitting four reform plans dating back to last December.<\/p>\n

During the 89th legislative session, Plano supported<\/a> Texas House Bill 3187, which died in the House but would have redirected 25% of DART\u2019s sales tax revenues back to member cities.<\/p>\n

What they\u2019re saying<\/p>\n

Mayor John Muns said after the Nov. 5 vote that Plano officials would need to work through \u201cquite a bit of items\u201d with the transit agency in order to consider rescinding the special election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love to keep the rail, and we\u2019re talking to DART about negotiating in that realm … and really letting us deal with microtransit in the city and eliminating the bus services,\u201d Muns said. \u201cThat still hasn\u2019t been agreed upon, [but] … we\u2019re more than willing to sit down and talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

DART Chief Communications Officer Jeamy Molina said in a statement to Community Impact that the agency is carefully evaluating the feasibility of Plano\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to full transparency and will continue working in good faith with our city partners throughout the process to ensure they have clear, timely information as we move forward together,\u201d Molina said.<\/p>\n

What else?<\/p>\n

The proposal also details that Plano and the agency will meet annually to review rail, express bus service and GMP activity. Plano officials will also provide annual expenditure summaries to DART, according to the proposal.<\/p>\n

Plano officials recently announced the city is forming the Collin County Connects Committee, which will be a citizen-led group to identify the community\u2019s local transit future. Each Plano City Council member will appoint one Plano resident to the committee, and residents can apply on the city\u2019s website<\/a>.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plano officials have formally asked the Dallas Area Rapid Transit agency to consider a six-year, rail-focused transit agreement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[712,704,713,708,716,715,714,160,718,711,705,723,162,161,721,720,722,709,710,719,707,706,717],"class_list":["post-55260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-dallas-fort-worth","tag-dart-changes","tag-downtown-plano","tag-east-plano","tag-independence-construction","tag-park-and-preston","tag-parker-road","tag-plano","tag-plano-budget","tag-plano-construction","tag-plano-dart-changes","tag-plano-fire","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-plano-parks","tag-plano-parks-and-recreation","tag-plano-police","tag-plano-road-closures","tag-plano-road-updates","tag-plano-tax-rate","tag-plano-transportation-updates","tag-richardson-dart-changes","tag-us-75-construction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}