Dallas officials are OK with fewer stops as the Cotton Belt commuter train rolls through the northernmost portions of the city starting in 2022, so long as residents get 15-foot sound walls and reduced traffic impact.

That's what the Dallas City Council told DART in a resolution approved Wednesday, while also reminding the transit agency that what the city really wants is better bus service.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit continues to move toward building its first east-west rail line, the $1.1 billion Cotton Belt project to connect North Dallas to Plano, Richardson, Addison, Carrollton and DFW International Airport.

Dallas officials opposed to the Cotton Belt told DART in fall 2016 they would rather the agency prioritize improving bus service and building a downtown subway, also known as D2. DART agreed that October to build both the Cotton Belt and the subway.

Cotton Belt construction is scheduled to start next year. The federal government's draft environmental impact statement for the rail line is weeks away, to be followed by a 45-day public input period.

Two stations targeted

Cities are registering their positions now. A resolution approved by Plano officials Feb. 26 didn't sit well with North Dallas council member Sandy Greyson because it underlined support for building a station at Coit Road in Dallas — a proposed stop that Dallas doesn't want and that DART says only has "mixed support."

Dallas wants to eliminate proposed Cotton Belt rail stops at Coit and Preston roads. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)

"I've gone to every meeting that there's been in the North Dallas area, and I have had a grand total of three people say they want a station there," Greyson told DART officials at the council's Mobility Solutions, Infrastructure and Sustainability Committee meeting on Monday. "There's not mixed support for it in Dallas. Support is coming from people outside of Dallas."

There's even less momentum in Dallas for the Preston Road station. Dallas' resolution asks that both stops be removed from the Cotton Belt plan.

DART believes eliminating North Dallas stations would increase daily ridership about 15 percent at a station in Addison and about 41 percent at a stop at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Environmental clearance of all the stations does not mean they all have to be built, Timothy McKay, DART vice president of growth and regional development, told the council. DART already lists Preston Road as a "candidate for elimination."

"The number of businesses that would have to be moved, the street configurations, all of those things make it very, very challenging, and there's just not a lot of support for that station," McKay said.

Dallas officials do support a Knoll Trail station, a proposed stop about a mile away from Preston Road and close to the Dallas North Tollway.

The city also supports a stop planned near Cypress Waters, a 1,000-acre mixed-use development near LBJ Freeway and Belt Line Road. And it backs DART's plan to bend the commuter line south of the existing Cotton Belt freight line at that location.

A fence lines the alley separating the University Place subdivision from the easement for railroad tracks at the Cotton Belt crossing near Coit Road in North Dallas. While only about a quarter of the planned commuter rail line is in Dallas, much of the line's impact would be to Dallas neighborhoods. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)

Also on city's wish list

Only about a quarter of the 26-mile planned path of the Cotton Belt cuts through Dallas. But of roughly 5,400 residents who would be moderately or severely impacted by the train, according to DART's environmental study, nearly half live in Dallas.

Planned grade separations — the track passing over or under — at Coit Road and Hillcrest Road will help minimize the impact on Dallas traffic.

Under DART's plan, Dallas neighborhoods will get 17 of the Cotton Belt's 19 planned sound walls — more than three miles in total length. According to the council resolution, the city will settle for noise barriers no less than 15 feet tall. DART has discussed sound walls as low as 7 feet.

"An important component to understand is the difference between mitigation and betterments," said council member Lee Kleinman, chairman of the mobility committee. "Mitigation is what is really required by DART to protect the community. We're pushing in this resolution for betterments, which are really well and above what is required."

Dallas' resolution also asks DART for rubber track aggregate, rather than rock, to reduce vibration; enhanced landscaping; double-gated crossings; and quiet zones — no train whistles — at all at-grade street crossings.

Better busing sought

But the City Council on Wednesday also stipulated in the resolution that DART design and set funding aside for bus system improvements throughout the city before breaking ground on the rail line.

"I anticipate and expect for DART to start listening to the requests," Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, who represents southern Dallas, said before voting in favor of the resolution. "Every time there is something that is north, we can find the dollars, but when it is south and in the Lancaster [Road] area where DART rail first begun, it falls on deaf ears."

Greyson said many in her district, where the Cotton Belt trains will run, don't even want the line.

"But if it's going to happen, then we need these protections that are listed in this resolution," she said.