Developers are eyeing a new apartment project on Dallas' popular Katy Trail.

Builder Lincoln Property wants to construct a 309-unit rental community along Carlisle Street in Uptown. The apartments would replace an aging condo complex on the site between Hall and Bowen streets.

But first Lincoln Property will have to get zoning changes for five- and six-story project.

"The zoning change that Lincoln Property is asking for is height and a small amount of lot coverage," said former Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt, who spoke for the developer before a Tuesday night meeting of the Oak Lawn Committee.

The property is currently zoned for three-story buildings. But high-rises as tall as 17 floors are in the next block along Carlisle.

"Uptown has transformed in the last 12 years," Hunt said.

In return for the taller buildings, Hunt said the developers are offering to build new public connections to the Katy Trail, bury power lines and set the buildings back from the popular pedestrian trail.

Lincoln Property is also offering to set aside 5 percent of the apartments in its Lincoln Katy Trail project for "affordable" housing. The units would be available to residents with a household income 80 percent or less than the area's median family income.

"I think that's a benefit of this project," Hunt said. "I think this is an opportunity to have some affordable housing."

The area around the condo site Lincoln wants to buy has seen increasingly taller and denser buildings in the last decade. Fewer and fewer low-rise buildings remain in the hot development district north of downtown Dallas.

Lincoln's Katy Trail project still faces opposition, especially from neighbors worried about increases in traffic. The Friends of the Katy Trail group recently withdrew its support for the project, Hunt said. The organization previously had written a letter in support of the development, she said.

Hunt said the buildings would be a minimum of 35 feet away from the trail — farther back than other apartments recently built along the Katy Trail.

"We more than meet the setback," she said. "We are committed to still working with the Friends of the Katy Trail."