Palisades Master Plan

Palisades is a 58-acre tract of land in the heart of the Richardson Telecom Corridor across U.S. 75 from the Galatyn Park DART Station. Two office towers currently occupy the southerly portion of the tract, with a parking garage serving one of them. The current entitlements on the tract were issued in 2006, with no subsequent development occurring for the previous seven years. Our assignment was to create a new form based code for a mixed use development that is flexible for prospective developers and potential corporate campus users and yet predictable in its urban form and uses allowed. The project mix is based on a variety of factors, including carefully crafted building height limits. Based on the neighborhood’s concerns, a two-story residential buffer was conceived, followed by four to six-story multi-family with ground floor activated uses that face a publicly accessed 4-acre central park. High rise corporate office sites along U.S. 75 are capped in height to match the highest existing office tower. The proximity of the Galatyn Park Station encourages an efficient, compact land use pattern, promotes pedestrian activity, reduces the reliance of private automobiles and provides a more functional and attractive community through the use of recognized principles of urban design.