| Retail development makes FM1709 major thoroughfare 04/13/2001 By Jenni Smith / The Dallas Morning News Greg Last, Southlake's director of economic development, remembers when FM1709 lived up to its name, when it really was a farm-to-market road as it rolled through the pastures of Keller and Southlake.
"I can recall years ago when Dairy Queen was the only place to eat in Southlake," Mr. Last said.
Now, there are fast-food joints of all sorts, plus chain restaurants and gourmet dining and all the shopping any consumer would want. The rural highway has become the two cities' main commercial and retail artery.
The change is so complete that the two horses that can be seen lazily munching grass on a lot at FM1709 and Jellico Circle seem out of place.
"It might look like it's all happened in the last couple of weeks, but it's been coming for some time," Mr. Last said. "We've waited a long time for retail development."
FM1709 – which also goes by Southlake Boulevard, Keller Parkway and Price Street, depending on the location – is lined with shopping centers, housing developments and for-sale signs. The area's biggest retail projects – Southlake Town Square, Gateway Plaza and the Keller Town Center – all front FM1709.
And nearly every piece of remaining pasture is for sale, said Woody Mitchell, Keller's director of economic development.
"The growth on 1709 is because we're finally getting the population density that the retail and commercial merchants want to be around," he said. "We also have the traffic count. A few years ago, there were 20,000 cars a day going up and down 1709 in Keller. Now there are 32,000."
The thoroughfare is the main east-west link for Southlake and Keller between State Highway 114 on the east and U.S. Highway 377 on the west. That road continues in northeast Fort Worth as Golden Triangle Boulevard and connects with Interstate 35W.
The growing population in the 1990s forced city and state officials to widen FM1709 to five lanes. Another expansion is expected, Mr. Mitchell said.
"It has the capability to be widened one more lane each way," he said. "Probably in the next three to five years, they will make decisions to open those up. Right now, 1709 is not anywhere near capacity."
Bustling retail centers add property and sales taxes to the cities' coffers, but they also can create traffic snarls.
"It's kind of a love-hate relationship," Mr. Last said. "It's been such a benefit to the city, but you have a lot of traffic on 1709. People commute mostly to the east, so that creates traffic. But that also brings in clients or potential customers for the retail industry."
Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said the original plan was to replace FM1709 with a freeway.
Now it's too late, he said.
"In 1985, we went out to those cities and told them someday they would be heavily populated and they needed to develop a freeway," he said. "We were basically run out of town. Now we can't build freeway.
"We're forced to mitigate traffic any way we can. The only way we know to move traffic at this point is on major thoroughfares, like 1709 and Heritage Parkway."
Business developments on FM1709 may snarl traffic, but they also make Southlake and Keller attractive places to live, Mr. Mitchell said.
"We are able to keep our taxes low because of these retail developments," he said. "They also generate sales tax. This takes the burden off the property tax."
Development moves in waves, Mr. Mitchell said, and the sweep is heading west down FM1709 onto Golden Triangle Boulevard.
For now, cows roam overgrown fields on Golden Triangle. But not for long, Mr. Mitchell said.
"If you look out west, it's all green space, but that will start to fill up," he said. "We've seen quite a bit of commercial development along 1709, and we'll see more."
Staff writer Jenni Smith can be reached at or 817-410-9602, extension. 4971.
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