la Frontera In the News

Round Rock Leader

February 22, 1999

Leader Editorial
La Frontera will require road improvements

When the 350-acre La Frontera arrives in Round Rock with its shopping center, campus-style office buildings, an apartment complex and a hotel, this community will take yet another step on that road to bigcity status.

That's assuming, of course, that drivers in this community will be able to get there.

The La Frontera project will be built at the northwest corner of IH35 and FM 1325. By the time it's up and running, maybe in 10 years, it could be worth about $450 million.

In property taxes alone, La Frontera could add $1.7 million a year to the city's revenue.

But it will all be a multimillion dollar flop if a convenient, safe and accessible road system is not planned by city officials ahead of time.

Traffic is not getting any better here. That's no secret. More and more people are moving to Round Rock, and why wouldn't they?

But this city will get less and less appealing if officials don't start acting proactively when big developers come our way.

Don Martin, one of the La Frontera developers, said the response from the city has been one of both excitement and caution.

If the right road improvements aren't made in that area, the developers will be doing themselves and the area a disservice.

The shopping center will be built on 700,000 square feet and will feature a 16-screen theater, 11 restaurants and a slew of anchor stores. That all should be here by the fall of 2000.

Add to that the business offices, hotel and apartments, and the amount of traffic that heads that way will be incredible.

City officials told us years ago that the construction of roads around Dell would prevent congestion. We wonder when the last time was they tried to drive out there.

As for La Frontera, we would urge the city to move ahead with what they've proposed: extend Hester's Crossing west to connect with County Road 172, and support the construction of State Highway 45 that would connect to MoPac and run right through La Frontera.

This would offer convenient access for those heading to the multipurpose facility, and free up a lot of room on the interstate and FM 1325 for those travelers who are not.

We're looking forward to seeing the arrival of La Frontera. We hope the city makes it easy for us to get there.