Katy Trail (Dallas)

The work is being carried out by The Friends of Katy Trail under a master plan created by The SWA Group office in Dallas.

The Katy Trail is also directly responsible for an upsurge in property values and retail-restaurant sales in adjacent neighborhoods and developments.

"[attribution needed] The trail's life began when the Union Pacific Railroad, which had bought the Katy, donated the abandoned lines to the city in 1993.

In the early 1980s, The Katy was initially considered for DART's Red and Blue lines to the Northeast, but the current route beneath Central Expressway was chosen instead.

By the early 1990s, Dallas residents, businesspeople, and city and county officials proposed restoring the greenbelt along the railroad route and creating an urban park as part of the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy program, established in 1986 and based in Washington, D.C.

Although private donations are a major source of support for trail maintenance, they are complemented by government and foundation grants.

The Friends of the Katy Trail have greatly expanded that vision by hiring The SWA Group, an international landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm, to create a $23 million master plan for two trails and an urban park connecting the West End district to Mockingbird Station.