MCKINNEY, Texas— McKinney officials have canceled plans to develop an inverted deck park on State Highway 5 in McKinney after $15 million in federal funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was pulled. Instead, the city will focus resources on improving ground-level crossings along State Highway 5.
On September 16, the McKinney City Council approved a resolution authorizing the redirection of activities.
“While this is a change, I don’t think it stops or curbs the appetite to connect different areas of McKinney, and I think staff has done a great job of pivoting, if you will,” McKinney Mayor Bill Cox said at a city council work session prior to the vote.
The action comes after $15 million was taken from the deck park project as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4 and included a package of tax and expenditure cuts.
That funding was part of $80 million awarded to various projects in North Texas as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Neighborhood Access and Equity grant program to support pedestrian projects meant to “reknit communities divided by the construction of major roadways,” according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
The deck park project had been planned for years, and it included a below-bridge pedestrian plaza within the State Highway 5 corridor to provide pedestrian access to both sides of the highway.
According to a news statement from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the design also featured a bicycle and pedestrian connection between Downtown McKinney and East McKinney, as well as a connection between Downtown McKinney and the new McKinney City Hall.
According to the city, the project is expected to cost between $40 and 45 million.
City officials aim to use around $22.6 million in North Central Texas Council of Governments cash originally earmarked for the deck park project for crossings and other upgrades along State Highway 5.
