Introduction to the Lower 5 Plaza Project
For about five years, McKinney has been considering a plan to build its own version of Klyde Warren Park on State Highway 5. This project had been backed by $15 million in federal funding intended to restitch communities ripped apart by highways. However, that federal funding has been withdrawn, a city spokesperson confirmed, as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. McKinney had received a piece of an $80 million pie awarded from the U.S. Department of Transportation for a series of pedestrian parks in the region, which included funds for Halperin Park and Klyde Warren Park in Dallas.
Background on the Project
The city’s proposed “Lower 5 Plaza” is planned to cost at least $40 million and is intended to make the city’s downtown more walkable. Unlike Klyde Warren Park, the city’s plaza was designed with the highway above the pedestrian crossing, proposed between Virginia Street and Louisiana Street. The federal transportation department announced the $80 million award in 2024, including $15 million for the project in McKinney, which the city received through the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
But the $15 million for McKinney — more than a third of the project’s total estimated cost — has been withdrawn from the Neighborhood Access and Equity Program as a result of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending cut legislation, according to a statement from the city. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act rescinds balances for the program that are not yet committed. The program is meant to improve walkability, safety, and affordable transportation access and support transportation equity in disadvantaged communities. The Trump administration’s legislation also withdrew $105 million from the city of Austin.
The property of Shawn Wang, photographed on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025 in downtown Mckinney. Wang’s property in downtown McKinney with several business tenants- a donut shop, a smoke shop, a cleaner’s, a sushi store, a Mexican restaurant, mainly owned by immigrant families. His property is now in the way of a park the city plans to build underneath the highway.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
Concerns and Controversies
McKinney’s federal grant was part of a Biden-era effort to address how past transportation infrastructure investments in the 1950s and 1960s disconnected communities, with low-income and minority Americans suffering disproportionately. The rescinded funds could jeopardize the project in McKinney, where council members already expressed concern about the high project cost even with the federal funding. “I’ve always thought it was an over-the-top response to the core issue we’re trying to solve,” wrote District 1 council member Justin Beller in a statement. District 1 encompasses east McKinney. “Spending $40 million-plus to cross a five-lane road is not a good use of funds, regardless of who pays for it.”
Alternative Funding Sources
The city has other funding sources for the plaza. The council of governments contributed $22.65 million through Surface Transportation Block Grant funding, city documents show, and the state’s transportation department is expected to cover about $4 million. An estimated $3.35 million would come from the city, according to plans made before the federal funding was rescinded.
Impact on Local Businesses
Although the project’s federal dollars are intended to repair the harm caused by infrastructure choices of the past, some city leaders, business owners, and residents of the east side aren’t convinced the project would help east McKinney, which lags the rest of the city in economic and social well-being, according to a 2022 draft report for the city. Safety along the highway’s crossing has long been a concern. A city analysis of 13 crashes reported along State Highway 5 from 2020 to 2025 found two crashes were fatal and five pedestrians were seriously injured. The city is evaluating other ways to improve crossing safety on the highway near downtown, such as adding traffic signals and more visible crosswalks in addition to the plaza project.
Shawn Wang poses for a portrait in front of the property complex he owns on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025 in downtown McKinney.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
Potential Outcomes
If the project does not go forward, several businesses in the park’s proposed path could be spared from relocation. The city has identified five properties that would be in the project’s footprint and could be demolished to make room for the plaza, including the commercial building Shawn Wang’s family has owned for nearly three decades. Wang has eight tenants, mainly small, family-owned businesses, who he said have been kept in limbo for years, unsure if or when they’d have to move if the project went forward. “Every business owner wants a degree of certainty. At this point, it’s not there,” Wang said. “They talk about it and shelve it. … In the meantime, we’re the ones who are paying the price.”
Next Steps
The council meets Aug. 19 and plans to consider feedback on the project from a public input survey, and may soon decide whether or not to move forward with the
