Just west of Lawnview Avenue there is a 110-acre lake that has been there for more than 70 years, and very few people in Dallas have seen it. Parkdale Lake sits closer to downtown than White Rock Lake does, but limited access has kept most people away. That changes once the next section of the Trinity Forest Spine Trail gets built.
That is the near-term change on Buckner Terrace's west side. The association describes the neighborhood as bounded by I-30, Lawnview Avenue, Forney Road and Buckner Boulevard. The City's older neighborhood-organization listing uses Samuell Boulevard as the north line instead. Under either map, two big public projects meet here. One is on the Lawnview edge and has its construction money approved. The other runs straight through the neighborhood on Military Parkway, and only its first, smallest phase has money behind it. Over the next few years, that difference decides what you actually notice changing.
The trail is already funded
The Spine Trail is planned as a nine-mile route from White Rock Lake to the AT&T Trail. It has been built in phases, and the most recent ones have landed close to Buckner Terrace:
- 2023. The first phase opened, linking the Santa Fe Trail at White Rock Lake to Far East Dallas.
- April 2026. The second phase opened in Pleasant Grove, ending at the new Lake June Road bridge and 2nd Avenue near U.S. 175, with better access to the Lake June DART Station. D Magazine reported that the money came from a federal RAISE grant plus city, county, state and North Central Texas Council of Governments funds.
- May 27, 2026. The Dallas City Council approved a $16 million construction award for the third phase. It extends the trail toward Parkdale Lake from both the north and the south and closes the gap between the Lawnview DART Station and the existing trail near Samuell Boulevard.
The third phase is the one that touches this neighborhood. NBC 5 reported that city leaders call it the most technically complex part of The Loop Dallas' 50-mile trail network. The station access and the lake access are being built as one project. Philip Haigh, executive director of The Loop Dallas, described the lake to NBC 5 this way:
"It's a really incredible lake that's been there for over 70 years now, and I bet less than a thousand people have ever visited it."
The lake has been in public hands for a while, but with almost nothing built on it yet. The City describes Parkdale Lake Park as 110 acres donated by Oncor in 2020. In 2024, the Council approved an application for a $1.5 million Texas Parks and Wildlife grant to add solid-surface trails, overlooks and seating, with a matching amount to come from the 2024 bond program. The District 7 bond handout, current as of June 2026, lists Parkdale Lake Trail site development at $3 million with a 2029 start. So the Spine Trail will get people to the lake first. The paths, overlooks and seating around the lake are on a later bond schedule.
Military Parkway gets paint and plantings first
Military Parkway, the corridor through the middle of the neighborhood, has been planned for much longer. In 2017, the office of former Council Member Rickey Callahan asked City planners for design ideas for Military Parkway from Lawnview Avenue to Buckner Boulevard. Community input later stretched the study area west to Forney Road near Dolphin Road. The result is the Military Parkway Corridor Study, a final draft dated July 2026 that covers about 3.2 miles. Public meetings were held on July 23 and September 3, 2024, and another on August 3, 2026 confirmed the final recommendations. The study puts the corridor on the high-injury network in Dallas' Vision Zero Action Plan. It calls itself a basis for preliminary design and engineering, so it is not yet a construction schedule.
The recommended design is Alternative B, which turns the frontage roads into one-way streets. In the survey, 57% of respondents preferred one-way operation. The study says it cuts conflict points between vehicles. It also says it will change travel patterns, and some people who live or run businesses along the road will have longer trips to get in and out. The money is split into three phases, and only the first is funded:
| Phase | What it includes | Funding status in the study |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | One-way frontage road conversion using signage and striping only, select median closures, four pedestrian hybrid beacons, $2 million in landscaping | Estimated at $3 million, fully funded by the City of Dallas |
| Phase 2 | Frontage road reconstruction, shared-use path, bicycle facilities, landscaping between frontage roads and Military Parkway, key intersection upgrades | Costs to be refined at the next design milestone; unfunded items to be programmed in future cycles |
| Phase 3 | Full reconstruction of Military Parkway and the remaining landscaping | Expected to need competitive grant funding |
Phase 1 puts the four pedestrian hybrid beacons at Lasca Street, Academy Drive, Wilkes Avenue and Grover Drive. They are meant to make crossing easier near destinations such as Parkdale Park, a 16-acre community park dating to 1947 with a pavilion, playground, softball field, basketball court and trails. The first plantings will be drought-tolerant meadow and rock areas, plus trees along the frontage road edges. They will steer clear of the gas line in the eastern part of the corridor. Landscaping on the east end, at bus stops and at the Lawnview intersection waits for Phases 2 and 3.
The bike lanes and shared-use path that drew the most interest in public meetings are in Phase 2. For the parts that need grants, the study lists TxDOT's Highway Safety Improvement Program, the TASA grant cycles and federal RAISE/BUILD money as possible sources. Separately, the District 7 bond handout lists a $1 million "Military Pkwy Complete Street (Forney to Buckner)" partnership project as prospective, with a 2027 start. It does not say whether that money is the study's Phase 1.
The one intersection still up for discussion is Urban Avenue. People were split on a roundabout, and the study names a regular traffic signal as the initial preferred option. The study's cost table explains why the question stays open. A signal costs $250,000 to build, compared with $830,000 for a roundabout. Over its life, though, the study estimates the signal at $1.33 million and the roundabout at $1.15 million, once maintenance and safety costs are counted.
Lawnview is where the two projects meet
The trail and the corridor cross at Lawnview, and that spot is also where the corridor study sees a problem. The Spine Trail will pass under Military Parkway along White Rock Creek. About 400 feet east of that crossing is a driveway for the Core30 Logistics Center. Crow Holdings Development broke ground on the two-building, 511,000-square-foot industrial project at 5323 Lawnview Avenue in 2024. The July 2026 study expects heavy truck turns at that driveway. It names the stretch between White Rock Creek and Forney Road, on the north side of Military Parkway, as a spot where people walking or biking will share space with large trucks, and where any new sidewalk or trail needs extra safety work.
So the trail is likely to bring more people on foot and bike to Lawnview before Phase 2 of the corridor plan builds the shared-use path and the crossing upgrades that would fully tie the two together.
This fall, start east on US-80
Until the third trail phase opens, the nearest place in the City's parks system for a fall walk is east on US-80. Samuell (East) Farm, at 100 US-80 in Mesquite, has two events on Saturday, October 24, 2026.
- Hike and Yoga with Explore More, 10 a.m. to noon. A hike of a mile or less to an overlook, then beginner-friendly standing yoga.
- Jimmy's Haunted Hike, 6 to 9 p.m. A short, family-friendly hike with craft and game stations and candy.
If you want to see where the trail already goes, the open Spine Trail runs north to White Rock Lake. Our recent piece on how Dallas is changing White Rock Lake maintenance covers what is happening at that end.
For Buckner Terrace, the next real change on the ground is the trail reaching Parkdale Lake. The new beacons and frontage-road striping on Military Parkway are funded and should follow. The full rebuild of the road depends on grants the City has not yet won.
If you own on or near Military Parkway or Lawnview and want to know how the one-way frontage roads, the new trail access and the Core30 truck traffic could affect your property, Latitude Key can go through the corridor plan with you block by block.
