Brace for impact

The Dallas Arboretum, and neighbors, prepare for the grand opening of the Rory

Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden on Sept. 21

Story by Brittany Nunn | Photos by Danny Fulgencio

The Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden opens Sept. 21 the same day as the Dallas Arboretum launches into its no. 1 busiest season, Autumn at the Arboretum.

That means increased attendance and a critical need for more parking.

The proposed parking garage across Garland Road is scheduled to begin construction in October, pending the Dallas City Council’s approval of the specific use permit required to build an underground walkway, connecting the children’s garden entrance. The garage won’t open until fall 2014.

In the meantime, the Arboretum will continue shuttling visitors from the temporary overflow lot at Gaston and Grand, used during peak seasons. That contract expires next June as Lincoln Property Co. plans to redevelop the area in to the Arboretum Village shopping center.

John Armstrong, the Arboretum’s vice president of property development, did not give specifics about where additional parking spaces would be located during the summer until the garage opens in the fall.

“We have never turned away somebody from the Arboretum,” he says. “We have always found a parking space for them.”

Seventeen years in the making, the $62 million, 8-acre children’s garden has long been touted as an “outdoor science lab,” home to more than 17 science exhibits designed to teach kids (and adults, for that matter) about the world around them.

The garden, open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, has a capacity for about 1,500 people, and, because of timed tickets, it will turn over twice a day. Last year, about 1 million people visited the Arboretum. Terry Lendecker, with advertising and promotions at the Arboretum, says the Arboretum hopes the children’s garden will double attendance, attracting visitors locally and even globally.

Right now, there are 1,260 parking spaces throughout the grounds. The Gaston and Grand lot provides about 600-700 more spaces. Parking in front of the children’s garden will be valet only.

The Arboretum will lose 268 spaces during construction of the new parking garage. The site is currently a surface lot used for for employees and volunteers. The garage, once it opens, will provide 1,158 spaces.

Mary Griggs of the Emerald Isle Neighborhood Association says the children’s garden is about 50 feet away from one of two access roads to her neighborhood, and the new deceleration lanes have already limited the Garland Road entrance and exits