💧 Frisco's Tap Water Just Earned the Highest Rating Possible

If you've ever side-eyed your tap water while mixing a bottle at 2am, here's some good news. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality gave Frisco's water system its top "Superior" rating for 2025, meaning we met or exceeded every single state and federal safety standard. Zero violations across the board, including for nasty stuff like cryptosporidium and giardia.

Lead and copper levels came back well under action limits too, and the city confirmed there are no lead, galvanized, or unknown service lines anywhere in the system. As someone who has genuinely wondered about this while filling up sippy cups, I'll take it.

The one asterisk: the city's water loss audit found over 678 million gallons lost systemwide last year, split between metering/billing errors and actual pipe leaks. So the water is clean, it's just leaking out of the system at an impressive rate. Somewhere a Frisco water main is living its best life.

Full report is at FriscoTexas.gov/water if you want the nerdy contaminant-by-contaminant breakdown. I did skim it. I contain multitudes.

If you've ever sat at the intersection of Frisco Street and Technology Drive wondering why it exists, brace yourself. The city is planning four new roundabouts along Frisco Street at Technology Drive, Sports Village Road, All Stars Avenue, and Research Road, converting those intersections from standard stoplights into multilane roundabouts.

It's currently in the design phase, with construction bidding expected early next year and a rough timeline of 2027-28. Price tag is $12 million, funded by the city.

As a guy who commutes through this corridor toward Legacy West most mornings, I have complicated feelings about roundabouts. On one hand, they keep traffic moving. On the other hand, half of DFW still doesn't understand yield laws, and I say this as someone who has watched a minivan just... stop... in the middle of one. Godspeed to us all.

Big news just up the tollway. Plano is considering turning the aging Shops at Willow Bend into a new home for the Dallas Stars, wrapped in a mixed-use district called The Bend, complete with retail, restaurants, housing, and public gathering space.

This isn't just talk. Plano City Council already signed off on a non-binding letter of intent with the Stars back in June, along with an incentive agreement and a new Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone covering Willow Bend and the surrounding tollway corridor. Good news for anyone worried about their property taxes creeping into this: the TIRZ only applies to non-residential parcels, so homeowners are not on the hook.

Before anything gets built, residents get a real shot at weighing in. Two in-person open houses are happening at Willow Bend (enter near Equinox and Crate & Barrel):

If it all moves forward, voters could decide on a package of venue-related taxes (hotel occupancy, rental car, event parking, event admissions) in a special election tentatively set for November 3, 2026. None of it touches general tax bills unless voters approve it at the ballot box.

Future me at a Stars game on a Tuesday night sounds pretty great.