The city population was 116,989 at the
2010 census.
[2] As of December 17, 2015, the city had an estimated population of 151,960.
[3][4] Frisco was the fastest-growing city in the
United States in 2009,
[5] and also the fastest-growing city in the nation from 2000 to 2009. In the late 1990s, the northern
Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex suburban development tide hit the northern border of
Plano and spilled into Frisco, sparking explosive growth into the 2000s. Like many of the cities located in the booming northern suburbs of Dallas, Frisco serves as a
bedroom community for many professionals who work in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex.
Since 2003, Frisco has received the designation "
Tree City USA" by the National Arbor Day Foundation.
History[edit]
When the Dallas area was being settled by American pioneers, many of the
settlers traveled by
wagon trains along the old
Shawnee Trail. This trail was also used for cattle drives north from
Austin. This trail later became the
Preston Trail, and later,
Preston Road. Preston Road is one of the oldest north-south roads in all of Texas. With all of this activity, the community of
Lebanon was founded along this trail and granted a U.S. post office in 1860. In 1902, a line of the
St. Louis-San Francisco Railway was being built through the area, and periodic watering holes were needed along the rails for the steam engines. The current settlement of Lebanon was on the Preston Ridge and was thus too high in elevation, so the watering hole was placed about four miles (6 km) to the west on lower ground. A community grew around this train stop. Residents of
Lebanon actually moved their houses to the new community on logs. The new town was originally named Emerson, but that name was rejected by the
U.S. Postal Service as being too similar to another town in Texas. In 1904, the residents chose
Frisco City in honor of the
St. Louis–San Francisco Railway on which the town was founded, later shortened to its present name.
Geography[edit]
Frisco is located in western Collin County and eastern Denton County at
33°08′29″N 96°48′47″W (33.141263, -96.813120).
[6]
Climate[edit]
Frisco is part of the
humid subtropical region. It gets 39 inches of rain per year. On average, there are 230 sunny days per year in the city. The July high is around 96 degrees. The January low is 33 degrees. The comfort index, which is based on humidity during the hot months, is a 25 out of 100, where higher is more comfortable.
[7]
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 62.4 square miles (161.6 km
2), of which 61.8 square miles (160.1 km
2) is land and 0.58 square miles (1.5 km
2), or 0.92%, is water.
[2]
Major highways[edit]
Demographics[edit]
As of the 2010
census,
[12] there were 116,989 people living in Frisco, up from the previous census in 2000, with 33,714 people.
In 2000, there were 12,065 households, and 9,652 families residing in the city. The
population density was 482.4 people per square mile (186.3/km
2). There were 13,683 housing units at an average density of 195.8 per square mile (75.6/km
2).
By 2010,
[13] there were 42,306 housing units, 39,901 households, and 31,226 families. 62% were on the Collin County side and 38% in Denton County.
67% of households were
married couples living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 21.7% were non-families. 17.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 2.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.93 and the average family size was 3.35. 51.7% of households had children under the age of 18 living with them.
The age distribution is 33.3% under the age of 18, 4.9% from 18 to 24, 13.9% from 25 to 34, 22.5% from 35 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 5.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.9 years.
According to a 2010 American Community Survey
[14] estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $100,868, the median income for a family was $109,086. The
per capita income for the city was $38,048. About 2.2% of families and 5.8% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 7.5% of those under age 18 and 2.4% of those age 65 or over.
Population, housing, and economic statistics for Frisco as of January 1, 2012.
[3]
Population estimate[edit]
- April 1, 2010: 116,989
- July 1, 2013: 136,791
- June 1, 2014: 140,220
- May 1, 2015: 147,580
- May 1, 2016: 155,310 [3]
Economy[edit]
Interior of Stonebriar Mall
Like many Dallas suburbs, Frisco is accumulating many retail properties, including
Stonebriar Centre (opened August 2000), a 165-store
regional mall, and
IKEA (opened 2005), a furniture store with an area of 28,800 square meters (310,000 sq ft). Retail establishments and restaurant chains line Preston Road, which is one of the major north-south-running traffic arteries in the city.
Frisco took a different economic track than many surrounding cities and elected to use a fractional percent of local sales tax to fund the Frisco Economic Development Corporation (FEDC) rather than DART, the regional transportation body. The effectiveness of the FEDC, whose primary purpose is to reallocate such tax dollars to commercial ventures, is a matter of public debate.
Frisco also built Frisco Square, a mixed-use development that will become the new downtown. Frisco Square has about 250 rental residential units, seven restaurants, about 40,000 square feet (3,700 m
2) of commercial office space and a few personal service locations. The major development in the project is the new City Hall and main library and a public commons. A
Cinemark theater opened in December 2010. In 2012, a hospital, Forest Park Medical Center, was built north of the theater.
[15]
Corporate presence[edit]
According to the city's 2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,
[7] the top employers in the city are:
Government[edit]
Local government[edit]
Frisco is a "
home rule" city. Frisco voters adopted its initial "home rule" charter in 1987. Frisco residents have voted to amend the Charter two times since 1987:
- May 2002, approved 19 propositions.
- May 2010, approved 14 propositions.
* In May 2014, the Charter Review Commission recommended an additional 14 propositions, however these have not yet been put to a vote by residents.
The form of government adopted by Frisco is the
council-manager, which consists of a mayor and six city council members elected "
at-large" and a
city manager. Council members' duties include enacting local legislation (
ordinances), adopting budgets, determining policies, and appointing the City Manager and City Secretary.
According to the city’s 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the city’s various funds had $227.2 million in revenues, $184.4 million in expenditures, $1,647.0 million in total assets, $753.1 million in total liabilities, and $159.3 million in cash and investments.
[7]
The structure of the management and coordination of city services is:
[7]Government officials (as of 2010)
| City Department | Director |
|---|
| City Manager | George A. Purefoy |
| City Attorney | Richard Abernathy |
| Municipal Judge | Michael Drewry |
| City Secretary | Jenny Page |
| Deputy City Manager | Henry J. Hill, III |
| Assistant City Manager | Nell Lange |
| Assistant City Manager | Ron Patterson |
| Director of Public Safety | Vacant |
| Director of Communications | Dana Baird-Hanks |
| Director of Engineering Services & Public Works | Paul Knippel |
| Director of Financial Services | Anita Cothran |
| Director of Human Resources | Lauren Safranek |
| Director of Information Technology | Curt Balogh |
| Director of Library Services | Shelley Holley |
| Director of Parks & Recreation | Rick Wieland |
| Director Development Services | John Lettelleir |
| Fire Chief | Mark Piland |
| Police Chief | John Bruce |
| Economic Development Corp President | James Gandy |
| Executive Director CVB | Marla Roe |
The city of Frisco is a voluntary member of the
North Central Texas Council of Governments association, the purpose of which is to coordinate individual and collective local governments and facilitate regional solutions, eliminate unnecessary duplication, and enable joint decisions.
Education[edit]
Primary and secondary[edit]
The Early Childhood School
[16] is available for children ages three and four who meet eligibility requirements for Headstart, Prekindergarten, or Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities.
Frisco also has the
Frisco ISD Career & Technical Education Center(CTE or CaTE Center), a building in which students from high schools can experience and try different careers, from veterinary work to advertising, and graphic design.
[17]
Collin College, the Preston Ridge campus of the community college district, opened on Wade Boulevard in Frisco in August 1995.
In 2008, Frisco ISD opened the Career and Technology Education Center.
Recreation[edit]
Frisco has built the
Frisco Athletic Center that features 18,000 square feet (1,700 m
2) of indoor aquatics elements and about 40,000 square feet (3,700 m
2) of outdoor aquatic features. Some area residents refer to this as the "Rec Center" or "F.A.C." It features upscale exercise equipment, as well as group exercise classes.
[18]
Frisco is home to several sporting venues, a NCAA Division I conference headquarters, a NHL hockey team headquarters, a
Major League Soccer team, a
junior ice hockeyleague headquarters, a Minor League baseball team, and an NBA D-league team. The Dallas Cowboys will move their headquarters to Frisco in 2016.
The main entrance of Dr Pepper Ballpark
Frisco is home to a variety of sporting venues. The
Dr Pepper Ballpark, a 10,600-seat
baseball stadium, hosted its first baseball game on April 3, 2003. It was named the best new ballpark that year by BaseballParks.com,
[19] and received the 2003 Texas Construction award for Best Architectural Design.
[20] Toyota Stadium, which was opened August 6, 2005, as "Pizza Hut Park", is a 20,500-seat stadium. It is primarily used as a soccer stadium by
FC Dallas, but also hosts concerts, local high school football games and college games, specifically the I-AA (FCS) football championship starting in 2010. The
Dr Pepper Arena, a combination hockey and basketball venue, is the home of the
Texas Legends of the NBA Development League, the
North American Hockey League franchise
Texas Tornado, and a practice facility for the
Dallas Stars of the NHL.
The Dallas Cowboys will move their corporate headquarters to Frisco in time for the 2016 NFL football season, with the complex expected to open in June 2016. The 91-acre Dallas Cowboys project "Frisco Station" will include the team’s new headquarters and training facilities. One of which will be Ford Stadium, where FISD High Schools and the Dallas Cowboys will practice and occasionally play. It will be located on the corner of the N. Dallas Tollway and Warren Parkway.
[21] It will boast state of the art training facilities and practice fields, a luxury hotel, high-end retail shopping and restaurants, and a 12,000 seat indoor stadium where the Frisco Independent School District high school varsity boys will play home games during the regular high school football season.
The
Southland Conference, an
NCAA Division I athletics organization, relocated its headquarters to Frisco in 2006. On February 26, 2010, it was announced that Pizza Hut Park (now called Toyota Stadium) in Frisco would become the host of the
Football Championship Subdivision (formerly NCAA Division 1-AA) championship game, formerly held in
Chattanooga, Tennessee and
Huntington, West Virginia. The first matchup, hosted by the Southland Conference, was played January 7, 2011.
[22]
Baseball[edit]
The
Dallas Stars NHL team is headquartered in Frisco, and the team practices at the Dr Pepper Arena there. The
Texas Tornado of the
North American Hockey League have been based in Frisco since the fall of 2003, and shortly afterward the NAHL moved its main offices to Frisco. In the 2013 off-season, the Texas Tornado relocated to North Richland Hills, Texas.
Basketball[edit]
High school sports[edit]
All Frisco Independent School District's high schools have Academic Decathlon, football, basketball, baseball, soccer, softball, volleyball, track and cross-country, swimming, golf, power-lifting, tennis and wrestling programs available for student athletes.
