When the concepts of "compact city" and "smart growth" were first advanced in the 1990s, the conventional wisdom was that roadway capacity and livability at the neighborhood scale were incompatible. Today, after a generation of evolved thinking by urban planners, engineers, neighborhood leaders, economic developers, city leaders and other stakeholders in the business of city-building, the art of city design has embraced a context-sensitive approach to transportation and neighborhood design that recognizes that roadway capacity and livability are not competing objectives.

The Dallas CityMAP process is an open and inclusive assessment of the challenges, opportunities, and potential solutions for the aging interstate corridors and adjacent neightborhoods in and around downtown Dallas.