Frisco is an affluent city in Collin and Denton counties in Texas and a rapidly growing suburb of Dallas, approximately 25 minutes from the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport. With major highways north-south and east-west, the city is well-positioned on the path of growth in the Dallas area.
As of November 1, 2013, the city had a Population Estimate of 135,920, up from 116,989, in the previous census (2010). Frisco was the fastest-growing city in the United States in 2009,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. In 2007, Frisco received the National Arbor Day Foundation Growth Award for the third year in a row. This award recognizes environmental improvement and encourages a higher level of tree care and tree preservation within the community. A 2007 Forbes study named Frisco as the seventh-fastest growing suburb in the United States. In 2011, CNN listed Frisco as one of the “Best Places to Live” in the nation, and Forbes ranked it 7th in its list of “America’s 25 Best Places To Move”.
Like many Dallas suburbs, Frisco is accumulating a tremendous number of 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 m2) 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 build north of the theater.
Education
Most of Frisco is within the Frisco Independent School District (Frisco ISD). Some parts extend into Lewisville Independent School District, Little Elm Independent School District, and Prosper Independent School District.
Frisco ISD currently has six high schools: Frisco High School, Centennial High School, Liberty High School, Wakeland High School, Heritage High School, and Lone Star High School. Additional bond measures have been approved to begin plans for an seventh high school, Independence High School, to open in 2014, with an eighth, Reedy High School, to be completed by 2018. Frisco, Centennial, Liberty, Heritage, and Wakeland all compete at 4A sports level, while Lone Star competes in 3A.
There are thirteen middle schools in Frisco, including Wester, Clark, Cobb, Hunt, Staley, Griffin, Roach, Maus, Stafford, Scoggins, Pioneer-Heritage, and Vandeventer.
Frisco also has thirty-two Elementary Schools: Allen, Anderson, Ashley, Bledsoe, Boals, Borchardt, Bright, Carroll, Christie, Cobb, Corbell, Curtsinger, Elliott, Fisher, Gunstream, Isbell, Mooneyham, Nichols, Ogle, Pink, Purefoy, Riddle, Robertson, Rogers, Sem, Shawnee Trail, Smith, Sparks, Spears, Sonntag Tadlock, and Taylor.