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Opinion

Armstrong: Can Dallas be pro-builder and pro-neighborhoods?

Our city planning must match execution

James Armstrong
James Armstrong(Debonair Photos)

You can hear the most thought-provoking comments at your local diner. Recently, I was at Mama’s Daughters’ Diner on the edge of West Dallas, leaving a breakfast meeting with community members and the new Dallas Morning News Public Editor Stephen Buckley, and as I was passing a table I overheard an elderly lady say, “And before you know it, our neighborhood will look like a bunch of shoeboxes.” I initially giggled; I heard humor. But when I glanced at her face, what I saw was fear.

There is a growing tension among neighborhoods in our city. It crosses ethnic and income lines and has shown its weight by slowing down the ForwardDallas plan. The tension is between neighborhood self-determination and the city’s housing needs. It is translating to a concern that neighborhoods aren’t being protected or prioritized.

I would argue neighborhoods are a priority to our city leaders. In fact, we have an extremely pro-neighborhood City Council, with many of them coming from public service at the grassroots neighborhood level. However, a pro-neighborhood approach has to extend beyond the council and be practiced in our development processes.

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“It’s city planning that is done through the framework of neighborhoods and that measures the health of the whole by the health of our neighborhoods” as Brent Brown described it. Brown is a well-known urban design and planning expert and the founding director of Citydesign Studio.

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A pro-neighborhood approach is a culture that doesn’t expect neighbors to prove the validity of their preference against untested urban trends. It’s an understanding that neighborhoods are the heartbeat of our city, and every new plan should be tested against the preferences of what and who are already there.

A pro-neighborhood effort

We’ve done this before. In 2015, Neighborhood Plus was introduced as a planning process that would alleviate poverty, fight blight, attract and retain the middle class, expand homeownership, and enhance rental options. Grassroots engagement began and hope at the neighborhood level began to bubble up.

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This is where Elm Thicket-Northpark residents found their hope — in a city program that helped them protect their neighborhood from the ongoing threat of development. In 2017, supported by then-council member Adam Medrano, an authorized committee composed of residents and developers ushered in a protective zoning ordinance called PD 67 that restricts roof lines, height and placement of density.

But what happens when an ordinance is in place but there’s no process that fully vets all permits against the standard? You have developers bypass the system and build what they want where they want.

Residents in Elm Thicket-Northpark are standing up and saying no to a developer who now has more than 12 unfinished homes with orders to stop work.

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Resident and nonprofit executive Cynthia Mickens Ross felt “a deep sense of frustration” about the 12 unfinished homes and described them as “a stagnation that is not just an eyesore but a symbol of the larger issues at play.”

Neighbors like Gus Perez and his wife, Amelia, participated in the Neighborhood Plus process and helped form the group Save Elm Thicket to help with education and advocacy.

“We want good builders,” Gus explained. “We’re not trying to stop development. The neighbors want to be treated with dignity and see homes that look like homes and not homes that make the neighborhood look like a medical office park.”

This month the case goes to the board of adjustments, a quasi-judicial body empowered by the state Legislature to decide on cases that are potentially nonconforming to the Dallas Development Code. If the board gives the builder a pass, residents will have 10 days to hire an attorney and appeal to the district courts.

West Dallas case

What’s happening in Elm Thicket-Northpark is a common occurrence, especially in Black and brown communities.

Many years ago, residents in the La Bajada neighborhood of West Dallas established protective zoning in the form of a Neighborhood Stabilization Overlay, which also regulates front and side yard setbacks, garage placement and connection, and height. Despite the overlay, a builder was able to get a permit approved for a four-story house with an elevator that violated the overlay by three feet.

The home in question stands as an unfinished brick edifice towering above treetops. From the fourth floor, the home has an immaculate view of the downtown skyline, but it also towers over the small abodes to its right and left that stand as a remnant of the historical West Dallas.

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Community members who were instrumental in establishing the NSO spoke before the board of adjustments and gave solid arguments as to why the structure was nonconforming. In the end, the board voted unanimously to approve the variance mainly because correcting the violation would have caused financial hardship for the builder.

Maria Lozada Garcia, who serves as the committee chair for the NSO, said, “As more of these million-dollar homes pop up in our small, working-class neighborhood, residents begin to feel out of place in their own communities. Our modest homes and unpretentious way of life are worthy of honor and preservation.”

These one-off cases are crucial because they set precedents for future cases. One variance here and another permit oversight there become new building standards for the neighborhood despite what current zoning regulations allow. Practice must align with policy or policy becomes irrelevant.

Pro-neighborhood planning

We need guards against our fascination with the new in order to save what little intrinsic character we have left. Modern designs and sleek lines have their place, but not at the sacrifice of the unique characteristic that makes Dallas its own. It’s the craftsman bungalows of the M streets, the eclectic estates of Swiss Avenue and the surreal downtown views in parts of Oak Cliff, but it’s also how neighbors view their own neighborhoods. It’s why they chose to settle there and add their uniqueness to the melting pot of community.

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The health of our city is determined by the health of our neighborhoods. We should support and be excited about the future growth of our city, and we should be able to do so without the fear I saw on the face of that lady at the diner.

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