The Richmond-Abrams intersection in 2018. Photography by Danny Fulgencio.
It’s not just Shoreline City Church or Mockingbird Community Church or Garland Road Thrift Store. Zoning battles have been a part of life in Dallas for decades.
Often, these debates are centered around zoning changes to allow multifamily or higher-density housing.
Meetings start at the neighborhood level and then progress to the City Plan Commission and lastly to the Dallas City Council for a final vote.
In this clip from an October 1972 council meeting, we hear from public speakers and council members as they discuss a proposed zoning change in Lakewood.
One person says that the neighbors had a petition with 3,000 signatures, representing opposition to the proposal, which would bring higher-density housing. But he says that there are about 861,000 other people in Dallas who may benefit from the zoning change.
Another speaker says, “We feel that this particular area maintaining itself as it has is a benefit to the city.”
City council member Sheffield Kadane says in the meeting that a townhouse development would greatly increase the density of the area.
“Abrams Road, even now, is like a racetrack and is overloaded with local traffic,” he says. (Traffic complaints haven’t gone away since the 1970s, either.)
The council voted unanimously to retain the existing single-family zoning.
The video is from the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection at SMU.
