It was more than a year ago that I attended a public forum in the Lake Highlands Freshman Center auditorium, where a city employee gave a proposal for a Dallas Park and Recreation Department facility that would replace the soon-to-be-vacated Jules E. Muchert United States Army Reserve Center, sandwiched between the Northeast Police Substation and the East Lake Veterinary Hospital on Northwest Highway near Audelia. Neighbors were vocally and enthusiastically support of the plan.
What wasn’t presented that night were the other proposals, mostly from various ministries and nonprofits wanting to retrofit the building into transitional housing for the homeless. I don’t know if representatives from those groups were invited or not, but the only comments concerning those proposals came from neighbors, who expressed adamant opposition to any such project. Hundreds of signatures were later collected in a petition officially declaring such opposition.
I had assumed from the meeting that that was that — it was clear what Lake Highlanders wanted, and even more clear what they didn’t want. I never heard another thing about it, but have since driven by the vacant center a number of times and wondered when the Park and Recreation folks would be moving in.
Imagine my surprise, then, to recently receive an e-mail from Congressman Jeb Hensarling’s office with a letter attached, urging the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to reconsider its "preliminary adverse determination" of the city’s proposal.
In other words, as of now, the Park and Recreation Department facility does not appear to be the top contender for the site.
When Hensarling paid us a visit last week, he told us that HUD will be the final word in the decision of what to do with the property, and HUD wrote a letter to the city on March 12 giving the city 90 days to resubmit the proposal.
He also mentioned federal law put in place in 1994 that, as I understand it (and I freely admit that I am not a legal expert) allows for base closure sites to be revitalized as properties that address the needs of the homeless. Written in the law is a procedure for notifying any organizations working with the homeless when a such a site is becoming available, which explains why so many organizations submitted plans for transitional housing.
HUD’s preliminary determination, according to Hensarling’s e-mail, "indicates that the city needs to provide further information to support its proposal to use the facility for the city’s Park and Recreation Department." When Hensarling met with us, he told us that, basically, HUD was telling the city that it didn’t "dot all of its ‘i’s and cross all of its ‘t’s" in order for the proposal to be compliant with the law.
Here are copies of both Hensarling’s letter and the Base Closure Community Redevelopment and Homeless Assistance Act of 1994 are attached below. Once the city resubmits its proposal, HUD will have 60 to 90 days to make a determination, Hensarling told us, so it could be another six months before we know anything definitive.
