13.11.26-Angela-Hunt-Headshot-DFulgencio-0024-2City staff sides with developers over conservation district re-write

You remember the scandal at Dallas City Hall a few months back? City staff was crafting a new ordinance to regulate (outlaw) the popular Uber ride-share app that offered an alternative to traditional taxicabs. And boy, did the staff’s ordinance stick it to the erstwhile competitor. Turns out, the attorney for taxicabs was ghostwriting the new law. New City Manager A.C. Gonzalez almost lost his promotion because of the clear and obvious bias.

Looking back, the city tipped its hand long before we knew the staff was colluding with developers.

Now, the city’s historic preservation community is getting the Uber treatment, with conservation districts in the crosshairs. Staff has been working for the last several years to draft an onerous new process for neighborhoods seeking conservation district protection.

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Fortunately for us, East Dallas Councilman Philip Kingston and Belmont Addition Conservation District leader Melissa Kingston uncovered emails between staff and homebuilders — emails in which builder representatives describe page upon page of strict new requirements for neighborhoods seeking conservation district status. And, similar to the Uber affair, staff sided with the developers with no real input from the preservation community.

You see, most builders in Dallas don’t like historic preservation or conservation districts. They want to build exactly what they want to build, exactly where they want to build it. Those pesky conservation districts make up an infinitesimal percentage of all homes in Dallas. What are builders supposed to do? Build on the other tens of thousands of lots? Or worse, build houses that conform to conservation district standards?

City staff and the Dallas Builders Association were in full agreement on the most damaging aspects of the proposed ordinance changes. When the DBA demanded that neighborhoods seeking conservation district status obtain the approval of 75 percent of all property owners, staff ensured it was part of the proposed ordinance.

This is a one-two punch in the gut of preservation. In all other requests for zoning changes, zoning ballots are advisory only. The city plan commission — the zoning board appointed by city council — can ignore ballots altogether if they so choose. Now, the DBA and city staff want to make this requirement mandatory — but only for conservation districts.

The DBA and city staff also propose to change how the percentage of “yes” votes is calculated. Right now, in all zoning cases in Dallas, staff counts the “for” and “against” responses as a percentage of the number of ballots returned. But the DBA wants to require conservation districts to have the approval of 75 percent of all property owners. That’s an enormous hurdle. But staff happily sided with builders without any real input from neighborhoods or preservationists. Why impose stricter rules for conservation districts than for any other zoning applicant?

We just got Uber-ed.

Looking back, the city tipped its hand long before we knew the staff was colluding with developers. Generally, when city staff members draft new legislation, they first present it to the relevant city council committee to receive feedback: Budget and Finance, Economic Development, Quality of Life, Housing or Public Safety.

Back in 2010, when the staff decided that our CD ordinance (which had worked so well for decades) was, in fact, broken, members briefed their ideas to the Economic Development Committee. Not the Housing Committee, not the Quality of Life Committee. They went straight to Economic Development, a committee that, at the time, was loaded with anti-preservationist councilmembers.

As usual, in Dallas, it’s more about making it easier for developers to make money than improving neighborhoods for the people who live here. You would think that if city staff was changing the way conservation districts are created, it might reach out to the very neighborhood leaders who were instrumental in creating conservation districts. You know, the people who actually know where the rubber meets the road, the ones who can identify any problems in the process and suggest ways of making it better.

You would be wrong.