East Dallas resident Rebecca Boatman, who snapped the photo, says these are some of the old trees that would be lost to development.
Some East Dallas residents are speaking out in opposition to rezoning a 4.16-acre former mobile home park in their Highland Road neighborhood. If approved the re-zoning would make way for a proposed single-family residential development featuring 23 $1 million-ish zero-lot-line houses.
The site in question is bordered by Highland Road to the east, the Kansas City Southern railroad to the north, Tenison Glen golf course to the west and is adjacent to existing neighborhoods Forest Hills and Enclave at White Rock.
Concerned-neighbors spokesperson Rebecca Boatman says her chief concern is the destruction of trees necessary for the development to occur. As soon as she learned of the plan, Boatman started the Save Highland Road Trees Facebook group and a petition to halt modified zoning. She and her group have seen some concession from the landowner, who has, for example, reduced the number of homes included in the plan, but they prefer the existing zoning remain in place.
Boatman says she and her neighbors are requesting that the current zoning — for single-family development, but limited to 22 homes — remain in place to “allow for more green space, the opportunity to have less fill, save more trees and allow for driveway parking.”
Boatman says the opposing neighbors mostly live on Barbaree. She says she and her neighbors “understand the importance of permeable land and trees for extreme rain events and the fragility of a flood plain,” and they believe the project will have a negative impact on drainage in the surrounding area.
Sam Gillespie, who sits on the board of adjustment and also lends his politic and policy expertise to The Advocate as a contributor, explained a few months ago how the property went from being a trailer park to the treelined vacant parcel at the center of this debate.
“Fifteen years ago, the site was a mobile home park, a non-conforming use for the in-place single-family zoning. The City of Dallas and a few East Dallas homeowners brought a case to the Board of Adjustment, seeking to end the non-conforming use and give the out-of-town owner time to amortize his improvements and close the park,” Gillespie writes. “The board voted to require amortization and conformance to the single-family zoning. The mobile home park closed shortly thereafter and has been vacant since.”
Developer Jim Moore, who’s purchasing the site from the trailer park owner, initially reported the homes’ prices will range from $675,000 to $1 million. (Of course, the rapid rise in demand and price for housing in our city conceivably would elevate those estimates by the time sales start happening). He built a similar project at Kessler Springs in Oak Cliff.
Boatman says she and her neighbors have attended several Plan Commission hearings and that the developer has reduced the number of homes to 23 (from 29) and agreed to save 19 trees along the property’s edge. She still is opposed to the setbacks — 10 feet for front yards and five feet for backyards —and the fact that there is just a single private drive from Highland to access homes. She adds that the lands’ current zoning — R7.5 — is no different from the zoning on Moore’s Kessler Springs development.
She also believes the planned project to be counter to the City’s Forward Dallas policy which states “new development should be appropriate to the context of its location in density, location and size.
It also goes against Dallas’ summer 2021 commitment to make planting and preserving trees a priority, she says.
Boatman and other area residents will present opposition when this item comes before City Council Oct. 27.
