The Henderson Avenue Task Force, a group of neighborhood and business representatives led by City Plan Commission Chair Hector Garcia, has begun its initial meetings. The task force has apparently had a positive start.

The group’s mission is to come up with recommendations for the Henderson Avenue corridor from Central to Ross, which may well be used to formulate a land use plan and some urban design standards for the area. The results, along with any unifying urban design elements, should eventually make Henderson more attractive.

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In related news, meetings should begin in the second week of January on the long-awaited Vickery Place-Greenland Hills traffic study. Your council member’s office should be able to provide you with more details.

Historic District Expansion

Possible amendments to Planned Development District 99, along both sides of Gaston from Fitzhugh to the Lakewood Shopping Center, are now probably going to the Plan Commission for consideration in April. The idea behind the amendments, which are being proposed by a grassroots committee of residential and business property owners, is to enlarge the Historic Gaston Avenue District, permit some non-residential uses in certain sub-areas, and impose some architectural restrictions to retain what is left of the historic character of the remaining large houses along this stretch of Gaston.

Plethora of East Dallas Zoning Cases Considered

The Plan Commission has heard an unusually large number of East Dallas zoning cases recently. Included among these were applications for a Specific Use Permit for a water chilling facility for the telephone company’s switching equipment on Bryan between Haskell and Peak; a SUP for a day care center at 1106 and 110 N. Prairie at Quinn; and a SUP for an antenna tower on Old Tower Drive west of Amesbury.

Also heard by the Plan Commission were applications for a SUP for a private school and day care center at the southeast corner of Mockingbird and Norris and an application for a change in zoning at 5723 through 5735 Prospect west of Matilda, which is for a residential development just off Lower Greenville. Both of these cases are scheduled to go before the City Council on Jan. 10. So far as is known, no controversy appears to be brewing about any of these rezoning requests.

Also, coming up soon before the commission will be an application to amend P.D. 343, located at White Rock Trail north of Goforth, to allow construction of single family dwellings. Finally, the cellular antenna proposal for Mockingbird, east of Abrams, was denied by the Plan Commission and the case withdrawn the same day.