School at the corner of Diceman and Old Gate. Photo by Renee Umsted.
There’s an old church and child care facility at the corner of Diceman Drive and Old Gate Lane, where Casa Linda Estates and Little Forest Hills meet.
Last year, developer Old Gate Diceman Crossing LLC applied for a zoning change at the property to add on to the existing structure to create a Montessori school. Though the applicant wanted a longer specific-use permit (SUP) or a planned development district, it received a five-year SUP with a traffic management plan to be completed every two years.
Scott Remphrey, a member of Old Gate Diceman Crossing LLC, said at a City Plan Commission meeting last month that they weren’t able to find a lender to fund the project; it’s perceived as a two-year lease because the City could remove the rights on the property based on the traffic management plan, or the City could remove the rights after five years, the time limit imposed on the SUP.
So the developer pivoted and requested to replat the property to seven single-family lots, all of them between 10,000 square feet and 15,000 square feet.
Casa Linda Estates residents said at the CPC meeting they were upset that they had just worked through a zoning process, only to have the developer make the replat request.
“There was no bad intent,” Remphrey said. “We wanted the school. We knew we had a landing pattern at some point to do the lots. I could have made a lot more money with the school than I’m doing with these single-family lots, but I’m here to do the right thing.”
With the replat, the question became how to classify the property. Is it more like Casa Linda Estates, or is it more like Little Forest Hills? The answer would help determine the density of the new development.
The current zoning of the 1.8-acre area is planned development district, PD-1077, which has a R-10(A) base zoning, meaning lots are no smaller than 10,000 square feet. To the west of the property lies Little Forest Hills, which has a R-7.5(A) zoning, with lots at least 7,500 square feet. To the east is Casa Linda, which has a base zoning of R-10(A) with a neighborhood stabilization overlay, which increases the front- and side-yard setbacks.
Rob Baldwin, who represents the developer, said at the same CPC meeting that the nearby houses in Casa Linda do not front on Old Gate Lane; there are only driveways and garages. He also said the developer’s plan is to match the lot pattern of Little Forest Hills, not Casa Linda. Because the property lies on the back half of a few Casa Linda lots, the lot pattern of Casa Linda can’t be continued, he said.
“In reality, we really walk and talk like Little Forest Hills and not like Casa Linda,” Baldwin said.
Property near Old Gate Lane and Diceman. Photo by Renee Umsted.
But some Casa Linda Estates residents oppose the replat.
Barbara Van Pelt, who has lived on San Saba Drive since the 1980s, spoke against the replat request at the CPC meeting. She said she purchased her home in Casa Linda Estates because of the large lot sizes and said she was upset because the neighborhood just went through a rezoning process.
She also said the property was in Casa Linda, not Little Forest Hills, with Old Gate Lane serving as the boundary between the neighborhoods. Van Pelt also said though neighbors preferred a space to be used by the community, three lots is about the maximum there could be on the property.
Nancy Lewis-Irvin, another Casa Linda resident, said building homes on the property would mean that the mature trees will be removed, and that seven houses is too many.
“That’s going to crowd us in, and we’re going to begin to look like a suburb,” she said.
Baldwin said it was difficult to mesh the half-acre minimum lots of Casa Linda with the 10,000-square-foot lots of Little Forest Hills.
“I think we did a pretty good job of coming up with something that was pretty close to splitting the baby in the middle,” he said.
The Dallas Plan Commission approved the replat request, and now it goes to the Dallas City Council.
Homes in Little Forest Hills siding on Old Gate Lane. Photo by Renee Umsted.
