Last we heard, neighbors near Glencoe Park were collecting signatures in hopes of putting the brakes on a proposed zoning change from developer Trammell Crow Residential.
Tramell Crow (TCR) has been in serious talks with Brooks Partners, who owns the land along Ellsworth, Winton and Anita, adjacent to Glencoe Park’s northern boundary, where 34 duplex properties are currently located.
Trammell Crow has the properties, which are a stone’s throw away from Mockingbird Station and the up-and-coming Katy Trail Extension, under contract, but it’s contingent upon a zoning change that would allow them to turn said duplexes into a 330 unit, high-end apartment complex.
According to Burt Zinser, president of Glencoe Park Neighborhood Association, neighbors aren’t happy about it.
“It would increase the density by a significant multiple,” Zinser told us in January. “Density impacts us because the only way in and out of the neighborhood is on McMillan, where it intersects Mockingbird. There’s already a lot of traffic at that stop sign.”
However, Matt Enzler, the managing director of Trammell Crow, says the development would only slightly increase traffic in the neighborhood, according to a recent traffic study.
Trammell Crow contracted the DeShazo Group to conduct a traffic impact analysis for the area, and the results show the proposed multifamily development would increase overall traffic by 102 cars in and out of the neighborhood every morning and evening. At the McMillan and Mockingbird intersection, the intersection neighbors are most concerned about, there would be an added eight second delay.
TCR has been talking with neighbors about the planned development, Enzler says. They gave the neighbors the results of the traffic study last week, and they’re waiting to hear back.
“We want the neighborhood involved. We want it to be something that they want as well,” Enzler says. “We feel good about this being the right thing for that area.”
The close proximity to Mockingbird Station, the DART and Katy Trail makes the property in question a hot commodity, and Trammell Crow wasn’t the only developer to set it in its sights. Brooks Partners turned down several offers with other developers before finally giving TCR the OK.
“The tough thing is that the zoning in place — the zoning for duplexes — has been in place for 80 years, before DART was even around,” Enzler says. “The city is evolving. The city is going to grow from six million people to 12 million people in the next 20 years, is what they’re saying.”
Enzler also pointed out that, if Trammell Crow receives the zoning change it’s after, it would file a “planned development,” which means TCR will submit a plan to the City of Dallas, and the City will make sure TCR builds exactly what it submitted, to the letter.
“It’s a mechanism that’s put in place to protect the neighbors,” Enzler says. “It gives us very little leeway to change anything.”
