The Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee and the City Plan Commission recently voted down the staff’s proposal to adopt a zoning category for single-room occupancy hotels, sometimes called “SROs”.
City staff and East Dallas and Oak Cliff neighborhoods supported stronger regulation of SROs. But ZOAC and the Plan Commission obviously disagreed. The majority of both bodies were apparently convinced by SRO operators’ arguments that SROs were already regulated enough, even over-regulated.
The neighborhoods, on the other hand, felt that the staff proposal should have been stronger. They wanted spacing requirements to keep SROs from concentrating in Old East Dallas. Since the staff drew up the proposal in response to a City Council mandate, the Planning Department may still recommend it to the City Council, where it could find a friendlier reception.
THE END IS NEAR: The Junius Heights Zoning controversy, originally scheduled for a Plan Commission hearing on March 10, was delayed by some residents until April 7.
If the Commission passes the neighborhood’s planned development district proposal, it will then go to the City Council.
After one of the most exhausting and hard-fought zoning battles in recent memory, pitting neighbor against neighbor, almost everyone involved is relieved that the process is nearing an end.
THE TRUE TEST IS COMING: On a positive note, the long-awaited tree preservation ordinance proposal is making its way through the system.
The City’s Environmental Health Advisory Commission unanimously endorsed the draft ordinance authored by the citizen task force studying the issue. ZOAC adopted the proposal earlier.
City staff attempted to bring the ordinance back to ZOAC for more revision, despite ZOAC’s intent to send it to the Plan Commission as soon as possible. But ZOAC cut-off the delay tactic by specifically instructing the staff not to bring it back and to take it to the Commission as soon as possible.
The Plan Commission was briefed on the new ordinance March 24, with a vote expected at an April 7 public hearing. From there, the proposal will go to the City Council April 27.
Dallas has been talking for more than 10 years about adopting a tree preservation ordinance similar to those in Austin, Atlanta and other cities. This is the closest we have come to achieving this goal. The expected fierce opposition has not materialized, but the prediction here is that the real test of strength will be at the City Council.
Interested citizens call me at 520-2040 to become involved in this effort.
A JOB WELL DONE: The final meeting for the Dr Pepper working group was March 22. In early April, the group will brief the City Council about development plans for the site, including an updated report on leasing activity for the Dr Pepper building itself.
Dal-Mac, Kroger, DART, Trudy O’Reilly of the Landmark Commission, the adjoining neighborhoods and others working with task force deserve our thanks for developing a high – quality plan for the site.
GEARING UP FOR BATTLE: In what is more a planning issue than a zoning issue, the Old Lake Highlands Neighborhood Association is organizing to stop the channelization project for the Dixon Branch Creek. Dixon Branch runs roughly parallel to Lake Highlands Drive into the northeast side of White Rock Lake.
The creek is lined with a natural “urban forest” that is home to a wide variety of wildlife. However, because of possible flooding danger to about 90 homes built in a portion of the 100-year flood plain, the City is proposing to widen and straighten Dixon Branch and line it with concrete. Some eight acres of forest and wetlands would be lost and replaced, in part, with urban parkland.
The project is still in the design stage. Opponents argue that a number of alternatives are more aesthetically and environmentally sound (and cheaper in terms of tax dollars) to the channelization proposal. More information should be coming on the controversial project.
ZONING APPLICATIONS: Two small zoning change applications have been filed in the Old East Dallas area. One application is for a site zoned multi-family at 4729 Columbia, the northwest corner of the intersection with Prairie. The site is currently undeveloped, and the applicant, G.A. Hernandez, wants to operate a shaved-ice dessert business on the property, similar to four existing businesses he has owned since 1988 in Garland, Plano and Richardson.
The other applicant, Town North Bank, is the owner of three lots on Lindell between Greenville and Matilda. The bank wants to change the zoning from multi-family to community retail to create secured parking for adjoining businesses.
There may be some neighborhood support for the change because some nearby residents are concerned about the condition of the apartments. This would be very unusual for a Lower Greenville area zoning case.
THE GROWING CONTROVERSY: Opposition is rapidly growing to DISD using the old Merchants State Bank site on Ross Avenue as a relief school for Fannin Elementary.
Neighborhood residents and commercial property owners argue that the high-traffic corner at Ross and Henderson is unsafe for a school and would be better used for commercial development.
Also, many people believe that DISD could help the neighborhoods in the area by expanding Fannin’s existing site and taking down one or more of the adjoining run-down apartment complexes.
DISD hasn’t offered any alternatives.
ZONING MEGATHEATERS: In the wake of the hotly – contested “Tinseltown” controversy in North Dallas, ZOAC will look at creating a new zoning category for what are being called “megatheaters.”
This undefined term would probably include theaters with more than a certain number of screens, or more than a defined number of seats, or square footage, or all three.
So far, it appears that no other American city has adopted such a zoning category. Many in Dallas feel that the issue should be reviewed, especially in response to the changing nature of the film distribution and movie theater businesses.
Some potential but unidentified “megatheater” sites may even exist in East Dallas.
