After talking with Rick Garza, I received a call back from David Cossum, Dallas’ assistant director in development services. He had a bit of a different take on what happened at the most recent plan commission meeting, saying that though plan commissioner Clarence Gary’s motion didn’t reference the Bishop/Davis land use study, "it didn’t nullify the study," and that the work the committee has done would "still be a framework considered in moving forward."

Two portions of the study area were omitted by Gary’s motion, Cossum says — a section that juts up toward Kidd Springs Park, and another section on the far western end of Davis. "There wasn’t a lot of discussion [about the omissions], and I think that was some of the frustration of the advocates of the study," Cossum says. "The motion was made after public input, and the motion made may alter some of what is on the table to be considered.

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"I’m pretty sure folks sitting in the audience didn’t know what was transpiring when the motion was made until after the motion was closed."

More after the jump:

Still, Cossum points out, it’s not uncommon for plan commissioners or councilmen to make motions that are not the same wording as what is on the agenda — "that happens all the time," he says. And the motion made essentially authorizes city staffers to get involved in the process, something they haven’t done up to this point because the Bishop/Davis study was privately funded, Cossum adds.

"We’ll be having some hearings in the neighborhood, and I imagine some of that feedback will be, ‘Look, we did a study,’" Cossum says, clarifying that the modified motion wording "doesn’t mean city staff will go out and create a new study than what was done by the Davis steering committee."

After the public hearing process, city staff will look at the zoning of the area and make recommendations to the plan commission. The two sections of the study area omitted by the plan commission’s vote will not be included in the public hearing process "unless they’re added back in by council action," Cossum says.

I’ve heard that Councilmen Elba Garcia and Dave Neumann may be planning to make a motion that would supercede the plan commission motion, but Garcia and I are playing phone tag, and Neumann hasn’t yet responded to an interview request.