Photo by Danny Fulgencio
City Councilman Scott Griggs fought to include part of Oak Cliff in the city’s 2-year-old demolition-delay overlay, which requires a 45-day wait before certain buildings within its boundaries can be torn down.
Now Griggs is proposing to expand those boundaries in Oak Cliff. The current overlay includes unprotected areas surrounding Lake Cliff Park and the Bishop Arts District.
The proposed expansion would include parts of Jefferson and West Davis and a swath between Zang and Interstate 35.
Griggs will hold a community meeting on the proposed expansion at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the Kidd Springs Recreation Center.
The delay pertains to homes and commercial buildings that are within the overlay and have one of these designations:
Located in a National Register District,
a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark​,
a State Archeological Landmark,
a National Historic Landmark,
listed as a significant building in the 2003 Downtown Dallas Architecturally Significant Properties Survey ​
or listed as a contributing structure in the 1994 Hardy-Heck-Moore survey​.
Many buildings in the proposed addition are within National Register districts or are in the Hardy-Heck-Moore survey.
The delay gives the city time to hold meetings with property owners about alternatives to demolition. Since its inception, it has resulted in one Bishop Arts District house being moved to West Dallas. Another house that’s just outside of the Lake Cliff Historic District boundaries recently went through the demolition delay, but it likely will be torn down anyway.
