The 17-story Case Building in Deep Ellum. Photos by Rachel Stone
Whatever happens with the West Oak Cliff Area Plan, if it’s approved by City Council, you can believe the results will be permanent.
Once the City of Dallas determines that it knows what neighborhoods want, and City Council ultimately approves a plan based on that, it becomes gospel.
Take the 500 block of 8th Street.
“The ship sailed back when the original zoning was passed,” Mayor Pro-Tem Chad West says.
The former property owners were involved in the Bishop/Davis rezoning more than a decade ago, and they chose for it to be zoned to allow four-story apartments. Neighbors sought to reopen that zoning and amend some things a few years ago, but the effort fizzled out on threat of a lawsuit. And besides, this block wasn’t part of what neighbors were looking to change back then anyway.
While a 45-day demolition delay is at play since Lennar Mulifamily Corp. applied for permits to tear down quaint apartment buildings in the block, that’s unlikely to accomplish anything and has created opportunities for vandals. Dallas Fire-Rescue put out a fire in one of the empty buildings Monday night.
An apartment building in the 500 block of 8th Street in March.
The next dimensions to shock to Oak Cliff could be at Oak Farms Dairy/Burnett Field.
That’s where Dallas-based Cienda Parnters recently acquired $25 million in new financing for its long-awaited redevelopment of the former dairy and bygone baseball stadium situated between Zang, Interstate 35 and the Trinity River.
We don’t know what Cienda’s plans are, but buildings up to 20 stories high are allowed by right.
Call it Downtown Oak Cliff, if we may indulge in a comparison to Downtown Brooklyn, New York. This neighborhood is adjacent to Downtown Dallas, across a historic bridge, not to mention our other gorgeous pedestrian bridge. We also have the Brooklyn-like gentrification and the shared history as streetcar suburbs with baseball teams that moved.
This area was rezoned in 2014 as the “Oak Cliff Gateway,” also known as PD 468.
It was the first district in Dallas to employ “form-based zoning,” which puts an emphasis on housing density, mixed uses and walkability.
Kairoi Residential’s apartment complex under construction on Zang at Colorado in February.
This PD 468 zoning is why Kairoi Residential is building an eight-story apartment complex on the site of El Fenix and Polar Bear on Zang at Colorado.
Larkspur Capital has a five-story apartment project, Zang Flats, under construction on Zang at Beckley, where PD 468 actually allows eight stories by right.
It’s all over but the crying for 8th Street and Zang/Colorado, where the zoning begs for density. Heroic efforts would be required to change any of the zoning in those areas.
But the West Oak Cliff Area Plan remains malleable for the next month or so. Neighborhood meetings have been robust, but neighbors’ official responses to the draft plan are needed.
Only 200 people have completed the City’s survey, West said on Tuesday. By comparison, 900 people answered a survey about the North Oak Cliff Library last year.
The Advocate is working to explain the 172-page draft piece-by-piece. So far, we’ve covered what the draft recommends for Elmwood, Tyler/Vernon and North Cliff.
Find the full draft and take the City’s survey here. The last day to fill it out is May 10.
The West Oak Cliff Area Plan could go to City Plan Commission as early as July, and if approved, City Council could hear it in August.
