Stevens Park Village proposed conservation district boundaries. Courtesy of Dallas Planning and Urban Design.
Stevens Park Village is in the process of establishing a conservation district, a zoning tool to help protect the physical attributes of a neighborhood, and neighbors are currently collecting signatures.
The neighborhood has held several meetings in the last two months to discuss the conservation district and potential parameters.
There are currently eight conservation districts in Oak Cliff with the newest being South Winnetka Heights which was established earlier this year. A conservation district replaces the base zoning with zoning tailored specifically for the neighborhood and determined by the neighborhood to promote development or redevelopment that is compatible with its existing character.
To be eligible for a conservation district, a neighborhood must have at least 75 percent of the buildings that are at least 25 years old. Stevens Park Village has the desire to protect the unique qualities of the neighborhood such as the architectural styles and scale of the homes.
At the meetings, neighbors shared what development, architectural and optional standards they would like to include in the conservation district. The standards that neighbors most wanted included that would be required by the city were building height, permitted uses (stories), setbacks and architectural styles.
Due to the lack of neighborhood interest (nothing over 50%) for the optional standards, none of those regulations will be included in the neighborhood petition. This includes paint, landscaping, garages, and steps.
Some neighbors, such as Cinthia Rodriguez, have shared their opposition to the conservation district, particularly how the idea came about.
“One of the biggest things that some of the other neighbors are talking about too is the process itself,” Rodriguez said. “The fact that it only required like 10 people to get an entire neighborhood to make a decision that will affect everybody is the biggest thing. And that’s not necessarily directly to the committee but to the City of Dallas. It’s kind of crazy that you can get 10 of your neighborhood friends together and say “Hey, we don’t like the way things are, let’s make this change.”
Neighborhood committee member Donovan Westover said they received their petitions a couple of weeks ago and have begun collecting signatures. The city requires 58% of the neighborhood/82 signatures, and Westover said he believes they already have the required 82 signatures. The committee has one year to collect the required amount of signatures.
While the city only requires 58% approval, the committee has the goal of 75% to ensure that there is collective neighborhood support.
After the signatures are collected, the city will hold a series of public meetings to determine the details of the regulations based on neighborhood input and after an ordinance is drafted and finalized, the city council will decide at a public hearing on final approval.
The neighborhood committee plans on holding a Q&A meeting at the end of July.
