Screenshot from aerial map in Case Report Z-25-000069.
The Dallas City Plan Commission met Thursday afternoon and yet again held the zoning case regarding the land between the north terminus of North Boulevard Terrace and Plymouth Road.
Originally rescheduled from Oct. 9 to Nov. 20, the new date for the rezoning is now for the Jan. 15 City Plan Commission meeting. Despite the shift, neighbors showed up to voice their concerns at City Hall for the decade-long debate.
“The surrounding neighborhoods continue to have concerns regarding the applicants’ vision for the entire site, the design along Hampton Road, and the protection of Coombs Creek Watershed,” Bob Eichel said.
Angie Mobley, president of the West Kessler Neighborhood Association, said that there are also major trust issues with the applicant and neighbors, including the number of changes made to the plan between meetings with commission and meetings with neighbors.
At last month’s Oct. 9 meeting, neighbors raised concerns about the environmental impacts that could affect the single-family housing surrounding the lot, which have already dealt with flooding and erosion issues.
Joseph Beckham, former president of the Coombs Creek Conservancy, said that the urban expansion of Dallas is inevitable, but the ecological harm is not.
“We have asked for development plans to take erosion, run off, and flooding into consideration,” said Rebeca Moore, president of the El Tivoli Place Neighborhood Association. “Plans the developer has exhibited have shown no record in this matter, and have been adversely filled with concrete and no buffer zone protecting the creek.”
Prior to the Nov. 20 commission meeting, neighbors met with the applicant at a charette, which is a meeting to complete solutions to an architectural problem in an allotted time. At the conclusion of the charette, attendees understood that changes would be made based on the feedback discussed at the two-hour meeting.
Yesenia Serrano, president of the North Boulevard Terrace Neighborhood Association, said there has still not been change to the plan even after the promises of revision.
“Nothing new has been filed, nothing new has been shared with the community. Nothing reflects Forward Dallas,” Serrano said. “So at this point, it doesn’t feel like a partnership. It feels like we’re being talked at and not listened to.”
