Clarendon Road needs bike lanes, and Hampton Road could use more housing density between Brandon and Wentworth, the West Oak Cliff Area Plan draft suggests.
The draft recommends changing zoning in those two corridors to allow small apartment buildings, townhomes, offices, mixed-used developments and live-work spaces.
These new development opportunities could help to increase the residential and office population of the area while also helping to provide some new product types that do not currently exist in the area. This can help create new, more affordable places for new and existing residents to live, while allowing for a more diverse group of incomes and family types to inhabit the area. Additional residents and workers should aid in making retail more viable as well.
Any zoning changes should prohibit buildings higher than three stories, and residential proximity slope should be used to protect homes from looming structures, the draft states.
The 2020 study of Hampton Road found that traffic-calming measures pushed too many cars into residential neighborhoods. But Hampton Road still needs pedestrian improvements.
Neighbors want walkability for Clarendon Road, the draft states. The corridor could have bike lanes, wider sidewalks, landscaping and on-street parking.
The draft also recommends prioritizing “land acquisition of existing vacant properties in the Hampton/Clarendon area in order to create a plaza or public gathering space in this commercial node.”
Prohibiting car-centric businesses such as drive-thru restaurants and mechanic shops also is recommended. Existing businesses could remain open, but no new auto-related businesses would be allowed.
It makes these recommendations for infrastructure:
- Removal of left-turn lane pockets along Hampton between Brandon and Clarendon to allow for a continuous median with street trees. This should help to eliminate challenging turning movements. Additionally street trees are shown to help slow traffic speeds.
- Consideration of new traffic signals on Hampton at Brandon and Burlington. This will help slow and regulate traffic while also providing additional safe pedestrian crossing locations.
- New bike lanes along Clarendon. These bike lanes will stretch from Cockrell Hill to Tyler Street, providing a new, safer options for cyclists.
- Pedestrian improvements along Hampton, including new pedestrian lighting and crosswalk and sidewalk upgrades where needed.
- Enhanced streetscape along Clarendon, including bulb-outs, dedicated on-street parking, and street trees.
- Opportunities for using public right-of-way and private property to create new plazas and gathering spaces for the community.
These are the recommendations for transportation:
- Due to their highly pedestrian nature, connections to schools and parks, and transit, prioritize sidewalk installation and repairs along Hampton Road between West Davis and Wright.
- Provide public realm and sidewalk improvements along Hampton between Brandon and 12th Street, including enhanced lighting and street trees where possible.
- Create a Safe Routes to School plan for Lida Hooe Elementary, identifying improvements that will help make it easier and more comfortable for students to walk and bicycle to school. Once plans have been completed, the City of Dallas Department of Transportation should seek funding for implementation through external grants, such as the Federal Transportation Alternatives program.
- Provide public realm and sidewalk improvements along Clarendon between Epenard and Marlborough.
- Pursue tree plantings in the medians along Hampton Road in appropriate locations to help calm traffic while also providing beautification, ecological, and environmental enhancements.
- Explore opportunities to provide new traffic signals or traffic control devices along Hampton Road between Brandon and 12th to help calm traffic speeds and enhance the pedestrian nature of these roadways.
- Install protected bike lanes along Clarendon Road between Cockrell Hill (municipality) and Tyler Street, amending the Thoroughfare Plan to be designate Clarendon as a two-lane road.
The City of Dallas Office of Planning and Urban Design emphasizes that this is a draft, and staff is continuing to meet with neighborhood groups over the next six weeks or so to work out details of the next draft. None of this has been decided. The deadline for neighbors to comment on the plan is May 10.
Also explore our tours of the draft regarding Tyler/Vernon, North Cliff and Downtown Elmwood.
