Dallas City Hall. Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
The Dallas City Council voted today in favor of rezoning the Hampton Road / Clarendon Drive business district to allow for residential development. Previously, the vote was deferred by the City Council at the public hearing on June 25.
The process that led to today’s vote included years of discussion. After the unanimous passing of the West Oak Cliff Area Plan (WOCAP) in 2022, 14 community meetings, neighborhood association meetings and individual in-home meetings took place to best inform residents about the potential changes.
“I don’t think there’s a way we can get 100% of the people informed, I wish we could,” District 1 City Council member Chad West said. “I think the City should do better, but this has been such a long process I think it is time to move forward for those people that have been engaged for seven to eight years in the process.”
Today’s meeting brought many public comments opposed to the vote for the zoning change as gentrification and displacement is a major concern for current residents.
“Community input and community engagement is very crucial to me, very important to me,” District 4 City Council member Maxie Johnson said, “and this seemed like a very complicated process and one thing I want to make sure of because I’ve heard a lot of the community come in, some of the brown community came in, and felt that they was being pushed out.”
Johnson emphasized that he wanted to make sure that the community voice had been heard and that they would not be pushed out of the area.
“This is intended to encourage new development on the 25% vacant lots in the area while doing the best it can to allow businesses that are there to thrive,” West said. “Any business that’s there is grandfathered in.”
The now passed plan intends to increase walkability of the corridor, prohibiting new drive-through businesses and allowing for small multi-family developments. The plan also encourages mixed-use development to be along the corridor.
