Dallas City Council Votes For Demolitions Delay in Effort to Slow Loss of Historic Architecture

10300 Strait Lane was razed, and Dallas’ new demolition delay wouldn’t have done a thing to save it.

We’re still reeling from the loss of 10300 Strait Lane, a gorgeous Bud Oglesby-designed modern on one of the most beautiful streets in Dallas, so you can imagine how heartening it was to read Robert Wilonsky’s post announcing that the Dallas City Council voted to approve a demolition delay. The new law is intended to help slow the process that allows property owners to acquire permits and raze historic buildings in a matter of a few days.

I have to say that it’s a grand idea, with a wonderful intent, but will it work?

As it turns out, our neighbor to the west already has such a law on the books. And yet, Fort Worth property owners were able to purchase and demolish the gorgeous Harwell Hamilton Harris-designed home once owned by Ruth Carter Stevenson, the daughter of Fort Worth Star-Telegram publisher Amon G. Carter.

So forgive me if I am less optimistic than Preservation Dallas‘ Daniel Preziosi and Katherine Seale. Preziosi and Seale, the current and former executive director of the organization, respectively, hailed the new law as a way to bring preservationists to the table when it comes to approving demolition permits.

Though it won’t stop property owners from razing structures completely, it does give the city 10 days to research a building’s historic value, Wilonsky explained:

Per the ordinance, once a developer files a demolition permit, city staff will have 10 days to confirm whether it meets the “historic” criteria — that is, it’s at least 50 years old and is located in National Register Historic District or sits on the National Register of Historic Places or has been designated as Texas Historic Landmark, a State Archeological Landmark or a National Historic Landmark. It’s also eligible if it’s listed as significant in the 2003 Downtown Dallas/Architecturally Significant Properties Survey or as a contributing structure in the 1994 Hardy-Heck-Moore Survey. That means the ordinance impacts downtown Dallas and parts of North Oak Cliff. The rest of the city’s on its own … for now.

As Wilonsky notes, a similar and much-acclaimed ordinance in Chicago only prevented one in 17 delayed demolitions in 2003. While saving one building is better than one, I’m not going to hold my breath to see if Dallas will be able to stop the recent spat of razings that have plagued downtown and beyond. What about you?