Highland House Heads to Plan Commission Hearing Thursday, Crosland Shaves Off Three Stories

Crosland Development’s Highland House heads to the City of Dallas Plan Commission Thursday, and the developer has already agreed to shave off three stories in response to last week’s Town Hall Meeting. At least, that is what he has told District 13 City Councilperson Jennifer Gates he is willing to do: reduce his original story count to 23 stories above grade level to a height of 270 feet. Jennifer Gates has also been in contact with the current owners of the building, who say they have multiple buyers lined up to buy the 60 ish year old stucco medical office structure should the Crosland deal fall through. It is likely one of those buyers would erect a commercial office structure that could crowd this part of Preston Center even more. The owner said she didn’t have contracts, but numerous interested parties.

“The Crosland contract expires at the end of June,” says Jennifer, “so come July 1 if he doesn’t close, someone else will buy that building, potentially raze and could develop it within the existing zoning, which would possibly lead to more crazy traffic in an already congested area.”

She wants to be sure, though, that people understand living with the current zoning is going to create more traffic in the vicinity should the building be put to a commercial office use.

“If a new owner maximizes the current zoning with an office building, I believe it could would have a greater traffic impact then a residential building of the same size,” says Gates. “And you can be sure that those offices will be leased.”

The developer’s traffic study, presented by the Deshazo group, was not 100% accurate as to what is actually happening right now at 8216 Westchester, said Gates. But she pointed out that people may not have correctly understood the way traffic studies are done.

“It’s not a matter of counting people going in and out of a building,” she says. “You look at the square foot utilization of a building using formulas.”

The Deshazo traffic study probably more accurately represents what will happen traffic-wise should the building be re-developed within the current zoning, says Gates.

As for her take-away from the Town hall meeting, she threw the question back to me:

“What did YOU think people are feeling,” she asked me, ” you were there?”

I said I felt that most people wanted to see a residential development, albeit one scaled back from the current proposal. Clearly the over-riding concern was traffic caused by development, road construction, and re-routing from LBJ.

“I would like to make it clear at this time am not taking a position on this case, and I am still looking at impact of the new proposal,” she said. “I want to hear the vision of the community. I think if the community feels like they’re involved in the process, they are more willing to accept changes along the way. People don’t want to go into the reaches of an unknown.”

It appears that Highland House in its current state is going to be a tough sell with the City Plan Commission, as well as single family residents of University Park. CPC has already denied Highland House in it’s current form. Reaching back to a 1989 study of Preston Center, staff thinks that a 240 to 260 unit residential complex will actually have little impact on traffic, but is concerned about FAR — that is, the floor area ratio from 2.0 to 11.0. This doesn’t mean it’s over by any means for Highland House — the planning staff just wants to do more investigation:

Staff recommendation of denial is based upon:
1. Performance impacts upon surrounding property – The request to create a
new Tract within Tract IV portion of Planned Development District No. 314 will
allow for the redevelopment of a portion of the site to accommodate a 29-
story, 240-unit multifamily development. The proposed development could
have a potential negative impact on the surrounding area due to the proposed
floor area ratio, height and density. The request site is located within the
center of the Preston Center Planned Development District and is surrounded
by a mix of retail and personal service uses and office uses. The proposed
development will significantly increase the development rights within a small
area and is not consistent with the overall development in Planned
Development District No. 314, the Preston Center Special Purpose District.
2. Traffic impact – The Engineering Section of the Department of Sustainable
Development and Construction has determined that the request to construct a
multifamily development will have minimal impact on the street system.
However, since the proposal includes a provision to dramatically increase the
FAR on the site relative to any existing zoning in the area, planning staff
believes a broader study is necessary to determine what development
intensity can ultimately be supported in the area, prior to approving individual
requests to dramatically increase development rights within the Planned
Development District.
3. Comprehensive Plan or Area Plan Conformance – The forwardDallas!
Comprehensive Plan shows that the request site in located in a Business
Center or Corridor and is in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan. The
only specific study for the area was the Preston Center Special Study Area
Report completed in 1989 as part of the city wide zoning transition from
Chapter 51 to Chapter 51A zoning districts which resulted in the creation of
Planned Development No. 314. That study recommended zoning consistent
with MU-2 zoning with an FAR of 2:1 and maximum height of 120 feet.
4. Justification for PD Planned Development District Zoning as opposed to a
straight zoning district – The new creation of a Tract within Tract IV will allow
the applicant to increase the development rights to permit the construction of a
29 story, 260-unit multifamily development. Under the current development
rights within Tract IV, the applicant is permitted to construct an office or
residential use that does not exceed 120 feet in height, or 9 stories and a 2.0
floor area ratio. The applicant is proposing to increase the floor area ratio
from 2.0 to 11.0. Since Planned Development 314 grew out of a special
study of the area, staff cannot support the substantial increase in FAR and
height on this site without there first being a more comprehensive reexamination

of appropriate development for the Preston Center area.