Hear Dallas Plan Commissioner Betty Culbreath Complain About Working on Holidays, Being Mean to Sam’s Club, And Pool Floats
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Betty Culbreath (Photo: Dallas Morning News City Hall Blog)
Sounds like Betty Culbreath is a CandysDirt.com reader, as the City Plan Commissioner called out our little Dallas real estate blog during her comments at the June 19 meeting in which the proposed Sam’s Club at Uptown East/East Village/Cityplace was discussed.
Her speech, which lasts about three minutes at the 1:26:15 mark, references the $30,000 millionaires we’re hearing so much about these days, how it’s all about neighborhoods, and pool floats! If you didn’t know, Betty Culbreath is a bit of a blogger in her own right.
Get the full listen after the jump, and then tell us what you think:
Posted in Dallas Real Estate News
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When is her commentary? This is over an hour.
It’s marked on the audio file at 1:26:15.
It’s heartening to see the City Plan Commission stand by the zoning in this case. Too often our elected representatives yield to emotional appeals and deny owners their rights. When the City denied Cinemark the right to put up a movie complex on Inwood Road at the site of an empty Kmart, it cost the City $7 million. I fear the recent decision denying gas drilling permits after leasing drilling rights will cost far more. At a certain point there is a covenant between the City and developers, and it is simply wrong to demand or to grant unhappy groups the perpetual right to renegotiate rights previously granted.
Bravo! Me too
Yeah… how dare citizens demand that notices of pubic meetings that might grant rights to owners, that they previously don’t have ,actually confirm to law. Darned citizens! How dare those rabble rousers actually demand a city zone land based on its comprehensive plan. Jerks. How dare those jerks have the audacity to suggest that development plans be truthful in their presentation to the public. Commies! How dare those terrorists actually care about the future form and vitality of the City that live in? I mean seriously. 20 years ago there was this movie theatre dontcha know? I’m sure that movie theatre would still be there today, right?
Well, Joe, as Joseph Conrad said in his introduction to the Nigger of the Narcissus, the changing wisdom of successive generations discards ideas, questions facts, demolishes theories. And so it is with land use plans. They are provisional plans. When somebody with a vision (and usually money) pops up and buys a billion dollars plus of land as the Thompsons did with Cityplace, plans change. An office building is built on the east side of Central. The grandiose plans for a huge office-retail project die with the 1986 recession, and plans change again. West Village emerges. Plans change. The problem for Dallas is that it has granted zoning that permits Sam’s Club already. That is a covenant, and the owner is entitled to rely on it. The Cinemark breach cost Dallas $7 million. I’ll wager the drilling breach costs Dallas $50-100 million. If all the opponents of Sam’s Cub indemnified Dallas for any damages it might have to pay, then Dallas might be able to reconsider. Even so, a court might enforce the zoning and award money damages to Sam’s and the owner. Do you want to indemnify the City of Dallas for damages that would likely be millions? A contract is binding, and Dallas needs to live up to its commitments. I’m sorry if you don’t see the tenant mix you’d like to see, but that was never in your power anyway, even if you had 3,000 similar complainants.
You can make your point without making racist ugly comments. Its funny how the anonymity of technology makes people think they have the right to say hateful things. It totally makes your point invalid.
Interesting point you have made!
Betty Culbreath doesn’t know the difference between Trammell Crow and CBRE. And of course it’s all about race to her.
Culbreath just likes to hear herself ramble