Aldredge House: Board of Adjustment Denies W/O Prejudice Request for “Nonconforming Use” On Swiss Avenue, But Where ARE the Red Panties?

I had a personal stake in this dog fight, as I have mentioned before: I’m a proud member of the Dallas County Medical Alliance and I do not want us (the DCMA Foundation) to lose Aldredge House. Never ever. It’s a beautiful home, one of the few open historic homes left in town, and it means a lot to many people in Dallas, particularly Alliance members. So of course I attended the hearing as soon as I could, and was happy to see so much press there. Robert Wilonsky at the Dallas Morning News tells it best, and he’s not an Alliance member. Read on.

But can I just tell you about some of the more tantalizing moments?

Chris Hamilton, the young attorney with a child who lives across the street from Aldredge House, and who has spent so much time on this case,  said that the party noise woke his child and sometimes also him from sleeping.

He showed a video in which attendees cursed at a neighbor; he said it was “a little bit scary” to be woken from a “dead sleep by people who are screaming at the top of their lungs.” He showed forged signatures from a vendor contracted by the caterer showing that neighbors were OK when giant tents being erected on the property in 2014 and 2015.

There was just the slightest hint of a giggle in the room when the famous “red panties” (which could become as famous as Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress!) appeared on the video the neighbors had put together with the help of Ms. Sarah Dodd! And I think that giggle was coming from the reporters in the back. Three neighbors testified after Chris about the noise and the supposed forgeries.

An interesting question was asked of Chris by one of the judges: has he or any other neighbor ever called 911 (the police) on the weddings? No, said Chris; they didn’t want to disturb someone who had paid a lot of money for a celebratory night. Another asked him how many other events are usually held in  Swiss Avenue homes — did he have a percentage? (I believe this was the same judge who wanted more concrete evidence from the neighbors on the “forgeries”.)

Then Angela Hunt make the case for the Alliance (Foundation) calmly, cleanly, swiftly, beginning with the almost 100 year history of the Alliance.  I wanted to clap when she said the Alliance (Foundation) had fired the caterer, Culinaire. They do a fine job of catering, but they got us in this pickle. She mentioned that the Alliance had also been a victim of one vendor’s pen tricks: they forged the Alliance’s name, too, on some documents. She says that East Dallas, which she used to represent on the City Council, is not exactly a gated community. It is diverse and there’s lots of activity, some of it maybe not the clean kind. Also said Swiss Avenue is an active street.

Really, don’t move there if you are an introvert, just telling ya.

Also, she said a Dallas code compliance officer took decibel readings to check the noise level at Aldredge House. Guess what was the loudest ruckus-maker? The chirping locusts.

About that party where a DJ yelled rude things after the party wound down: Alliance member Elizabeth Gunby was there that night and swiftly put an end to that DJ’s future at any Aldredge House event. Outa there.

Then Angela outlined the terms the Alliance had agreed to, which were pretty much what the neighbors wanted, but without limiting Alliance members to leave their own home at 8:00 pm.

Lastly, City Plan Commissioner Neil Emmons stood up and spoke as a concerned citizen, asking the Board to deny the neighbor’s request. He wanted more time to speak, he didn’t get it. His point was that the Board did not need to be sending out a negative, anti-preservation message and did not need to be the enforcers.

The Board took a brief break and returned with the verdict. We were all on pins and needles.

At first I thought we were going to get the denial with prejudice, which is a legal term that means the neighbors could not ever bring the issue up again. But clearly two members of the board felt the Swiss Avenue neighbors had been wronged by the boisterous weddings. And yet, they did not want to take the role of enforcers. So the verdict was changed to deny without prejudice —

The without prejudice part was important: It leaves open the door for a revisit if the neighbors don’t get what they want — peace and quiet most of the time from Aldredge House.

So yes, a victory and hard-learned lesson in how you always, always have to keep an eye on what’s going on in your home. But the good news: we can still party on!