Game Changer: West Oak Cliff Area Plan Could Put Residents in Zoning Driver’s Seat

Dallas is finally paying attention to West Oak Cliff.

The City Plan Commission last month unanimously approved the West Oak Cliff Area Plan — a guide to drive new development while protecting current residents. 

It actually does a lot more than that. For example, it encourages accessory dwelling units to provide more choices for missing-middle housing. It calls for city-initiated authorized hearings that will move zoning changes to the top of the queue rather than allowing them to languish for months or years. 

And as gentrification and displacement continue to be hot topics throughout Dallas, it’s becoming more apparent that a plan like WOCAP could be a game-changer for more than just a five-square-mile area of the city. 

“If we fail to plan for the inevitable future, then we’re in real trouble,” District 1 Plan Commissioner Amanda Popken said.

The trouble she speaks of isn’t new to Dallas or even Oak Cliff. Some residents feel the Oak Cliff Gateway rezoning, one of the largest cases of its kind in Dallas history that created PD830, made way for urban density at the expense of neighborhood character.

Using “fool me twice, shame on me” logic, District 1 City Councilman Chad West told CandysDirt.com he’s well aware that a lack of planning burned Oak Cliff in recent history. West was a plan commissioner when CVS purchased the El Corazon del Tejas building and surrounding lots. The historic building in North Oak Cliff was demolished in 2017.

“If any of the creative voices in Oak Cliff had been offered an opportunity to put a better plan in action, we might have ended up with something more meaningful than a parking lot,” West said. “The 500-plus livid neighbors who wrote, called, or emailed my predecessor and me about the razing of El Corazon agreed. This is but one example of many in our city where the lack of good planning resulted in someone outside the city — here, a national drugstore chain — making decisions for us that we’re now forced to live with for decades.”

WOCAP Aims to Bring Urban Renewal

The West Oak Cliff Area Plan is one of many plans the City of Dallas is using to guide future land use and racial equity, a micro version of larger documents like the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan, the Comprehensive Housing Policy, and the Racial Equity Plan, which also offer solutions for affordable housing and neighborhood protection. 

But a region-specific plan could actually give residents some control over a long-neglected area, an emotional Commissioner Popken said during a Sept. 15 meeting. 

“I know we all care deeply about this neighborhood,” Popken said as she introduced WOCAP for approval. “We’re doing something now that can be really scary for a lot of people. This is not about race, ethnicity, or income. This is about national trends where well-designed, well-built neighborhoods near booming downtowns are increasing in value and price and are pushing out long-term residents across the nation. Everyone is searching for the right tools to combat this.” 

A lack of planning will end up pricing lower-income people out of the neighborhood, Popken added.

“What urban planning does right is it tries to shape the city to create a better quality of life for all residents,” she said.

West agreed that neighbors should have a voice in the preservation, development, and growth of their community and offer input on how to house the thousands of residents who want to move to Oak Cliff each year.

“If we do nothing, single-family home prices will continue to skyrocket, apartment rents will go up, and developers who see dollar signs will continue to assemble neighborhoods and control the future of the zoning,” West said. “If we don’t make a plan, someone will make it for us. WOCAP seeks to put a plan in place that is neighbor-driven as opposed to developer-driven.”

West Oak Cliff Area Plan

The WOCAP study area is generally bounded by West Davis Street, Hampton Road, West 12th Street, Tyler Street, Vernon Avenue, Illinois Avenue on the south, Cockrell Road, and Gilpin Road on the west. 

The plan was originally drafted in 2020 under West’s leadership and has been discussed extensively by the City Plan Commission. The Dallas City Council is slated to adopt the document on Oct. 26.

“It focuses on land use, but also captures and articulates the desires of neighbors for open space, parks, trails, historic preservation, population growth, economic development and jobs, transportation, walkability, and pretty much everything else under the sun,” West said. 

The CPC-approved version of the West Oak Cliff Area Plan is a 94-page document with lots of maps, photos, and visual data but it doesn’t necessarily change anything immediately, plan commissioners emphasized. Rezonings get top priority when they’re in an area with a plan, and it can boost an opponent’s argument before an elected or appointed panel when a developer is asking for something that conflicts with the plan.

And without a document like WOCAP it’s easier for residents and business owners to be bullied out of properties that speculative developers want to buy, city officials say.

If the plan is approved by the Dallas City Council on Oct. 26, city staff has committed that the downtown Elmwood neighborhood will be first in the queue for an authorized hearing. Additionally, the Urban Land Institute’s Dallas leadership class selected the reimagining of Elmwood’s downtown as one of its five projects.

“I’m excited to see what they come up with and anticipate that their recommendations, if adopted by stakeholders, will help us tee up Elmwood’s downtown for the 2024 bond,” West said.

If we don’t make a plan, someone will make it for us. WOCAP seeks to put a plan in place that is neighbor-driven as opposed to developer-driven.

District 1 Dallas City Councilman Chad West

Popken’s motion to approve the plan included 15 amendments, and one of the big takeaways was amending the Tyler/Vernon DART Station focus area to allow ADUs while preserving the single-family character of the immediate region.

Some neighbors have asked for an authorized hearing to explore other “missing-middle” housing types, such as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and cottage homes on larger lots. Others have asked that just ADUs be allowed in their neighborhoods, and those areas, under the approved plan, would remain protected. Conservation districts and historic districts also are options some residents want to pursue.

“There’s no one tool that’s going to solve the issue,” said Andrea Gilles, assistant director of Planning and Urban Design. “For example, a conservation district, which people have referred to as ‘historic district light’ because it doesn’t have the same strict architectural requirements and process, [has] a lot of focus on architectural style and design … You can still build new things, and you can build expensive new things, but it should blend in with the existing character.” 

Affordable housing is a priority of the plan, but displacement, gentrification, increasing property values, and property taxes are among the primary concerns of West Oak Cliff residents. Those issues can’t be solved in one fell swoop, Popken told CandysDirt.com. 

But the residents can put on paper what they want their neighborhoods to look like for future generations.

“Instead of waiting until the city has shaped us in ways that may not be improving our quality of life, urban planning is standing up for our historically-disinvested neighborhoods,” she said. “Everyone wants safe neighborhoods — good schools, good parks, good sidewalks, and opportunities. That’s where this plan really achieves something for the West Oak Cliff area. It’s a road map forward.”

Combating Displacement 

Lack of supply in desirable areas such as Oak Cliff is the root cause of rising prices, Councilman West said.  

“Simply put, we need more housing options in Oak Cliff, and that includes both ‘for sale’ and rental units,” he said. “WOCAP seeks to provide that through ADUs, and, if neighborhoods will embrace it, missing-middle housing such as duplexes and fourplexes. City staff still has a lot of groundwork to do in neighborhoods helping them understand how missing-middle housing can help slow down, instead of cause, displacement.” 

Residents have expressed interest in preventing the massive block-size apartment structures that are invading the Bishop Arts area, West added. 

“I support the neighbors 100 percent on preventing this type of development within our single-family neighborhoods,” he said. “I do think that we should consider the higher density along retail corridors to attract more varied types of retail to supplement our current offerings throughout Oak Cliff.” 

‘Completely fouled up from the beginning’

About 43,000 people live within the area outlined in the plan, and the feedback represents about 2 percent of those residents. The area is about 86 percent Hispanic.

“By all standards, there was a good amount of resident engagement in the process,” Popken said, explaining that she does community engagement for a living. “I do think the plan accurately represents the hopes and wishes of a good segment of the population. It’s often difficult to get people to engage. The feedback I’ve heard is overwhelmingly positive.” 

But not all of it is. 

Among the public comments at the Sept. 15 CPC meeting were complaints that the process has been “completely fouled up from the beginning,” dismissive of the poor and working-class people, and designed for a nonexistent future population rather than those who currently live in the area.

“We live in a political economy in which people who have less education, less wealth, and less political power are ignored,” said Kellogg Avenue resident Billy Rangel. “Our community values, our neighborhood needs, and the liveability of Oak Cliff are not compatible with the West Oak Cliff Area Plan.” 

Bishop Avenue resident Albert Mata said city leaders should provide extra consideration to communities like West Oak Cliff that have been historically neglected or under-engaged.

“There is a housing shortage in Dallas and [missing-middle housing] has been identified as a solution, but we must have context with the areas where these recommendations are being made,” he said during the September CPC meeting. “If this commission wants to help communities like South Edgefield then sometimes you must reject certain favored policies to honor the voices coming from those neighborhoods.”

West acknowledged that WOCAP approval was “initially rocky” at the ForwardDallas and CPC levels, although the final details were ironed out when compromises were reached on some key issues that comprise a very small portion of the plan.

“The other 95 percent was hammered out over [more than two years] by the task force of hard-working neighbors and city staff,” he said. “These efforts consisted of dozens of community meetings, thousands of touch points and comments from neighbors, and countless hours of work by the task force, staff, and neighborhood organizations.” 

Several residents also spoke in support of the plan at the Sept. 15 CPC hearing, specifically advocating for ADUs and design overlays that limit floor plans, size, and style of homes. 

ADUs increase density and enable the creation of new housing driven by residents, not investors, said Gerry Figueroa, owner of an Oak Cliff auto shop. 

“We ask that the city initiate an authorized hearing that explores options such as a conservation district, zoning ordinance, overlay plan, lot size restrictions, or other appropriate planning protections,” Figueroa said. “By having this process initiated by the city, we lift the burden that is placed on neighborhoods that find themselves in the crosshairs of developers.”

The worst thing to do is nothing, Councilman West emphasized, foreshadowing for West Oak Cliff what has happened in other parts of the city if no action is taken.

“The displacement in the Bishop Arts area happened over a couple of decades as developers bought up most of the properties, and then controlled enough of it that they were able to call the shots at City Hall,” he said. “We have the chance now, while most lots within our WOCAP neighborhoods are owned by local property owners, to set the stage to protect our neighborhoods for the next 20 to 50 years. But to do so, we have to consider the need for gentle density such as duplexes and fourplexes. Otherwise, we risk ‘Highland Park-ing’ our single-family neighborhoods due to rising prices and lack of inventory.  

“In a nutshell, we have to find the balance between preservation — keeping our single-family neighborhoods and lifestyles intact — and meeting housing demand. That balance, in my opinion, is the surest route to slowing down displacement.”