Elm Thicket/Northpark Is Still Reeling From Zoning Battle One Year Later 

Almost a year has passed since Elm Thicket/Northpark residents fought City Hall to preserve the character of their historic Freedman’s neighborhood. 

The residents won their battle to limit the size and height of new construction, but you wouldn’t know it by taking a drive through the area bound by Lemmon Avenue, Lovers Lane, Inwood Road, and Mockingbird Lane. 

“When the zoning fight came to pass, we knew we had to either stand and fight now or the neighborhood’s gone,” one resident said. “There was no other way around it.”

The area used to boast small, affordable wood-frame and brick one-story homes on narrow streets featuring welcoming tree canopies. Now peppered among the legacy homes where Dallasites have lived for generations are tall, modern “McMansions” built on slopes so the runoff shifts into the neighbors’ yards. Gone are many of the trees, replaced by construction company Dumpsters and portable toilets. 

Few use the word “gentrification,” but it looks an awful lot like that’s what’s happening as newer, wealthier neighbors have moved in and changed the landscape. If the big homes don’t sell, they’re used as Airbnbs, which is subject to change as the City of Dallas starts enforcing a residential ban on short-term rentals in December. 

How can developers get away with taking over a neighborhood after the “downzoning” was approved? 

There’s a simple answer. Many developers already had their permits pulled, paid a fee, and were grandfathered in to start construction at the time of the October vote. 

Residents say they’re still proud of the work they did last year and believe they’ve protected their neighborhood against more massive, incompatible development in the future. 

But the development shift is impacting Elm Thicket/Northpark’s ability to secure federal funds, said neighborhood association president Jonathan Maples. 

“Because this neighborhood is in transition, you’ve got big houses going up,” he said. “When they look at that equity scoring, they say, ‘Oh, no, they’ve got $2 [million] and $3 million houses going up over there. They surely don’t need any money.’ But that’s false. This is a Freedman’s neighborhood. We will ask for [funding], and just know that if it gets stuck in limbo, I will raise hell about it.” 

Changes in Elm Thicket/Northpark

The rash of construction activity has left longtime residents shaking their heads at the now-vacant March Avenue and new construction at every turn.

Assistant Director of Planning and Urban Design Andrea Gilles explained that while she worked closely with the Elm Thicket/Northpark neighborhood on the desired zoning changes, her department doesn’t police whether builders are complying with code stipulations. 

“I heard anecdotally that there were quite a few permits already in play or already submitted,” Gilles said. “In order to get the permit, the plans need to meet the code. I don’t know if there have been 311 calls over certain properties that people think are being built outside of the standards.” 

Separate and apart from permitting, “they can still get a pretty big house out of this and meet the standards,” Gilles added.

“I tried to be pretty clear during the process and laid out a lot of scenarios of what kind of square footage you can still get on X lot,” she said. “You still get a pretty big house. It just helped avoid some of those very tall, flat-roof structures.”

The committee opted not to address side setbacks, she added, which is why the new homes are being built so closely to existing structures.

The neighborhood’s August newsletter calls attention to construction violations that put children and pedestrians in danger.

“Home builders have started parking their construction Dumpsters on our public streets,” the newsletter states. “This inconsideration makes it extremely dangerous for children and pedestrians because drivers are not able to see past or through these Dumpsters.” 

Violations can be reported to the City of Dallas Building Inspection Division. 

Based on the development standards approved in October, new construction must meet the following criteria within an “authorized hearing area” bound by Lovers Lane to the north, Inwood Road to the east, Mockingbird Lane to the south, and Lemmon Avenue and Bluffview Boulevard to the west: 

• Single-story and two-story structures must have 35 percent lot coverage. 
• Ninety percent of the roof of the main structure must be hip and gable when greater than 20 feet from grade. 
• Maximum structure height is limited to 25 feet. No portion of the structure can be greater than 30 feet from grade.
• Duplex uses will be allowed along Mabel Avenue and Roper Street. 

Most, if not all, of the construction occurring daily in the Elm Thicket/Northpark neighborhood does not meet the criteria approved in October, but again, neighbors say that’s because the plans were submitted “on a napkin” prior to the council vote and permits were grandfathered. 

Dallas Director of Development Services Andrew Espinoza said his department does not oversee zoning changes, but he provided a link to permitting data that can be searched by ZIP code.

Signs for Olerio Homes dot the neighborhood, including a $1.8 million listing on Morton Street. Lou Olerio says that for 14 years, his team has “developed outstanding new homes and communities in Dallas’ most popular communities — Preston Hollow, Devonshire, Bird Streets, Bluffview, and the Medical District.”

Lou Olerio did not respond to a request for an interview with CandysDirt.com. 

Neighborhood Safety

At an Aug. 26 meeting of the Elm Thicket/Northpark Neighborhood Association, residents talked about how safe their neighborhood is. 

In a two-month period beginning July 1, there were just five crimes investigated in the neighborhood: three reported car burglaries and two stolen vehicles. Much of the area’s crime is concentrated near the Arches at Park Cities Apartments on University Drive, Neighborhood Police Officer Mike Villanueva said. 

“If the residents take ownership of the community where they live, you’d be surprised that the crime will go somewhere else when they don’t have access — like a kid in a candy store — to all that stuff,” he said. “Most of the reports we see, a high percentage of the cars are left unlocked.”

Officers encouraged residents to download the iWatchDallas smartphone application to anonymously report suspected crimes. National Night Out, an opportunity for residents to get to know their neighborhood police officers, is coming up in October. 

“Elm Thicket/Northpark really is a safe neighborhood,” District 2 Councilman Jesse Moreno said. “You can hear all the mistruths out there that this is a crime-ridden neighborhood, but it really is one of the safest places in the City of Dallas.”

Bond Projects For Elm Thicket/Northpark

Interim Director of Bond and Construction Management Jenny Nicewander, a resident of Elm Thicket for the past 12 years, reviewed Dallas’ 2024 bond program at the August neighborhood association meeting. 

“Why do we need a bond program? Mainly because we have a lot of large, expensive projects that would drain our general fund budget,” Nicewander said. 

A needs inventory identified about $16.6 billion worth of necessary projects. A Community Bond Task Force is charged with whittling that list down to $1.1 billion.

While originally planned for May 2024, several City Council members asked recently if the bond election could be postponed to November of next year. 

Nicewander encouraged residents to submit eligible projects to her office. The majority of the Elm Thicket/Northpark projects on the needs inventory are unimproved alleys, she said. Town hall meetings at which the public can provide input are scheduled for Sept. 26 and Oct. 3. 

“Our voices are the only way we get some of that bond money,” Maples said. “Let’s make our voices heard.” 

Councilman Moreno attended the recent neighborhood association meeting, as did newly-elected DISD school board trustee Sarah Weinberg and K.B. Polk Elementary School Principal James Wallace. District 6 Councilman Omar Narvaez, who was not present, represents an area of the neighborhood north of University Park. 

The City Council adopted last year a Racial Equity Plan and projects are scored for the bond election and federal funding based on an equity score. Those figures are getting skewed because of the influx of new development in Elm Thicket/Northpark, Moreno said, echoing Maples’ concerns.

“One thing that I am not pleased with is our equity scoring, once again, is failing to recognize the need of Elm Thicket/Northpark just because of all the mix of homes that we have in this neighborhood,” he said. “It is not getting the equity points that it deserves. That happened with [American Rescue Plan Act] dollars and it’s happening again with bond dollars. I hope when you go speak and give your testimony, you reference the fact that this is a community that is deserving.”