Southern Dallas Megachurch Granted Injunction, Temporarily Halting Industrial Warehouse on Wheatland Road
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Friendship-West Baptist Church got a big win when Judge Aiesha Redmond of Dallas County’s 160th District Court granted an injunction that will halt the construction of an industrial warehouse on Wheatland Road near the southern Dallas megachurch.
CandysDirt.com broke the story in May that neighbors and members of the megachurch congregation opposed Stonelake Capital Partners’ plans for a 200,000-square-foot warehouse on an industrial-zoned site. It’s not just near the church; the site also is in close proximity to David W. Carter High School, three elementary schools, and a single-family neighborhood.
It’s “environmental racism,” the neighbors said.
“We say no to the inability of developers to be creative while looking to produce a social and economic impact in the southern sector,” Friendship West executive pastor David Malcolm McGruder said during the public comment portion of a May 10 Dallas City Council meeting. “We say no to environmental racism and the negative possible health effects of this development. We say no to implicit red-lining … and economic and developmental apartheid. We say no because we are Christians and we abide by that great civic golden rule: Do unto the south side as you would do to the north side.”
Stonelake Capital Partners’ Response
When the opposition organized last year, city leaders said there wasn’t much recourse because the land was zoned for industrial use. This is exactly the reason why public input on the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan is vital, former Planning and Urban Design Director Julia Ryan said at the time. The plan will guide “placetypes,” setting the tone for the types of uses people want in certain areas of the city as Dallas continues to grow.
Stonelake officials pointed out that the zoning was in their favor.
“The 19-acre land site along Interstate 20 which Stonelake acquired in 2021 was widely marketed for sale and has been zoned for industrial warehouses for over 22 years,” company officials said in a statement to CandysDirt.com in May 2023. “Stonelake acquired the property along Interstate 20 only because it was fully entitled for the development of an industrial warehouse.
The statement went on to say that Stonelake was not seeking to rezone the property.
“Stonelake is requesting permits for our Class-A industrial development because our plans fully comply with the existing entitlements and the City of Dallas code including environmental,” the statement reads. “The site which Stonelake purchased is vacant land that has never previously been developed and will become a Class-A property and place of employment.”
Next Steps For Stonelake Property Near Southern Dallas Megachurch
The church petitioned the court for an injunction in December, and the matter will go to trial in April 2025, according to a Feb. 20 report in the Dallas Morning News.
“There is evidence that the harm is imminent and irreparable to Plaintiff,” Judge Redmond wrote in her order issuing the injunction. “These injuries will be irreparable to Plaintiff unless these restraints are ordered against Defendants because no other legal remedy is available to protect Plaintiff from these injuries, losses, or damages.”
The Dallas Morning News article cited church members saying the project was “emblematic of Dallas’ history of zoning industrial sites near low-income, predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods.”
