How The Preston Center West Rezoning Almost Happened Without Community Input
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At a time when trust in Dallas’ public officials appears to be at an all-time low, a former city plan commissioner pointed out that a Preston Center West rezoning request was poised for approval without a community meeting that was promised two years ago.
Claire Stanard, who represented District 13 on the City Plan Commission until late last year, sounded the alarm in a March 19 CandysDirt.com opinion column.
The Preston Center West shopping center sits in the multifaceted planned development district 314. PD 314 was created in 1989 but a redevelopment strategy has been on the radar since at least 2017, when the $300,000 Northwest Highway/Preston Road Area Plan was approved.
“The Northwest Highway and Preston Road area will maintain and enhance its position as one of the most desirable and livable residential areas in the City of Dallas, offering stable, protected neighborhoods with a range of great housing alternatives, from rental apartments to estate properties,” the plan states. “A renewed, walkable Preston Center will serve as an urban core for the surrounding neighborhoods, with a balanced mixture of office, retail, residential, hospitality, and entertainment facilities, making it possible to live, work, and play without getting into your automobile.”
A development plan submitted by Suzan Kedron of Jackson Walker LLP depicts high-rise office and multifamily towers with ground-floor retail on the southern portion of the site.
“To build to the desired development plan, the applicant requests additional floor area ratio and height,” the case report states. “To accomplish this, they are requesting a new subarea within Tract III with a mixed-income housing development bonus tied to an increase in floor area ratio.”
Critics argue the proposed rezoning, which will now go before the City Plan Commission on May 2 following an April 10 community meeting, does not meet the vision outlined in the area plan. Others say the plan, supported by former Mayor Laura Miller, was doomed at its inception.
The much-anticipated April 10 community meeting is scheduled for 6 to 7: 30 p.m. at Christ the King Catholic School, 4100 Colgate Ave.
City Plan Commission Meeting Discusses Proposed Rezoning
As we reported last month, current D13 Plan Commissioner Larry Hall, Stanard’s successor, apologized during a March 21 CPC meeting for not holding a community meeting on the project. Hall has only been in his volunteer position since late 2023, and Kedron acknowledged the oversight on behalf of the developer.
Stanard pointed out that she requested a public meeting two years ago and denied Jackson Walker’s proposed plans because they didn’t reflect the approved guidelines in the 2017 area plan.
“I clearly stated that whatever proposal was made in Preston Center would require a community meeting and some kind of uniformity all around the parking lot,” Stanard told CandysDirt.com.
Whether intentional or not, it appears the project has moved forward in the dark without consideration for the Preston Hollow residents who live in the area.
Kedron said her team provided notice to 63 adjacent property owners and held a meeting with tenants of a nearby residential area, a majority of whom support the project.
But Stanard and others criticized the public notification process, noting that just one sign advising a plan to rezone a 4.5-acre project was posted on a vacant building on Luther Lane.
The zoning request was originally scheduled for March 7 but a typographical error prevented plan commissioners from hearing it that day. Kedron said at the March 21 meeting she’s excited about the redevelopment project and looks forward to hearing from the community on April 10.
“[The redevelopment project] meets a lot of components of the plan,” she said at last month’s CPC meeting. “It brings a lot of ground-floor activating street uses. We’re upgrading an office building that’s currently there and we’ll be including much-needed multifamily.”
The Proposal For Preston Center West
Senior Project Coordinator Michael Pepe said developers are asking for modified development standards to allow for the construction of mixed-income housing. All supporting documents are posted here.
The area in question is bounded by Luther Lane, Westchester Drive, Berkshire Lane, and Douglas Avenue.
District 6 Plan Commissioner Deborah Carpenter said the case report shows the intent is to require 40,000 square feet of “street-activating uses,” further described as retail.
“But the way street-activating uses are defined in this [planned development], that also includes lodging,” Carpenter said. “So it would be possible, by the way this PD is written, that no retail whatsoever would have to be on this site. It could be an office, it could be a hotel.”
Pepe said lodging is beneficial as a street-activating use, but the language can be changed if retail or “personal service use” is desired for that area.
Discussion About Compliance With Area Plan
It was clear in last month’s CPC meeting that plan commissioners are concerned about compliance with the plan for the Preston Center West mixed-use area.
Plan Commissioner Joanna Hampton said one of the “drivers” when crafting the area plan was a desire to create open space and walkability.
“I think I’m just trying to understand … how the overall district is intended to work together,” Hampton said.
Plan Commissioner Brent Rubin expressed concern about the building height and whether the plan specifically addresses an 85-foot maximum. Pepe said the height is addressed primarily through residential proximity slope. Commissioner Hall said the 85-foot suggestion appears to apply to condominiums within a particular zone of the Preston Center area.
Those familiar with the area say the location begs for density. The existing city-owned parking lot is problematic. But there’s the area plan that sets guidelines for the site’s development. To approve the rezoning, the Dallas City Council would be throwing out an expensive plan that, at one time, city leaders thought was important enough to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on.
Back in 2020, Jon Anderson dove into the parking garage debacle for CandysDirt.com:
“Preston Center is as out of place in Preston Hollow as a Hershey’s Kiss on a Ritz-Carlton pillow.
The land occupied by the Preston Center parking garage is the city’s biggest chance to fix that. Since the 2016 area plan recommended an expanded underground garage with a park on top, District 13 Dallas City Council member Jennifer Gates has been working with the neighborhood, North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), and local landowners to move that vision forward.
However, any forward momentum has been dashed due to the unending headwinds of those landowners that are part of the Preston Center West Corporation (PCWC). It makes me wonder why they wrote the park concept into the final plan to begin with – tossing a bone they never intended to support?”
Stanard also weighed in on the parking situation in a March 25 email to CandysDirt.com.
“Whatever happened to the public park on top of the Preston Center parking lot?” Stanard wrote. “Nothing! Nothing has happened since the neighborhood mandated during the 2017 Area Plan that the crumbling parking lot be converted into underground parking with an accessible park on top of the 3-plus acres. As Jennifer Gates’ appointee for District 13 on the 2017 Bond Committee, we allocated $10 million toward the park, which is still waiting to be used.”
There’s certainly a golden opportunity for the center. On the other side of Preston Road is a successful mixed-use area in University Park. But Preston Center West remains tied up in deed restrictions and Dallas bureaucracy.
It’s up to local policymakers and the recommending panels they appointed to listen to what residents in the surrounding area want. And it’s up to the policymakers to be transparent about why they’re making specific zoning decisions.
We’ll be watching the April 10 community meeting.
