City Hall Roundup: South Dallas Fair Park Area Plan Moves Forward, Representing ‘Rebuilding of Trust’ 

A task force has been studying the South Dallas Fair Park Area Plan for almost four years, and the document appears to be headed toward an implementation phase that will include more housing with intentional, neighborhood-approved design standards. 

Members of the Dallas City Council’s Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture Committee discussed the matter during a May 20 meeting. The committee is chaired by District 7 Councilman Adam Bazaldua, who represents the South Dallas Fair Park area. 

Assistant Director of Planning and Urban Design Andrea Gilles said this planning effort is near and dear to her heart. 

“One of the major successes coming out of this process is a rebuilding of trust, rebuilding of community engagement, a coalescence of really prominent neighborhood and community leaders who have taken the charge coming out of this plan and have started the implementation phase of this work,” Gilles said. 

View the May 20 South Dallas Fair Park Area Plan presentation and the May 20 Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture Committee meeting. 

South Dallas Fair Park Area Plan

The plan kicked off in 2020 as one of dozens of neighborhood- or city-initiated area plans to allow residents to explore what they want their neighborhood to look like. 

A task force met several times and it became clear that they believed the 3,500-acre area had been “planned to death,” Gilles said. More than 100 plans, reports, and analyses have covered the South Dallas Fair Park area over the past 20 years. The area also encompasses the 20-year-old Planned Development District 595, which city officials and neighbors agree is long overdue for an update. 

“When we worked with the task force, which was very vocal, very frustrated — understandably — we decided that we needed to do an implementation plan,” Gilles said. “This needed to be something that was going to develop the next steps.” 

The task force narrowed its focus to five strategic areas: Second Avenue south of Mill City, Elsie Faye Heggins Street, Malcolm X Boulevard Corridor, MLK Jr. Dallas Area Rapid Transit Station, and Queen City. 

“A lot of these identified areas are corridors and one of the things we heard is that they don’t allow housing,” Gilles said, noting that residents and task force members want a plan that includes more housing options. 

South Dallas is one of three citywide “equity strategy areas” targeted for funding and affordable housing initiatives. 

South Dallas Fair Park Area Plan Recommendations 

Implementation will include an authorized hearing to update PD 595 and assurances that the plan will follow the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan slated for adoption by the Dallas City Council in the fall. 

South Dallas Fair Park residents have said they like the area’s older, existing single-family homes that are properly maintained, said Chief Planner Patrick Blaydes. 

“[They] also like the newer homes that are reflective of the character of the older homes,” Blaydes said. “What they don’t like are the new homes built in South Dallas [that are] grossly incompatible with the existing homes. The community also said they don’t like apartment buildings that are within their neighborhoods.” 

This discussion recently came up at a City Plan Commission meeting as leaders discussed ForwardDallas. The problem for some neighborhoods is not duplexes and triplexes; it’s the lack of design standards and the incompatibility within single-family neighborhoods. 

Design standards will be addressed at the upcoming authorized hearing, Blaydes said. 

Drafting the South Dallas Fair Park Area Plan “was no easy task,” Bazaldua said, thanking District 7 Plan Commissioner Tabitha Wheeler-Reagan for her service as co-chair of the task force. 

“A lot of labor and love has been put into this,” he said. “It’s going to give us a great plan moving forward.”