Dallas Councilman Jesse Moreno Addresses Elm Thicket Permitting Errors (Sort Of)
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District 2 Councilman Jesse Moreno took advantage of a public platform Monday to question planning officials about how permits could be issued for projects that didn’t have the proper zoning.
Moreno didn’t mention the recent Elm Thicket/Northpark permit controversy by name, but the reference was implied. Monday’s Economic Development Committee Meeting wasn’t posted for such a discussion, and under the Texas Open Meetings Act, officials have to stick to the agenda. However, Moreno’s questioning was germane to the topic at hand — the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan — and no one stopped him.
For context, CandysDirt.com broke the story last week that the City of Dallas had erroneously issued permits to builders in the Elm Thicket/Northpark neighborhood and then asked them to stop work after several incorrectly zoned homes were nearly complete.
Neighbors in the former Freedman’s community near Love Field fought for and were granted a “downzoning” in October 2022 that regulates development standards such as building height, roof construction, and lot coverage. In late July, several “stop work orders” were issued on projects in various stages of completion after city staff, with the help of vigilant neighbors, determined permits were issued erroneously. In at least a couple of instances, builders were putting up duplexes in areas that were zoned only for single-family homes. The builders have been told they can resubmit plans or appeal to the Board of Adjustment, we reported in a follow-up Monday.
Jesse Moreno Weighs In
Moreno spoke up during a discussion about the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan to address his concern for the protection of single-family neighborhoods.
“We talked about conservation districts, historic districts, and neighborhood stabilization overlays,” Moreno said. “When a developer is working with the various offices, how accurate is that information, making sure that where single-family is zoned, single-family or duplex is allowed … where multifamily is [zoned], multifamily is allowed?”
New Planning and Development Director Emily Liu referenced a memorandum “related to the subject,” and it’s safe to say she’s talking about Interim Assistant City Manager Robin Bentley’s Aug. 2 correspondence with the Dallas City Council.
“I would say the merge of the [Planning+Urban Design and Development Services] departments made it easier to make sure all the information is correct,” Liu said, referring to a departmental shakeup that occurred in June. “Generally speaking it is pretty accurate. Occasionally some mistakes are being made. There’s a recent one. We are actively addressing that proactively to make sure that in the future we minimize those mistakes.”
Such mistakes cause neighbors to get antsy and frustrated, Moreno explained.
“As we know, the city allowed for [duplexes] to be built in single-family neighborhoods with a neighborhood stabilization overlay in place, which gives great pause to residents,” Moreno said. “How are we going to prevent this from happening in the future — and give comfort to residents that what’s on paper, what’s been adopted, is actually going to be approved or not approved? It’s of great concern for me that we have a neighborhood overlay that we worked on for years and we allowed duplexes to come in when it’s clearly labeled a single-family zone.”
Streamlining Processes
Assistant Planning Director Andrea Gilles, who served as interim department director for several months before Liu joined the city in May, responded to Moreno’s comments by routing the discussion back to ForwardDallas.
“I 100% agree with that statement. It is frustrating, and … I don’t want to not directly answer your question,” Gilles said. “ForwardDallas is a piece in that puzzle to lay all of the baseline foundations of planning and zoning and make sure they’re all working together.”
Dallas has many competing efforts — planned developments, neighborhood stabilization overlays, conservation districts, historic districts, and area plans — that the system can become unpredictable and inefficient, Gilles explained.
“We need to proactively work through and make some of these more predictable, more streamlined, and easier to manage and understand,” she said. “So immediately as a zoning change occurs, it’s automatically [updated].”
That process is underway so it will be easier and more immediate for a change to be reflected on a map or within any city system, Gilles said.
Moreno said he looks forward to continued conversations on the topic.
“These are vulnerable communities, Freedmen’s towns, that this horseshoe worked diligently to put safety measures in place, and here we are today,” he said.
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Ask Moreno’s wife, who worked for previous councilman, Medrano, and knows what’s in the closet, how things worked before when the Office of Sustainable Development was in charge of permits and Planning was in charge of those who represent “stakeholders” and a way to profits through their vehicle of Forward Dallas.
Elm Thicket did not go down as easily as OakCliff, where Chad West, $$ Harlan Crow, used 3 PDs in a row to help David Weekly build houses for property management corporations and his growing circle of Friends building and selling luxury homes profit and Dallas lost the Office of Affordable Housing. Look how Narvaez got a piece of the district in exchange for his help after Lucy Billingsley Crow got Cypress Waters. Follow the money. The Big Money interests have overridden the interests of the community by creating chaos and combining these departments was their agenda for creating their future profit. Bring back accountability and sustainable development in relation to natural resources and investment in infrastructure as part of the solution for housing instead of selling and outsourcing our city departments for Big money corporate profits. Multi family rentals for life that create profits for big money corporations and property management companies, instead of a pathway to the American dream of home ownership and the middle class, are not the solution. Stop big money corporate pyramids from destroying our single family housing supply for their profits.
how about you people move on with your lives and literally yourselves and move elsewhere? its time. you hold evolution back. you are historically a threat to progress. you are the enemy of progress. shame on you. may god have mercy on your souls. and may what happens hit you badly
As someone who worked on the developer side, Connie has the business model down to a tee. We loved ppl who would let us build more high-density MF under the guise of it being “building housing”. Thing is we would’ve built anyway. It’s not like it was an opportunity zone area that needed it LOL. Ppl gotta wake up and follow the money. Stop building stuff for rich investors….
That said, Connie – I would say that luxury for sale product isn’t the worst thing. It frees up lower cost resale housing that the rich homebuyers would’ve bought and gutted instead. Remodeling older product isn’t needed if it keeps it affordable. Better those ppl move into more expensive new homes and free up older/cheaper inventory for the middle class. That’s how capitalism is supposed to work in a way benefit ppl. But totally agree that incentivizing multifamily (in areas it would’ve gotten built anyway) helps no one except rich ppl.