City Plan Commission to Consider Lakewood Conservation District Expansion on Nov. 21
Share News:
We could regale you with a few of the fun quotes about front-yard setbacks and terracotta roof tiles that we heard at the 18th — yes, 18th — community meeting on the Lakewood Conservation District expansion. But all you really need to know at this point is that the Lakewood ordinance is finally going before the City Plan Commission on Nov. 21.
It’s been almost three years in the making and, judging by a large group of Tokalon Drive residents wearing “No to CD2” shirts at the Oct. 29 community gathering, there are still plenty of people who would like to shut it down.
Those who support it, however, include historic preservationists like Marcel Quimby and Ron Siebler and longtime residents who are worried architecturally significant homes designed by Clifford Hutsell will be demolished to make way for new, incompatible construction.
Chief Planner Trevor Brown answered dozens of questions last week in a crowded room at Samuell Grand Recreation Center. The opposition appears to be concerned about property rights and having the option to alter the homes they purchased and pay taxes on.
The official definition of a conservation district is that it allows neighborhoods to establish exterior design criteria and other standards to preserve the character of an area. An ordinance is established for each conservation district that details the regulations homeowners must follow in any renovations or new construction and must ultimately be approved by the Dallas City Council.
Read the Lakewood draft ordinance or listen to the audio recording from the Oct. 29 public meeting.
Lakewood Conservation District Expansion
The original Lakewood Conservation District, formed in 1988, only covers a portion of Lakewood. Hundreds of the original homes on Lakewood, Lakeshore, Avalon, Tokalon, and Westlake are not protected, according to the Lakewood Conservation District Facebook page. The current conservation district starts at Abrams and does not extend east of Brendenwood or Copperfield.
CandysDirt.com reported in August 2023 that Lakewood Conservation District advocates faced serious opposition when the “NoToCD2” group formed.
Julie Broberg, who originally signed the petition to expand the district and said she later came to believe the effort was built on false promises, sent an email to neighbors on Oct. 27 encouraging them to fight the expansion at the November CPC hearing.
“We’re being spinned,” she wrote. “Someone is able to sneak in extras we never discussed. Or remove extras we DID discuss. That’s definitely a case for DISTRUST.”
Non-contributing houses are still “under control despite petitioners’ promises,” Broberg said. Additionally, “architectural standards for everyone have become divorced from an objective source,” she added.
“We did not agree to the mash architectural standards in the current draft,” Broberg said.
Julie Broberg and her husband Brad sold their home on Tokalon Drive and moved out of state but attended the meeting last week and remain involved in the process.
Summer Loveland, a Lakewood resident who initiated the petition that set the conservation district in motion, said after last week’s meeting that most of the concerns raised by the opposition have been addressed. Twenty-three significant changes to the original proposed draft are outlined on the Love-Lakewood.org website.
Additionally, a “Comparison Notes” document is posted on the city website to outline the changes. The nine-page document addresses architectural standards, simplification of language, and removal of a “points system” for architectural features when constructing a new home in one of the five approved contributing styles.
The five approved styles include Spanish Eclectic/Revival, French Eclectic, Neoclassical, Tudor, and Colonial Revival.
Dallas Conservation Districts
Dallas has at least 17 conservation districts, some of which have been in place since the late 1980s.
Because the Lakewood process was set in motion with petition signatures of 68% of the residents in the affected area, staff can’t stop it, Brown explained at last week’s meeting.
The City Plan Commission, however, has the authority to reject the ordinance at its Nov. 21 meeting.
Although most can’t recall a time in recent memory when a conservation district has been denied, it happened in 2009 when the Dallas City Council unanimously rejected a conservation district application from Little Forest Hills.
“Some residents had sought conservation district status in a bid to limit the size of homes and setbacks from streets, as well as preserve trees in this roughly 960-home community east of White Rock Lake,” states an archived article in the Dallas Morning News. “Many developers and other residents opposed the regulation, arguing it cuts against property and development rights.”
City Plan Commissioner Neal Sleeper represents District 9; Paula Blackmon is the council member for Lakewood. One thing is for sure. There will be a crowd on Marilla Street come Nov. 21. We’ll have all the coverage at CandysDirt.com.
