Hampton-Clarendon Rezoning Passes Ahead of New State Law
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Another controversial rezoning request was approved by the Dallas City Council this week, marking another instance in which the drive to redevelop trumped neighborhood concerns at the horseshoe. However, officials mitigated the ordinance with additional stipulations, a move that will soon be outside their scope of power in a lot of cases when Senate Bill 840 goes into effect in two weeks.
On Wednesday, council members voted 12-3 to approve turning roughly 35 acres around Hampton Road and West Clarendon Drive in West Oak Cliff into an urban mixed-use district in line with the neighborhood’s area plan, which was adopted in 2022. The Hampton-Clarendon Corridor has historically been zoned for commercial use.
Many of the residents and small business owners in the heavily Spanish-speaking area have been outspoken against the rezoning push over the last several months, fearful that it will invite significant redevelopment and the gentrification that often comes along with it. Plenty of them attended the council meeting.
“Our community sacrificed their time, jobs, and family time to be here over and over, to protect their neighborhood,” said auto repair shop owner Gerardo Figueroa, reported The Dallas Morning News. “We were ignored. We knew this plan would pass, but we will keep the fight.
As can often be the case in big municipalities, zoning changes in Dallas have served as flashpoints at City Hall, with neighborhood residents often voicing opposition for reasons ranging from gentrification to increases in area traffic caused by dense housing developments. More housing, however, is the point. Officials at the local and state level have been trying to boost housing stock amid affordability challenges across Texas.
Hanging over Wednesday’s proceedings was the looming enactment of SB 840 on September 1. The new law will afford developers the right to build mixed-use or multifamily housing on any land zoned for commercial use, bypassing local approval processes.
Some requests by skeptics of the new zoning — such as prohibiting new construction higher than 45 feet and keeping shop front overlays as they are — were adopted by the city council. However, a push to create an anti-displacement task force dedicated to West Oak Cliff was not. Instead, city staff are purportedly looking into launching a citywide task force.
While a displacement task force of some kind may or may not be in the works, there are currently resources that exist for individuals and families who are at risk of being displaced because of affordability issues in Dallas. A number are facilitated by Builders of Hope.
“I don’t want to be on record saying this will solve every gentrification problem along this corridor because I don’t think it will, but I think it does the best job it can given the tools we have,” Council Member Chad West (District 1) said about the zoning ordinance, per KERA News.
He also suggested it was in the best interest of stakeholders for the rezoning to happen now so the neighborhood suggestions could be considered and adopted before SB 840 takes such power out of the hands of local elected officials.
While the rezoning of the Hampton-Clarendon Corridor was passed despite the community opposition, at the same meeting, council members voted overwhelmingly to preserve a mechanism by which neighborhood stakeholders can automatically delay a zoning hearing for 30 days by paying a $150 fee.
City staff had proposed changing the rule so that the decision to delay would ultimately be up to officials on the city council or plan commission.
