Applause and Pushback at Contentious Neighbor Meeting for H-E-B’s Proposed Dallas Store
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The tension was palpable on Monday at a community engagement meeting held by H-E-B as part of its push to build a 127,000-square-foot store and two-story parking garage at the southeast corner of LBJ and Hillcrest Road.
As previously reported by CandysDirt.com, some neighborhood residents are deeply concerned over the potential implications of the project, particularly how it will affect traffic in the area.
Traffic did, in fact, dominate the evening’s discussion, which saw several dozen people turn out at an event space in The Westin Dallas Park Central hotel.
H-E-B’s Benjamin Scott, group vice president of real estate and shopping center development, and Bobak Tehrany, COO of the engineering firm BOE, went over proposed ingress and egress improvements the company wants to make to mitigate anticipated bottlenecks around the site.
BOE conducted the traffic impact analysis for the project, which was recently uploaded to DallasNow. Multiple attendees asked questions about the study’s results, particularly how many trips the store would generate, but Scott and Tehrany said they didn’t have exact figures handy.
Scott repeated an estimate shared at a previous community meeting: between 40,000 and 45,000 visits per week. However, at least according to BOE’s trip generation analysis, the store could produce as many as 8,270 trips per day, amounting to just under 58,000 per week.
BOE appears to have gotten to that figure by taking two categories of retail establishments that H-E-B could arguably fall under and assigning them a square footage (which combined total 127,000 square feet), then applying industry standard formulas to arrive at a final estimate.
Even still, Scott and Tehrany insisted that H-E-B’s proposed improvements would mitigate the traffic situation and that the company would work to avoid substantially adding to existing delays and congestion.
When interrogated over whether H-E-B considered an alternative site or building a smaller store on Hillcrest, Scott said the company was responding to “strong demand” and hoped to meet expectations set by some of its other big locations.
“We’ve heard loud and clear a lot, ‘Why is H-E-B only building in the suburbs? Why is everybody building out?’ This was us wanting to bring the best of H-E-B to Dallas inside the loop on this site,” he said.
A clear majority of those who asked questions or made statements Monday evening did so from a position of concern, but there were several attendees who expressed support for the project.
“I think it’s fantastic that y’all are coming into the neighborhood,” said neighborhood resident Rick Jones before inquiring about the store’s operating hours and handicap parking.
There was also a round of applause when Scott said H-E-B will be pursuing the project without seeking tax abatements or other incentives from the city.
Nevertheless, there was plenty of discontent and murmuring throughout the duration of the event. At one point, two attendees on opposing sides of the issue caused a bit of a commotion, raising their voices over one another in disagreement.
Other issues raised during the meeting included the potential for increased criminal activity as well as what rezoning the site from neighborhood office to regional retail could bring in terms of alternative land uses.
Responding to the suggestion that an H-E-B could draw a criminal element, Scott said that an active store with a visible security presence that can be adjusted as needed would guard against attracting crime.
“I’d say one of the worst things you can have for crime — and I think you’ve seen this — is a lack of activity,” he said.
On the subject of land use, Scott noted that SB 840 already empowers any owner to build dense multifamily residential without any rezoning or public hearing because of the medical offices that are currently there. He insisted that H-E-B is dedicated to building a grocery store there and nothing more, even saying that the company would be willing to put certain land uses into a deed restriction.
“If that’s what will get you over the hump to know that we’re going to do what we’re going to say, we’ll put that down on the table today,” Scott said, noting that the company was willing to work with the community.
He acknowledged that H-E-B can’t solve all the potential traffic problems a store could bring, but he said he would do his best to find solutions with stakeholders and city officials.
“I will continue to be that partner that advocates with you if there are things we can do to improve the neighborhood,” he said. “We would like to be part of your neighborhood and do those things and step out and talk to the same people to leverage our relationships as well.”
A spokesperson for H-E-B expressed something similar in a statement following the official end of Monday’s meeting:
“Since we purchased the property, the company has held several neighborhood gatherings and multiple individual meetings. We will continue to listen to the needs of the community and value the feedback we’ve received. H-E-B is committed to being a good neighbor, and we look forward to meaningful dialogue with area residents.”
The City Plan Commission will be holding a public hearing on H-E-B’s zoning request on Sept. 18. If everything goes smoothly for the company, Scott said the store could be open as soon as late 2028, best-case scenario.
