Again it’s doomsday for history as permissive zoning in North Oak Cliff wins out. Here’s how to make sure your neighborhood isn’t next.
As soon as I heard that the barricades were up — never good news if you care about our city’s past — I rushed over and found a few community members there for a final viewing. The future of the 2.67-acre block of West Eighth — and a lot of others like it — was sealed in 2010 by the Bishop/Davis Land Use Study, led by neighborhood stakeholders and approved by a City Council that included then-North Oak Cliff representatives Delia Jasso and Dave Neumann., was intended to guide development while maintaining the area’s character. What’s happened in the years since is a dizzying mashup of extravagantly priced homes and huge no-soul apartment buildings.
Much of the facade of the home of the McDonald family, who until 2016 owned almost all the properties on this block, has been removed in the last few weeks. None of that will permanently delay the wrecking ball set for West Eighth Street, although the city did issue a stop-work order Monday, contending that work had begun without the proper permits.
The property, which was 100% leased at the time, was marketed as featuring “favorable zoning allowing ownership to maximize development plans … 50-foot height, four stories, no density requirements and no setbacks.” West, who had been inaugurated into the District 1 seat just days before the replat’s approval, had previously served as Griggs’ Plan Commission member and, in that role, raised similar questions.
WHY?
Terrible. This is why most of Texas history is mostly re enactments on TV or made up folklore because we bull doze and destroy what we have. Why have buildings, trees, and prairies when we can have everything CGI and created by media?
🆒️ 🕶