Duncanville’s Main Street has no easy fixes

by Brian Allen of Best Southwest Citizen

DUNCANVILLE — I think there’s near unanimous agreement that something needs to happen to Duncanville’s Main Street corridor, but city leaders and business owners are miles apart on what that is.

On June 3 the city council voted to direct staff to prepare ordinances for a comprehensive use plan for the area. It envisions a pedestrian-driven model that could benefit from rail transit. City Manager Kent Cagle said rail transit is not a must for this comprehensive plan, however.

Several business owners spoke about not feeling involved in the process, or believing the council would do as it wished without taking citizen input into account.

Dan Jespersen, one of Main Street’s mainstays at Ben Franklin Apothecary said he had gotten answers to many of his questions. But he acknowledged that relationships hadn’t been forged with business owners that will need to buy into the plan for it to work.

Councilman Paul Ford, who cast the lone vote against the ordinances, said the renderings brought forth by consultant Scott Polikov would be more at home in Dallas.

The city council’s in an unfortunate fix. Many business owners along Main Street are against the plans on the table now, largely because they don’t feel they were included in the debate.

Others like real estate whiz Monte Anderson (who brought Main Station to Duncanville) think the work of Polikov could transform downtown. The council must balance the thoughts of the comparatively few people that came to council chambers with those of the thousands that take no involvement in the process.

Because one thing all sides agree on is a need to make Main Street a destination. Former mayor Glenn Repp said the Main Street Vision was about getting the people that pass Duncanville on Highway 67 and Interstate 20 to stop in town.

Stay tuned, or better yet get involved in the process yourself.