Content from our friends over at Dallas Progress
Monday, August 10, 2009
Oak Cliff development needs to move forward
After years of dealing with an overabundance of car lots, motels, and boarded up buildings, the Fort Worth Corridor is in a stage of redevelopment and revitalization. The Belmont Hotel, as well as the Cliff Cafe (currently under renovation and rebranding) and the Salón Las Américas center have sparked the rebirth of this once-forgotten area.
Project Luke is the name for a highly-anticipated mixed-use development which will stretch from I-30 to Fort Worth Avenue along Sylvan. It has the makings of the type of development the city had in mind when we got our Form-Based Zoning framework approved -- moving buildings farther out towards the street and parking behind the buildings vs. having a sea of parking along the street. The most important piece of this development is the plan for a 30,000 sq. ft. +/- site at the I-30 frontage road & Sylvan. Such a footprint would accommodate a mid-size grocery store or an organic grocery like Newflower or Whole Foods. Plans also include loft/studio spaces.
Unfortunately, the entire development is now at risk. There is a major roadblock which is impeding the continued revitalization of this corridor. The issue at hand is the county-owned land that is needed for this development, located at the corner of Sylvan & Fort Worth Avenues (map). [Below] is a recent picture of county auto shop from DCAD:
According to the Dallas Morning News article, a land swap was proposed because state law doesn't allow the county to sell directly to a private party. For now, the county commissioners are balking at the proposed swap and instead vote to have an appraisal completed at a maximum cost of $12,300 to determine the land value.
All of the commissioners quoted seem to be focusing on the value of the land. The underground fuel tanks were also mentioned; I'm sure the developer realizes that tanks will have to be addressed.
Curiously, there is no quote from County Commissioner Ken Mayfield, who represents the area in which the auto shop is located.
While the county does have a responsibility to make a good deal for the taxpayer, it is not a good idea to risk major developments whose benefits far outweigh the amount of additional upfront value that the county can receive form the developer. The increased tax dollars generated (from its current level of zero) base would also be a benefit.
There are plenty of other places to locate this shop. As noted by Shannon Brown, the assistant commissioners court administrator, many auto dealerships are closing. There is also no shortage of service station/repair shops that are closed on which such a county facility could be located.
I'm also not sure if the shop must be located in Oak Cliff.
To me, this land arrangement should not be viewed as a cash cow for the county. It should be treated as an opportunity to bring needed retail and services to this part of Dallas, and one that should be welcomed with opened arms.
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It took 3 decades to create the Ft Worth Avenue strip from the late 1930's to the 1950's, while car culture made that area what it was then, it is trend culture that will make it what it is to become today.....be patient and it will pass you by....A/T, Where Clyde Barrow is buried....on up the strip.....
alexander troup Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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They out to put it over by the auto pound on Vilbig..
Travis Bush Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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Vilbig, the oldest West Dallas folks from the area dating the their German Immigrants who founded the famous Vilbig gravel and sand pits of the 1900s to 1940....while the secrets of Ft Worth Ave are still in deep silence.....how about Pappys Showland.....A/T, A little mud a little earth and then you have Cement City the hotest place on earth.....
alexander troup Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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Well it should move somewhere,but what is forward these day, the same look we are seeing all over town.....kind of boring, besides who is running the show...A/T, The house we live in should not be all glass...
alexander troup Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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What about that Bar on Ft Worth Ave? Passions? has it shut down yet?
david torres Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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don't the underground fuel tanks mean superfund-type clean up before there can be other use, or am I being silly that this might even be possible in Texas?
anthropos Anonymous
3 months, 1 week ago
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No, because if there were any large development there, they would come out of the ground anyway along with a lot of the surrounding dirt..
Travis Bush Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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is this trolley going to go all the way to downtown, via Ft Worth Ave?
david torres Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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Sounds like a nightmare with all of the rails to dig up and replace, look at the Mckinney Avenue line took 6 year to rebuild,
While bike's that the right thing to do and a special bus line,Non Dart too....Then the Ft Worth Pike has been around since the 1850's when la Reunion was called French Town and you had to cross over there to get to Ft Worth...then the Commerce street connection to a lost ghost town called Flander's Height....A/T, Good luck you trolley baffons...
alexander troup Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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So A/T.....if this project goes forward, will Ft Worth Avenue, be torn up for a few years, to revive the rails below ground?
david torres Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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Well good point,... Pre/Columbian Dave....The lines have to be graded and in order to do that you will have to tear up the roads and find the old rails and replace some....it will screw the traffic up until the Dooms day Trinity river flood of 2015, as told by the Fortune Teller,... Luchia on Ft Worth ave in 1996...now....do something new and inovated...that is the money maker for Oak Cliff........or get out your mule hauling street cars...A/T....Jamming to get to the Trinity...
alexander troup Verified
3 months, 1 week ago
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this whole "oak cliff" thing is starting to sound like more trouble than it's worth! I may look elsewhere...So if they do tear up the streets, and find the rails, What's the time-table for this whole thing to be fully developed? "IF" this whole TRINITY RIVER PROJECT ever gets underway, what does this do for the landowners of the FT worth Ave properties? Still well worth the investments? What a f'n mess!
david torres Verified
3 months ago
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There are plenty of ways to get downtown besides Ft. Worth Avenue...Sylvan to Singleton will take you right across the bridge no problem..
Travis Bush Verified
3 months ago
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Are you talking about the Sylvan Ave Bridge? what if it rains?
david torres Verified
3 months ago
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