$150,000 Townhouses in the middle of South Oak Cliff?

One of the things that I aim to do is to educate my fellow young people on the City and why you should care.

OK, young people. Who do you think runs the City of Dallas? You might think that your favorite local radio DJ or your favorite local rapper runs Dallas because they have some radio airplay or a couple of videos and a Escalade sittin' on 26-inch spinners (link) that they run Dallas. That's why it's funny when you see people flashing money in local videos. It's not what you have in your pocket or what you drive, it's what you have in the BANK, stupid.

But you would be off...way off. Next to the Mayor and City Council, the people on the City Plan Commission (CPC) run Dallas. DON'T MISS THAT! People get rich based on the 'Yes' or 'No' votes from the CPC.

What's the City Plan Commission?

The City Plan Commission (CPC) is appointed by the Dallas City Council. Each City Council member has one commissioner, including the Mayor. They meet almost every Thursday at City Hall. While anything that the CPC approves is voted on by City Council, the CPC are big players in Dallas. They are the 'man next to the man' as we say.

Simply put, they approve zoning changes. For example, if you have a certain piece of land that's approved for home construction and you want to build a corner store, you have to apply and get approval from the CPC. Or, if you have a big piece of land that you want to cut up into smaller pieces. Or, you need a special permit for a prohibited business. There's many other things.

I'm not suggesting anything about the CPC. There are good and bad people on any board. I admire their service, since the CPC is a volunteer board and some meetings can take up to 10 hours. The CPC actually had the concerns of the citizens in mind when they changed the so-called Forward Dallas plan, but of course the city council (as a whole) rejected those changes last week. The CPC plan was way better than what we are now left with.

Back to the Townhouses

Here's an interesting agenda item coming up on the CPC agenda on Thursday June 22nd.

Case number Z056-200. The property is in District 4 - The City Councilperson is Maxine Thornton-Reese. Her CPC person is Angela Marshall. These are the same two people that tried to jerk us when we got the permit denied on the Interstate Motel at Beckley & Overton (map) in November 2005 (click link for history).

The townhouse properties are located in the 4300 Block of South Marsalis (click here for map).

The person who applied is named Patricia Hawkins. What they're trying to do is take a several pieces of land that are zoned for a single houses and change the zoning so it will be legal to build townhouses that will cost approximately $150,000.

$150,000 townhouses up the street from Catfish Floyd? At Marsalis & Ann Arbor??? Around the corner from Glendale Park??? Seriously.

Real estate records show that no house that costs more than $87,000 has been sold in this area in the past year; most cost between $40-50,000. Why would anyone try to dump this fake development on this area?

There must be a reason why this was postponed twice from April 20th, 2006 and May 11th, 2006. Usually, when this happens, it means there are a lot of circumstances that the supporters wouldn't want it to be voted on for fear that it wouldn't get enough votes to be passed.

County Records show that Ms. Hawkins owes a ton of money in city mowing liens, on these properties and others. Why grant zoning changes when they won't even mow the grass?

From what I've heard on the ground level, most people in the neighborhood don't want this development. There are a couple of people that have power that support it, but the neighborhood doesn't. But most in the area are senior citizens, and don't want to cause a stir.

This could be something that gets approved, no one buys the expensive townhomes and then get rented to whomever wants it and it turns into slum property. None the less, it's totally incompatible with the neighborhood. But sometimes, cronies want the things approved and whatever happens, happens. People get their construction contracts, the fat cats are happy and everybody moves on. BUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD SUFFERS!

These types of decisions are the ones that ruin neighborhoods. This neighborhood is starving for affordable, single family housing. Hopefully this proposal will not pass.