Dallas is taking over the former Shingle Mountain site. Will a park blossom out of the waste?

Dallas acquires an abandoned recycling site that Shingle Mountain – more than 100,000 tons of crushed toxic roofing material – stood on for years in a southern neighborhood of Dallas.

What happens next is unclear.

The residents hope that the change of ownership will lead to a new park. But the city council didn’t reveal any plans on Wednesday for the 4.3-acre site near Interstate 45 and Loop 12 before unanimously approving the takeover.

An environmental assessment is expected to be released on Friday and city officials have not said if there are ongoing health threats to local residents who reported breathing problems and other issues while the rubble was there.

The city is taking over the land for free as part of a settlement with CCR Equity Holdings, which owns the land and has leased it to Blue Star Recycling. The latter operated a recycling plant for asphalt shingles, where it dumped the material, later filed for bankruptcy, and left the six-story Shingle Mountain behind.

Marsha Jackson, whose home was near Shingle Mountain until the pile was removed in February and who first alerted the city three years earlier, said more green space would help heal and grow her rural neighborhood that surrounds it through industrial property. She said other residents told her they felt like “a lost community”.

Marsha Jackson discussed the removal of Shingle Mountain in mid-December. (Lola Gomez / photographer)

“We’ve been hurt for the past three years and we’re getting hurt all the time,” Jackson told councilors prior to their vote. “I don’t want any other community to go through what we’ve been through.”

The rubble dates back to 2017 and was building up when Jackson reported a concern to the city in January 2018. Officials took no notice of it for nearly a year thereafter, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News.

The city hired Roberts Trucking to remove the shingles last fall, and between December and February the company moved about 139,000 tons to an urban landfill less than a mile away. A pop-up classical music concert celebrated the eviction of the mountain from the neighborhood.

Debris is still being removed from the site, as shown by a city-operated tracker. Almost 15,000 tons of additional waste has been cleared from the construction site since March, of which around 260 tons on May 4th.

Shingle Mountain was actually spread over two lots in the Floral Farms district, whose predominantly black and Latin American residents live in the middle of a mixture of agriculture and industrial zones.

Almira Industrial and Trading Corp. still owns one of the properties. Almira, who is involved in a legal dispute with the city, has cleaned the rubbish off her property. And Almira has filed documents with the city to use his property to sort and separate metals – a move that neighbors believe could jeopardize their desire for a park.

Evelyn Mayo, Paul Quinn College Urban Research Initiative scholar, said it was necessary to acquire ownership of the property Almira held in order to meet the demands of the flower farming community.

“We urge the council to acquire this area because it will take one step closer to permanently protecting residents, hopefully through the council to acquire it, re-zoning and working with the neighborhood to designate it as public parking,” said Mayo told The News.

Mayo said the Urban Research Initiative helped Floral Farms residents create their neighborhood plan for friendlier living.

The property on which Shingle Mountain sat stands vacant in Dallas on Wednesday, June 9, 2021.  (Juan Figueroa / The Dallas Morning News)The property on which Shingle Mountain sat stands vacant in Dallas on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. (Juan Figueroa / The Dallas Morning News)(Juan Figueroa / employee photographer)

Councilor Tennell Atkins, who represents southern Dallas, which includes Shingle Mountain, said it will likely be a few months before ownership of the CCR Equity site officially transfers to the city. He said the city completed the environmental impact assessment of the site on Monday and thanked residents, community officials, city officials and his fellow councilors for their work.

Councilor Omar Narvaez, who represents West Dallas and chairs the council’s Environment and Sustainability Committee, described the acquisition of the site as “long term.”

“Today we did right and wrong,” he said.

Prior to the city council’s decision, local residents and community activists urged officials to work with the neighborhood and other partners to also purchase the Almira property to prevent another environmental disaster.

Dallas-based HKS Architects is helping residents design the park, and proponents said the community-sponsored neighborhood plan is supported by groups like the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce, Trinity River Audubon Center, and Paul Quinn College, which is two miles from side? ˅.

“The Schindelberg has a negative impact on our community,” said Genaro Viniegra, a resident of Floral Farms. “And we want something positive to come out of it.”

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