Why is it so hard to build in Dallas?

One thing that one hears too often in Dallas is that doing business is difficult – especially the business of building Dallas.

It’s hard to get permits. It’s hard to get inspections. It’s hard to get hearings. It’s hard to get a permit when you get a hearing. Every step of the process is a struggle.

We have seen this happen over the past few weeks with an apparently useful and important development called The Trailhead along Grand Avenue near White Rock Lake.

The mixed-use project offers pretty much everything that can be expected from a good development. It offers affordable living space. It creates a pedestrian link to the Santa Fe Trail. It mixes residential and retail uses.

It is precisely a forward-looking project that creates urgently needed housing in a city that is desperately looking for more housing for all income groups. And it does so in a way that encourages greater density and advances the city in reducing auto addiction.

Since this is Dallas, it almost didn’t happen. And that has to change.

Let’s go through the nightmare. From the beginning, the development was exposed to misleading and completely false information spread on social media and on a website called Save the White Rock Skyline.

Aside from the fact that development – even at the maximum suggested height – has always been a Midrise plan that didn’t ruin anyone’s views. The question has to be: For whom exactly should we save the skyline? The answer seems to be a small group of wealthy residents around Garland, Gaston and Grand who are known for resisting any kind of change.

The development of Trailhead was not approved by the City Planning Commission, which has an unfortunate history of putting the interests of small groups of selfish neighborhood activists above the larger needs of the city.

Fortunately, cooler minds ruled the city council, and the Trailhead project received unanimous approval on Wednesday after developer Mill Creek Residential agreed to cap the elevation to 75 feet and increase the number of affordable units from 5% to 9%. That sounds like a big win for the people of Dallas. It sounds especially good to the young policewoman who wants to live in the city near her train station. Or the teacher who wants to cycle to school every day. Or the nurse in Parkland who doesn’t want to drag into the suburbs after a 14-hour shift. People in this income bracket could enjoy life near White Rock Lake as much as many of the opponents of this project, who live in houses that most people cannot afford.

You’d think that The Trailhead’s approval was a cause for celebration at Town Hall. Indeed not. The Council passed this without a word of discussion. Councilor Adam Medrano, in whose district the project is located, mumbled the proposed ordinance into his microphone, got a quiet second and a quick vote. Nobody on the Council, it seems, wants to be haunted by the NIMBY crowd, which offers few solutions but many complaints.

It shouldn’t be that hard. The town hall should have a clearer sense of what distinguishes a good development from a bad one. The good stuff offers options for low-income residents. It is sensitive to its surroundings. It includes public facilities. It ensures that people have a choice between modes of transport. It has self-sustaining elements like restaurants and retail stores. That describes this project exactly.

Trailhead’s developers have been in a political process for months that has kept all but the boldest and deepest companies from getting involved. That will hurt this city in the long run if it doesn’t change.

Fortunately, for the most part, this deal is being finalized by the council. It needs to come back for a pro forma approval of the regulation language.

Then, sir, help him, it’s on to the approval office. But that’s a story for another day.

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