LH Press Library
Contested Wal-Mart zoning vote today
Lake Highlands: Tax break proposal fuels fury of some neighbors
The Dallas Morning News, by Emily Ramshaw
November 9, 2005
For years, the intersection of Forest Lane and Abrams Road has been a black eye in Lake Highlands. Drug dealers and prostitutes frequent the extended-stay hotels and run-down apartments. An office building sits vacant.
But some area residents are mad about plans to raze the property just south of LBJ Freeway and replace it with a Wal-Mart Super Center. And they're furious that they haven't been told about a quietly circulating proposal to grant the project's developer a $1 million sales tax rebate.
The zoning change for the project, the most controversial "big box" since the city ended its moratorium on them and put in new large-scale retail standards last fall, is to come before the Dallas City Council today.
Homeowners say they're ready to see new development at the intersection, as long as it's not a big-box store.
A Wal-Mart would tie up traffic and reroute drivers and pedestrians through their neighborhoods, they say.
"I would love to see crime removed, the extended-stay hotels removed," neighbor Julie Noel said. "If we replace what's there with [a Wal-Mart], we have traded one set of problems for another."
But City Council member Bill Blaydes, who has been working on this project for nearly two years, argues that the Wal-Mart would eliminate blight, reduce crime in northeast Dallas and bring much-needed tax revenue into the city.
"I am removing an apartment complex that's been a problem, and an office complex that is unleasable because of the prostitution and drugs in the extended-stay hotels," Mr. Blaydes said. "The Police Department is doing back flips."
The details of the proposed tax rebate are less clear. According to Mayor Laura Miller, who approached the city's economic development team after a reporter asked her about a rebate, Mr. Blaydes and city staff members have been crafting a deal to make land costs more manageable for the developer, John Christon.
Ms. Miller said Economic Development Director Karl Zavitkovsky and Assistant Director J. Hammond Perot told her on Monday that the plan was to grant the developer half of the sales tax revenue that the Lake Highlands Wal-Mart produces specifically for the city of Dallas, up to $1 million.
Ms. Miller said she was told the $1 million would cover the cost of purchasing the apartment complex and the extended-stay motels, and the cost of relocating apartment residents.
Mr. Zavitkovsy declined to comment on the proposed sales tax rebate.
"I don't think we ever talk about specific private conversations with developers prior to having proper zoning for the property," he said. "It wouldn't be fair."
Tax deal questions
When asked Monday whether there was a tax or revenue-sharing deal for the project, Mr. Blaydes said Wal-Mart "hasn't asked for a thing." But he said there were some discussions about helping the developer financially if asbestos became a problem.
He clarified those comments Tuesday.
"There's no guarantee ... [the developer] is going to ask for anything," he said. "They're just about ready to complete the asbestos tests. The conversations I had were, if and only if the asbestos numbers got to a point ... they would come in and ask for it."
And even if the developer asked for the rebate, Mr. Blaydes said, the City Council would have to approve it.
Ms. Miller, who strongly opposed a tax abatement the City Council approved last month for billionaire businessman Ray Hunt, said the tax rebate plan she heard sounded firm, not fluid. And she said council members – and the people who live near the proposed Wal-Mart – haven't been told the full story before today's vote.
"Now that I know this project needs $1 million, I'm not going to vote to change the zoning. I don't think it's good policy," Ms. Miller said. "I've gotten so many e-mails from people who don't want this store in their neighborhood. If they knew they were also being asked to subsidize it, they'd be very upset."
Homeowner opposition
On a recent Tuesday night, residents flooded into their neighborhood pizza joint, picking up dozens of yellow "No Big Box" yard signs, signing petitions and strategizing for the upcoming council meeting. Homeowners – primarily in the Forest Meadow neighborhood – say they learned of the impending zoning change in August and have mobilized as fast as they can to defeat it.
"People shop at all hours. This opens up our neighborhood 24 hours a day," said Earl Slocumb, who has lived on Mill Ridge Circle for 30 years. "We didn't oppose a neighborhood grocery store. It's the magnitude of it, and the traffic."
"There's a tremendous amount of opposition to this project," Ms. Noel said. "We are of the opinion that there could be a better use for the site."
Mr. Blaydes said the Wal-Mart project has been discussed at every town hall meeting and before every homeowners association. The majority of his district supports this project, he said – even the Town Creek subdivision, which is the closest to the proposed Wal-Mart.
And he said the site is ideal for a big box, because it abuts Forest Lane – a major thoroughfare – and a highway, I-635.
The City Plan Commission overwhelmingly approved the project.
"It's an appropriate location for any use of this type, given it's got good access to a major thoroughfare," Dallas senior planner David Whitley said.
"That's where the Dallas code says big boxes are supposed to go," Mr. Blaydes said. "Don't tell me there's a problem. The fact is ... [the opponents] just don't want a Wal-Mart."
Ted Graham doesn't like Wal-Mart much. But he's lived in the neighborhood long enough to know that anything would be better than the "dope city" that currently exists, he said.
"This is a run-down, depressed area," he said. "It should absolutely be bulldozed. I think it's for the best."
Steve Cole disagrees.
"This is about us taking one for a team I don't want to be on," the Town Creek resident said. "No one in America would choose to live near a Wal-Mart."
We're always looking for volunteers!
Find out how you can help out LHAIA!
