LH Press Library
McMansions, Wranglers, TIF top stories in 2005
Lake Highlands People, by Peter Simek
December 30th, 2005
No one will write that 2005 was an easy year. It wasn’t.
Both abroad and in our backyards, many of the stories that stand out were heart breaking and difficult.
The year began with news of devastation in southeast Asia Tsunami.
Back home, schools, and workplaces ran drives, raised funds, and tried to send sup port to the far-off in need.
By the end of the year, another disaster struck close to home.
As evacuees from the hurricane-ravaged coast made their way to Dallas, we had to offer more. Residents opened their wallets, their pantries, their homes — some even picked up and went south to help with the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, which will continue into 2006.
But as many turned their thoughts outward to charity, Lake Highlands residents had their own wars to wage in the neighborhood.
Strong mayor, McMansions, the White Rock Creek Bridge, and Wal-Mart: There will be a need for yuletide cheer after a year of hot debate.
But that’s only half the story.
Our picks for the top stories of the year show that, like Lake Highlands restaurant owner Mariano Martinez’s margaritas, 2005 was sweet and sour.
Margarita Madness
Sure McMansions and mayors made headlines week after week. But how many people this year — or any year — can say that they invented something that now sits next to the Wright Brothers’ plane and a perfectly preserved 25-million year old skeleton of a Triceratops?
Lake Highlands’ restaurant owner Mariano Martinez can. His frozen margarita machine — the world’s first— was acquired by the Smithsonian Institute in September and will be on display its galleries of American relics.
Martinez invented the machine by rigging a soft- serve ice cream machine in his newly opened restaurant in 1971. He was trying to create a way to make a consistent and icy-cold margarita.
“We souped it up like when we were teenagers,” he said.
His ingenuity created an America classic, and a great way to take the edge off one hell of a year.
A Future with a TIF
Lake Highlands needs retail, and District 10 Bill Blaydes thinks he knows how to get it.
No matter what you think of his record at city hall, you can’t deny that getting the Skillman Corridor Tax Increment Finance District passed by the city council this fall offers tremendous hope for the neighborhood’s future.
It works like this: The city creates a fund out of the expected property tax increases of an area over a given period of time. The city can then use those funds to pay for improvements, such as streetscapes, water infrastructure improvements, demolition, etc.
Basically, next time a developer takes a look at property along Skillman the city can say “Hey, we’ll help pay for you to tear those apartments down.”
Who would pass up that offer?
That means a lot of new building and a lot of new retail, and that’s bigger than one Wal-Mart.
Add to that an extra bonus: Earlier this year, the Dallas Police Department’s Operation Kitchen Sink helped clean up some of the notorious apartments that bring crime to Lake Highlands. The TIF may offer a long term solution.
Walnut Hill Usurps Kingsley
On April 13, everyone who lived on Kingsley Road in Lake Highlands lost their address.
That day, the Dallas city council unanimously voted to change Kingsley Road to Walnut Hill Lane.
Some residents were upset by this decision. Kingsley was a major thoroughfare in Lake Highlands, one of those street names central to the neighborhood’s identity.
In the past, Walnut Hill’s name changed to Kingsley over White Rock Creek because there was a time when that swampy expanse of land couldn’t be breached and the roads didn’t connect.
Once the two roads were joined, you knew you were in Lake Highlands when the sign read “Kingsley,” helping to boost the neighborhood’s small-town feel.
Despite this, council member Bill Blaydes said it confused developers.
Blaydes has made the revitalization of Lake Highlands a priority since his election, and he saw changing Kingsley to Walnut Hill one way of helping that process along. Walnut Hill, he said, carries with it the connotation of high-priced real estate.
Maybe so, but the change is sure to confuse residents for a few more years.
Wranglers Lasso Nation's Attention
With Texas flag uniforms, some might wonder why it has taken so long for the country to scoop up the Lake Highlands Wranglers and stick them on the national stage.
Everyone in the neighborhood knows the country western acrobat-dancers are the perfect image of the boot scootin’ Texan.
This year that changed.
First there was the Presidential Inauguration in January. The Wranglers were invited for the third time to perform at the Texas State Society Black Tie and Boots Inauguration Ball.
Before they left for the capital, the 42-member team gave a standing-room only home town crowd a preview of the performance in the Lake Highlands gymnasium.
Everyone, including sophomore Cassie Maynar, 15, wanted to be part of the action.
“It was really awesome,” she said. “I wish I could’ve been a Wrangler this year.”
Later this year the team was tapped again, this time to per form at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City where they were one of a handful slotted for a performance on the annual national broadcast.
Maybe next year, it will be the Highlandettes turn. In November they announced they had been chosen to perform at next year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin.
Neighbors Fight McMansions
I’m sure more than one person at city hall regrets a late-2004 town hall meeting that invited residents to offer up their thoughts about the Dallas’ big-building boom.
That meeting turned into a public outcry for a zoning tool to protect the size and character of neighborhood homes.
The Neighborhood Stabilization Overlay was drafted by a “task force” composed of residents, Realtors, developers, and city staff, but that was only half the battle.
As the overlay moved its way through various city committees and commissions, it was followed by hoards of opponents and sup porters who packed the council chambers and offered their opinions month after month.
“We need this to save our neighborhoods,” some said.
Or others bemoaned, “This will destroy the city’s economic development.”
In the end, a version of the plan was passed that allowed residents to control setbacks, house height, and garage placement if they choose.
It is still not clear if this will end the war on McMansions. What is clear, unfortunately, is that a year of debate has left fresh divides in the community.
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