A new apartment building planned for southwest Dallas has neighbors worried.
The new building will be located east of South Cockrell Hill Road, at West Kiest Boulevard and Guadalupe Avenue, on land currently zoned for single-family homes.
The project is being developed by Mercer Construction, a long-established Dallas real estate development company led by Raul Estrada of East Kessler Park in Oak Cliff. He said the plan is to build a 67-unit senior housing facility with an age restriction for people 55 and older.
This will be Mercer's first multifamily project, which has previously specialized in single-family homes.
“We considered building a single-family home here, but it didn't make sense. It's a large corner lot, so it made more sense to build an apartment complex,” Estrada says.
The new development comes as the city rolls out its controversial “ForwardDallas” campaign, a citywide plan for how public and private land is used. This includes increasing population density to allow her four-family homes in traditional single-family residential areas. The city calls this a “once-in-a-decade opportunity to shape Dallas' future.”
Darryl Baker, a former city planner and current community activist, says this isn't about density, but just the latest salvo in a long history of South Dallas zoning battles.
“We've had problems over the years with developers and city officials over zoning and land use issues,” Baker said. “At the end of the day, it’s a waste of a use that would not be acceptable in other parts of town.”
Estrada applied for a zoning change in January. Although initially recommending approval, city staff decided to put the case on hold until the Feb. 15 City Planning Commission meeting to allow for a community meeting.
The meeting will be held Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. at the Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center, 5150 Mark Trail Way.
Estrada hopes that once the community learns more about his development, which includes “really great amenities like those found in Uptown Dallas,” they will pitch in.
“We did what we needed to do, and no one complained at the time. I don't consider this a controversy,” he says.
Texas-based nonprofit Building Communities Workshop released a study on Dallas' housing landscape in June 2023. Key findings include a decline in affordable housing stock in Dallas, particularly south Dallas. And while apartments are certainly one way to deal with the crisis, this time the neighbors would prefer a different solution.
Raymond Crawford, who has lived in Oak Cliff's Keastwood neighborhood since he was a child, said he and other neighbors were worried about the zoning application even though they were on the notification list. He says he was not informed. They also didn't know it would be a senior housing development. The development will be located less than a half-mile from Friendship Tower, another senior housing facility at 3033 S. Cockrell Hill Rd.
Regardless of its nature, the project still faces opposition. This is because this project will change the zoning from single-person households to multifamily housing.
“I would like to see the City of Dallas incentivize and incentivize private contractors to build 100 percent brick, market-rate, single-family homes. It can be done,” Crawford says.
Baker also doesn't think adding more apartments is what's best for the community.
“What this case represents to us is another thing that's happening to us in south Dallas: If this is such a good deal, build it in your neighborhood, too,” he said. Masu. I'm already full. ”
