Rick Garza Dicusses Dallas' Davis-Bishop Study

The city of Dallas is on the verge of changing zoning rules in north Oak Cliff that could open the door to upscale development and bolster the urban revival in that area.

On May 21, the Dallas City Planning Commission approved the recommendations of the Davis-Bishop Land Use Study. The issue now goes to the city council, and if approved, would encourage new, high-density residential and commercial development along the Davis and Bishop business corridors between Zang and Plymouth.

While the recommendations of the Davis-Bishop Study have met with wide support from the business and private sector, some residents, including some neighborhood associations, have raised concerns that the area will lose its unique character and lead to intrusive over-development that is often seen in other areas of the city.

Rick Garza, chairman of the Davis-Bishop Study Steering Committee, counters arguments that the study recommendations have been tainted by the wishes of land owners and developers who will profit from the changes. "The Bishop/ Davis Urban Design Study is a 'home-grown' study which was initiated by long standing people in the community. We all love Oak Cliff and wish we could work, live and play here, and this plan takes that kind of concept into mind."

In the past, there was no cohesion between development in the Bishop Arts District, Kessler Woods, and the Jefferson-Davis shopping center. Garza hopes the study's changes will be a unifying force. "While this is a non-standard, unprecedented approach for getting this accomplished, my belief is this approach can and should be utilized in the future so the community is 'self-shaping' its' future rather than a piece-meal approach property by property which basically becomes a hodge-podge. This new zoning will actually make it better on a great number of fronts for residents, existing property owners and future developers who decide to come to our great area."

The goal of the study, Garza says, is to give the Davis-Bishop area a uniform direction for development. "It has a very simple goal of making portions of Davis and Bishop a vibrant, pedestrian oriented, bike friendly commercial corridor. It is a very forward thinking, progressive plan which takes into account the next 20 to 30 years and beyond."

While there has been criticism that local residents have not had a say in the process, Garza says this is not the case. "We have, to date, had fourteen community meetings and over 924 people attend these meetings. Additionally, we went to the planning commission four times, the landmark commission once and the City Council one time. We have a website (http://thinkdavis.wordpress.com/) which has been visited by almost 9,000 people. This level of participation is enough to elect a new council-person for our city. (We) have been extremely open and forthcoming with respect to the plan and have been willing to meet on a short notice. This plan is evolutionary. We will continue to talk and meet with people who want. " Garza also notes the details of the study have recently been published in a number of local newspapers and magazines.

If the study's recommendations are passed by the city council, there will not be an immediate explosion of new development. "My best guess is it will be a minimum of a year before any development begins," Garza said. "I would say we already have plenty of local people who want to invest more here but this plan is not something which will come to full fruition for a good number of years. So, it is not something that will happen overnight."

The official blog for the Davis-Bishop Land Use Study is http://thinkdavis.wordpress.com/.