A number of auto repair business owners in the West Oak Cliff area are growing nervous about a new city plan for the neighborhood.
The West Oak Cliff Area Plan has been a work in progress for the past two years, and a final draft of the plan is being prepared for the Dallas City Council’s approval. It will propose certain rezoning changes to the area hemmed in by Davis Street on the north, Illinois Avenue on the south, and on the east and west, Tyler Street and Cockrell Hill Road, respectively.
The first draft developed by the Department of Planning and Urban Design called for the prohibition of automotive-centric businesses in the area, according to The Dallas Morning News. The plan’s wording has since been modified after local business owners spoke out. Existing businesses are supposedly allowed to remain, while no new auto-centric businesses would be allowed to open in the area once the rezoning occurs.
Jerry Figueroa, the owner of J&E Express Auto Repair, a business located within the area plan, expressed to NBC 5 that he felt targeted by the original draft plan.
“It seems like Dallas doesn’t want mechanic shops or auto-centric businesses,” he stated. “But we’re a vital part of the community, and during covid, we were considered essential.”
Figueroa launched a petition drive to muster opposition to the plan.
“We’re scared. This is our livelihood,” Figueroa told the DMN. “It’s not just the owners, it’s the workers too, and their families. Just because there’s five people there doesn’t mean it’s gonna affect five people, it’s gonna affect maybe 30-40 people, depending how big your family is.”
Lingering worry is likely due to memories of a precedent set in East Dallas when the city council voted to rezone and sued to shut down an auto-repair shop. Other auto-repair shops in the area had chosen to relocate, close down, or change their business after their presence was effectively banned by the rezoning. The businesses were not offered any compensation by the city in the aftermath of the rezoning.
However, proponents of the plan insist that business owners like Figueroa have nothing to fear.
“As long as you’re still in operation, you continue to operate, [your] family continues to operate it after you, then that use is valid,” stated Councilman Chad West, per NBC 5. “It can stay as long as it wants. But, the plan said in addition to these auto uses, we’d like to have some other opportunities around the neighborhood as well.”
West claimed that roughly 2,000 public comments were submitted to city officials over the course of the plan’s development and that members of the public were requesting things like restaurants be built in certain parts of the neighborhood.
Additionally, “walkability” features heavily in the plan’s ambitions, and it appeared to be framed as at odds with auto-centric businesses in the original draft.
The Dallas Morning News wrote:
“The purpose of the rezoning is to facilitate walking and more mixed transit options in the west Oak Cliff community, eliminating uses that hinder pedestrian mobility such as curb cuts and conflict points between pedestrians and vehicles. To proceed with the plan, the city is considering banning automotive-centric businesses such as repair shops, car washes, gas stations and drive-through restaurants and banks.”
Daniel Church, West Oak Cliff area planning manager, told the DMN, “We need to think about how uses are planned so that in the future we have the safe walking conditions we want.”
He went on to insist that the plan will only affect future businesses.
His sentiment was echoed by Councilman West’s aide, Ashley Long, who claimed, “A lot of fear and misinformation is being spread about our intentions to force current businesses out, and that’s not the case.”
