The City of Dallas appears to be suffering from chronic nightmares due to building permit issues.
Residents cannot forget that the former city manager, T.C. Broadnax, was not held in high regard, partly due to his poor performance in permitting. Over the years, the Development Services Department has earned Broadnax a reputation synonymous with permitting delays, long review times, and poor communication with stakeholders.
The recent blunder by City staff regarding permits is expected to cause one developer to lose at least $500,000. The City issued 19 building permits in alleged violation of the Elm Thicket neighborhood’s zoning restrictions.
As reported earlier by The Dallas Express, the City of Dallas issued stop-work orders for several projects in the Elm Thicket/NorthPark neighborhood because City staff issued permits based on incorrect zoning assumptions.
Guest writer Alan Hoffmann, who contributed to Candy’s Dirt, expressed worries about the significant effects of the stop-work directives that have halted construction on multiple residential development undertakings in Dallas and how such roadblocks will continue to influence the City of Dallas’ future expansion.
Here is some of what Hoffmann revealed, per Candy’sDirt:
I was recently alerted by two past presidents of the Dallas Builders Association, who also happen to be builder colleagues, on the issuance of mid-stream building permit stops in the Elm Thicket neighborhood of Dallas. They share my deep concerns over the serious consequences of the stop work orders that have halted construction on several homebuilding projects in this Dallas neighborhood, but the impact on future growth in this city.
Michael Turner of Classic Urban Homes and Jeff Dworkin of JLD Custom Homes both think that what has transpired is a very bad look for the City of Dallas. We discussed our concerns about the impact of this decision by the City of Dallas. Michael Turner has built several homes in the area, and we were all equally alarmed by not just the the action but the precedent the City of Dallas was setting with this action. Given that our building community has been through four years of turmoil because of the dysfunctional Dallas building services department, our collective reaction was, “Here we go again!”
For those unfamiliar with the recent problems with the City of Dallas building department, just be aware that former city manager T.C. Broadnax’s employment came close to termination this past year chiefly because of the department’s poor performance for several years on his watch.
We don’t know the exact count of homes that received stop work orders, but we understood that it may be as high as 20. Given the fact that the building department is relatively silent regarding the impacted property owners, the legal department has probably made staff aware of possible litigation with the property owners.
Details in the press indicate that the stop-work orders began when an Elm Thicket resident complained to the building department of a potential zoning problem with the new builds. In 2022, the city had enacted development standards beyond the existing zoning at the request of the neighborhood. But new Dallas building department leadership discovered that the newly approved development guidelines were mistakenly not included in the plan reviews of the approximately 20 homes that received the stop work order.
In other words, the city gave approval in error.
Additionally, the new leadership discovered that the previous building department management regime had failed to ensure that these development details were disseminated to the planning and zoning reviewers. As a result, these building permits were reviewed, approved, and issued by the City of Dallas’ building department by mistake.