City staff’s latest screwup related to permitting is apparently going to set back one developer at least $500,000.
As previously relayed by The Dallas Express, the City of Dallas issued stop-work orders on a number of projects in the Elm Thicket/Northpark neighborhood after City staff issued permits based on erroneous zoning assumptions. The massive blunder has developers and residents alike piping mad.
“All of a sudden, we got an inspector come and put up the stop work order on the building,” said Akber Meghani of Grand Development, speaking with Fox 4 KDFW. “I thought it [would] be cleared up fast because we had a permit. We didn’t do anything wrong. We had a permit, and we were following those things.”
Permitting always seemed to trouble City staff under former City Manager T.C. Broadnax. Now, however, it’s on interim City Manager Kimberly Tolbert to sort out (or assume responsibility).
Here’s some of what Fox 4 recently reported on the costly debacle:
A mistake by the city of Dallas has homeowners in a historic neighborhood frustrated and developers facing potentially huge financial setbacks.
It turns out the city issued 19 building permits in violation of the Elm Thicket neighborhood’s zoning restrictions.
One developer says stopping construction now would be catastrophic for business and is appealing the city’s order to stop work.
Mimi and Gus Perez have lived in Elm Thicket, also known as Ellum Thicket, for nearly 30 years.
“When the area was starting to really thrive, segregation was the rule of thumb. You had overt racism and, of course, redlining,” Gus explained. “And that’s where our neighbors, the legacy neighbors, were told they had to live by the city, by the government, essentially.
Now, instead of the government forcing Black people to live in the neighborhood, some are worried new developments will be forcing Black and brown people out.