The redevelopment of Pepper Square in North Dallas — one of the issues central to an effort to recall Dallas City Council Member Jaynie Schultz — will be considered by the City Plan Commission in July after consultant Masterplan applied for a zoning change at the site.
Damien LeVeck, who is organizing the effort to recall Schultz, asked District 11 residents in a video to oppose the project, which purportedly includes “a harmonious blend of luxury residential units, fine dining, curated shopping experiences, office spaces, hospitality, and recreational areas.”
Pepper Square, located at the southeast corner of Preston Road and Belt Line Road, is currently zoned as a community retail district. The application filed by Masterplan, representing developer Henry S. Miller, is seeking a planned development district for mixed-use.
“If the [City Plan Commission] votes against rezoning, the city council will need a supermajority of 75% to overturn them,” LaVeck claimed on his Recall Jaynie Schultz YouTube channel. “They likely will not have the votes to do so. If the CPC votes to approve the rezoning, it will take a simple majority of only eight votes to change the landscape of North Dallas forever.”
The 3-minute video shows Schultz meeting with constituents and The Dallas Morning News. The meeting is purportedly about Pepper Square.
“I do, frankly, come from a different perspective about urban development than you do,” Schultz says to someone in the video. “I do have a different worldview about density, and you have a different worldview about apartments and multifamily. I definitely have a different worldview about retail, all those things. I see the world differently.”
LaVeck takes Schultz to task in his commentary.
“I’m pretty sure you were elected to vote your district, Jaynie — not your worldview. According to The Dallas Morning News, 91% of homeowners surrounding Pepper Square oppose rezoning the land to mixed-use, which would add 1,500 apartments in multiple buildings, including one that’s 12 stories tall. So, whose worldview matters more — Jaynie Schultz or the people of District 11?”
The 198,0000-square-foot development includes 11 one- and two-story buildings built between 1977 and 2001, according to City documents. Masterplan has proposed the mixed-use zoning district “with modified standards to enable higher density, greater height, specified setbacks, and lot coverage. Public benefits include tailored design standards, enhanced open space, upgraded sidewalks, additional landscaping, transit shelters, and a trail connection to White Rock Trail.”
Current zoning prohibits residential uses at Pepper Square. Masterplan recommends building 1,551 apartments as part of the redevelopment.
“Per the stated vision, the applicant is intending to breathe new life into Pepper Square, transforming it a vibrant mixed use, mixed-income development with pedestrian-friendly elements and impactful open space strategically dispersed throughout the site resulting in pedestrian connectivity both internally to the site and externally to the surrounding area,” City documents show. “This development is intended to provide a desirable live, work, play environment which will enhance the vitality of the surrounding area for the future.”
But that is not what some District 11 residents want in the area, at least according to recalljaynieschultz.com:
“District 11 City Councilwoman Jaynie Schultz has failed to both represent AND respond to her constituents and is not fulfilling the duties of her office. Her vision and voting for District 11 is out of sync with her campaign pledges and promises to ‘support strong and vibrant neighborhoods.'”
In the video, LaVeck asks residents to attend the City Plan Commission meeting set for July 25. Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the rezoning request recommended by City staff.
“You see, this is about more than just Pepper Square,” he says. “The Dallas City Council is pushing to pass a massive City initiative called Forward Dallas, which would eliminate single-family zoning. This would allow multiplex apartments, duplexes, and high rises to be built next door to houses in single-family zoning neighborhoods in an effort to create population density, as they call it. This radical plan will fundamentally change life as you know it in the city.”
Schultz did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on the Pepper Square project.
For several hours on Monday, commissioners discussed proposed language changes and draft amendments to Forward Dallas — the “citywide visionary plan that establishes guidelines for how public and private land should be used and what the city should look like” over several decades.
However, Forward Dallas is not “a regulatory document or a silver bullet for all public policy. It informs decisions about zoning and development, but does not constitute zoning nor change zoning.”
Residents who have spoken at CPC meetings over the last several months have generally expressed opposition to any possible changes to the character of single-family neighborhoods and districts.
“You’ve seen me at four meetings,” Diane Birdwell said during the CPC meeting on Monday. “So, I didn’t understand all those positive comments because that’s not what I’ve seen. In my experience, the neighbors that will be impacted by this are actually those in the southern sector. The ones who will be negatively impacted will be the middle-class and working-class neighborhoods of Casa View, Buckner Terrace, Parkdale, Pecan Heights, [and] Dolphin Heights.”
She called Forward Dallas “ridiculous.”
“It will not really impact Lakewood very much … and it definitely won’t impact Preston Hollow. But what it’s going to do is negatively impact us jamming more people into a city, into the same area where we have not enough resources right now for garbage collection, power grid, cops, and fire and ambulance.”
Matt Back also spoke at the meeting.
“I do support the concept of Forward Dallas,” he said. “I think planning is essential. But the current version would irreparably harm Dallas’ greatest assets — its neighborhoods. I’m asking that you please require Forward Dallas to be amended to eliminate the land uses that allow for new duplexes, [accessory dwelling units], or any multifamily apartments, [or] cottage courts. And please reinstitute a place type solely dedicated to traditional family neighborhoods.”
Another speaker, Christine Hopkins, said that “one thing” Forward Dallas “is getting wrong” is “putting expensive, ugly multiplexes in single-family neighborhoods” with property values between $100,000 and $300,000.
“There are still affordable working-class neighborhoods out there,” she said.
The CPC meeting on July 25 is scheduled for 9 a.m., and public hearings are set to start around 12:30 p.m.