The area for the Westmoreland-Illinois DART Station Authorized Hearing includes about 160 acres. Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
The first community meeting of the Westmoreland-Illinois DART Station Authorized Hearing took place at the Hampton-Illinois Branch Library on Tuesday, Sept. 22, kicking off the start of the community meetings to look at the future zoning and land use of the area.
The City Plan Commission authorized the hearing on March 26, 2020 to review the zoning of about 160 acres surrounding the DART station. The area extends north to the DART right-of-way and West Illinois Avenue, east to Pierce Street, south to Saner Avenue and west to Spruce Valley Lane.
The Authorized Hearing process kicked off a review of considering the appropriate zoning for the area, which currently consists of a majority of light industrial and industrial manufacturing. There is a section of walkable urban mixed-use surrounding the apartment complex Westmoreland Station on South Westmoreland Road and a triangular area of community retail zoning near the DART station.
The existing land use currently consists of commercial and light industrial, but also office, multi-family and public or institutional use.
The future placetype recommendation from city staff for the area is entirely community mixed-use, which was a decision guided by Forward Dallas 2.0. A community mixed-use rezoning could bring similar developments like Wynnewood Village or Casa Linda Plaza to the area.
That rezoning recommendation is not the final decision, which is where the community meetings come in.
Staff noted in the presentation that while there is a lack of cohesive development surrounding the Illinois-Westmoreland DART station, inadequate pedestrian infrastructure, truck traffic and auto-centric development patterns, there is also the potential to connect to Chalk Hill Trail and harness the proximity to the DART station with the strategic location of the potential future development.
District 3 Council member Zarin Gracey, who represents the area of the authorized hearing, attended the first community meeting. He said to the audience that this is a “tremendous opportunity.”
“The reason I’m excited about this and truly want to hear from you all is because the opportunity there is that we now have this DART, transit-oriented development, along with this entire area that can be turned into housing, retail, and things like that, but it will connect us to the Oak Cliff Nature Preserve, which then will connect us to Kiest Park … ultimately make this a really nice, walkable community,” Gracey said.
Transit-oriented development would create a compact and walkable mixed-use development around the DART station or other transportation networks, such as the development at Mockingbird Station.
Gracey added that with the Flagship model coming soon for the Hampton-Illinois Library, there will also be a very active library in the area. The Flagship model will expand programming and include hours for seven days a week at the branch.
“So, from my perspective, I’m looking for some way to develop this in a way that we can connect all three of those segments that I mentioned, so that we can have access from Kiest Park all the way to the DART station,” he said.
With the first community meeting completed, two more community meetings are expected to take place in the coming months. For now, residents can provide feedback by using this form or contacting adriana.aviles@dallas.gov.
