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Redevelopment News for Hillcrest Village (corner of Arapaho and Meadowcreek)
From Sandy Greyson (Our City Council Representative) June 2017:
HILLCREST VILLAGE SHOPPING CENTER
Dear Neighbors,
You may have recently received a flyer inviting you to a meeting about the Hillcrest Village Shopping Center at Arapaho and Hillcrest. The flyer was sent by the zoning representative for the out-of-state owner of the Center who wants to change the current zoning, which is retail, to a zoning category that would allow multifamily.
The owner and his representative talked to me a number of years ago about taking down all the stores west of Sun Fresh (he doesn't own the grocery store or gas station sites) and putting up hundreds of apartments. I checked with seven neighborhoods surrounding the shopping center and all of them said they didn't want apartments there. Since that time, I have been to numerous annual meetings and other meetings in those neighborhoods and have continued to hear that they don't want apartments there.
At this meeting on the 19th, we will probably hear that the owner will be forced to rent to undesirable retail uses to fill the vacancies if we don't support his rezoning request. I have discussed many other possible uses and potential types of retail for the property with the representative but he has rejected all of them as unworkable.
I will be at the meeting and look forward to hearing your opinions.
June 19th is also the day of the City Council Inauguration. You are invited to attend the ceremony at 10:00 AM (doors open at 9:00 AM) at the Meyerson Symphony Center.
Best regards,
Sandy Greyson
Council Member
District 12
From Steve Monserrate (PHA Improvement Programs Committee Chair) 12 June 2017:
I spoke with Dallas Colthrum, an officer for the owner's representative Masterplan, last week and he said that the zoning request will be for change from the current Community Retail (CR) to PD, or a Planned Development district, which allows more latitude in development for owners. Most of Downtown, Uptown and Knox-Henderson parcels are designated PD, as are the parcels for the Prestonwood Country Club, the Shelton School and hundreds of other parcels in Dallas so this rezoning type is nothing new or unusual. http://gis.dallascityhall.com/zoningweb/ Because development within a PD can vary significantly, we need to ask Masterplan for the exact details that they will be putting into the application for PD rezoning to the City to better understand what will be built on that location.
Mr. Colthrum also mentioned that the owner and his financial backers are not interested in townhome development because the proximity to the gas station and the traffic on Arapaho would require selling at a lower price point than is profitable for redevelopment. The current owner will be contributing the land for equity in a partnership with the developers/financial backers. This could be a good thing if the new partners are more amenable to changes that the residents want to see. The developers are willing to put is $40-50m in redevelopment, a significant amount. The alternative is to keep things as they are, and rent to retailers that cater to the adjacent low income apartments.
As for the re-zoning process, per the city guide for PD districts, citizens have an opportunity to express their concerns at two hearings in front of the City Planning Commission before the request is passed (if approved) along to the City Council. You can find the complete details in the Planned Development district application package at the following site. http://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopment/planning/Pages/zoning.aspx
Regards,
Steve
OLD redevelopment plans for the site (from 2012):
http://www.prestonwood.net/Resources/Documents/Hillcrest%20Village%20Redevelopment.pdf
Deed documents (you'll need a free account on the ROAM website for this to work) at https://www.roamdallaspropertyrecords.com do advanced search for name: hillcrest block: 16 cityblock: 8195