Fair Park First commits to community park despite past setbacks

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“What is Fair Park without the park?”

Southern Dallas Councilmember Tennell Atkins posed this question at a press event last week, designed to reassure local media, donors and Fair Park’s neighbors that a community park would, indeed, replace acres of concrete parking lots.

South Dallas neighbors have questioned whether this promise would be kept by the City of Dallas and by Fair Park First, the nonprofit the City tasked six years ago with overseeing Fair Park’s operations and improvements. The last several months — with misallocated money and budget shortfall reports in the millions, plus leadership departures at both the staff and board levels — only magnified the questions.

Fair Park First board vice chair Jason Brown introduced himself as “a fifth-generation Sunny South Dallas resident” and addressed the skepticism head on, stating that a new $8.65 million federal investment translates to “resources behind the many plans promised.”

“We’ve got to do what we say we’re going to do. We’ve got to deliver on our promise, because that’s where it matters most. That’s why we’re all here — for this community,” said Brown, also the board’s community park project chair. “Let’s get this park rolling.”

Here’s what we know about the community park at this point:

Size: 10 acres, including a 1-acre playspace and 325 parking spaces (Dallas Documenters)

At one point the park was supposed to be 18 acres, including a parking garage structure that Fair Park First board chair Veletta Forsythe Lill says is no longer part of the plan, mainly because “the community … was not accepting of having a parking garage facing the community.” Fair Park in total is 277 acres. 

Cost: $39.1 million, of which $30 million is raised or pledged, including last week’s announced $8.65 million from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service (Dallas Documenters) 

This amount is closer to the original budget of $35 million, and considerably less than the $85 million goal from April 2022, which Brown attributed to “scope creep” and Lill said included elements that were “unnecessary for the community.” (More on that soon.) Fair Park First officials expressed confidence at the Nov. 21 Park Board meeting that they would be able to raise the remaining $9.1 million over the next 12 months. And the money dedicated to the community park now sits with The Dallas Foundation rather than in a bank account shared with Fair Park’s operator.

Timeline: Fall 2025 groundbreaking (after the State Fair of Texas); late 2026 completion

Perhaps even more crucial for neighbors is the way the park will interface with them, and how it will memorialize the harm done to them.

The tall wrought-iron fence separating the Mill City neighborhood from Fair Park “will come down along Fitzhugh, creating a welcoming entryway for the surrounding communities of South Dallas/Fair Park,” District 7 Councilmember Adam Bazaldua, who represents this neighborhood, said at the press event.

At the November Park Board meeting, Lill noted that while there may be exterior fencing, it would be conducive to pedestrian traffic and would not block use. “This is for the community,” Lill emphasized. “That’s what we’ve said all along. That’s our commitment. We need to ensure the community has easy access.”

The historic wrongs of taking land and generational wealth from Fair Park neighbors also will be addressed, leaders promised. Lill noted at the Park Board meeting that Fair Park First likely would pursue a historical marker, similar to the one recently installed at Salem Institutional Baptist Church, but also “equally as important,” she said, would be “programming that relates to the history of the park on a regular basis.”

“Where we stand is where thousands of Black Dallasites once lived,” Bazaldua said at the press event. “The original footprint of our beloved Fair Park was 77 acres — all over there. The 200 extra acres were brought in to build in parking, but in order to do so, eminent domain uplifted thousands of residents and pushed them out. 

“This is a full circle moment for our city to not only acknowledge the mistakes of the past, but to correct them and make sure that this ground is given back to the community.”

This content originally came from a newsletter Dallas Free Press emailed to subscribers. To subscribe to our free newsletters, sign up here.