Could West Dallas history be saved by a ‘demolition delay overlay’?

West Dallas has transformed dramatically over the decades, evolving from an industrial hub where surrounding homes and families were tainted by chemical pollution, to a neighborhood now grappling with the rapid gentrification of sleek townhomes and upscale businesses.

“West Dallas lacks official City of Dallas landmark designations, which leave its cultural history at risk for developers to come in and demolish properties that have been standing for decades,” says Rosemary Hinojosa, who grew up in West Dallas, and is the landmark commissioner for District 6, appointed by outgoing City Council Member Omar Narvaez. She’s also a Dallas Mexican American Historical League board member and has been involved in efforts to preserve historic sites across the City. 

Many of the remaining structures in West Dallas neighborhoods are not granted the protection that City landmark status provides, which has led to the loss of some historic sites as developers purchase properties for redevelopment. These structures’ value lies in their physical embodiment of West Dallas history and culture.

“Significant investment is flowing into the community,” stated a May 2022 letter from DMAHL, “but this investment comes at a major cost to the families who have lived there for generations, many of whom still live in the endangered historic barrios that dot the area.” 

West Dallas landmarks erased amid preservation failures

DMAHL board members penned their letter roughly a month after the abrupt demolition of the Barrow Filling Station, which was constructed around 1930. The structure was tied to “the infamous ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ crime duo” and “situated at the southern edge of the Los Altos barrio,” the letter said.

The station could have been West Dallas’ first City-designated landmark. The Landmark Commission had initiated this preservation process against the wishes of owner Brent Jackson and his real estate company Oaxaca Interests, but the station “was bulldozed as soon as the two-year moratorium had expired,” the DMAHL letter said. The City granted the demolition permit Jackson filed, and within the week, the station was a pile of rubble.

City regulations also have failed to protect the neighborhood of La Bajada, another historic barrio in West Dallas. Despite the City Council approving a community-led neighborhood stabilization overlay (NSO) in 2012, developers and new owners came in and built larger, much more expensive homes in recent years.

“Residents are frustrated with the overlay not accomplishing the stabilization they had hoped for,” states page 34 of the City’s Historic Preservation Strategic Plan. “Despite the NSO, there have been many new homes over 3,000 square feet constructed and valued at over $800,000 according to the Dallas County Assessors’ website, in a neighborhood where, 10-years ago, the average parcel with a modest home was valued around $50,000.

“The code as currently written for NSOs does not sufficiently maintain the character of a neighborhood in the face of intense development pressure.”

“When we were advocating for the Tenth Street Historic District in Dallas, after seeing how home after home was being demolished in a Freedmen’s Town,” Hinojosa says, “I came across a demolition delay overlay and wanted to see what we could do with it in West Dallas since homes were also vanishing.”

In the 2022 letter, DMAHL pledged to study three West Dallas properties to assess whether they should be designated as City landmarks. One of them, the Lillie McBride House on Winnetka, where Clyde Barrow murdered a Fort Worth sheriff’s deputy, was owned by Wesley-Rankin Community Center. The following year it was relocated to Tyler, Texas, at the request of Bonnie and Clyde’s living descendants and is now undergoing renovations.

Hinojosa has since shifted her focus from singular properties to communities as a whole. This comes on the heels of neighbors’ concerns over rapid gentrification in West Dallas, Hinojosa says, adding that the failed efforts of La Bajada’s NSO led to a bigger-picture goal of protecting legacy homeowners and their properties.

After seeing the success of the Tenth Street Historic district, she says a demolition delay overlay could be the best option to help preserve the remnants of West Dallas barrios, such as Los Altos, La Bajada, La Loma and Ledbetter. Hinojosa says she is having preliminary conversations with neighbors to see what they would support. 

“You have to have at least 50% of the residents be in support of the demolition delay overlay,” Hinojosa says. “This is why there has to be either one-on-one or community meetings to inform them of what it takes to preserve their communities.”

What is a demolition-delay overlay?

The Dallas City Council approved a demolition delay overlay ordinance in September 2015, in response to the demolition of two nationally registered historic buildings in downtown Dallas. 

The purpose of Dallas’ demolition delay overlay is to prevent historic properties from being stripped away without historical evaluation. It gives City staff, the property owner and surrounding residents time to consider whether, how and why a structure or site is historic.

Historical significance is considered based on the property’s structure, its architecture and its age of at least 50. A property is also eligible if it is:

• located inside of a National Register Historic District;
• listed on the National Register of Historic Places;
• designated a Texas Historic Landmark;
• designated a State Archeological Landmark; 
• designated a National Historic Landmark;
• identified as significant in the 2003 Downtown Dallas Survey;
• recognized as significant in the 1994 Hardy-Heck-Moore Survey.

In most places in Dallas, a property owner could request a demolition permit and tear down a structure within days, like what happened with the Barrow filling station. At the other end of the spectrum is the City’s 21 landmark districts, whose structures cannot be demolished or even renovated without being reviewed by the Landmark Commission.

In between the two are the City’s four active districts, or neighborhoods, with demolition delay overlays: East Dallas, Oak Cliff, Greater Oak Cliff and Downtown Dallas. In these districts, a City staffer from the historic preservation office must review the structure before signing off on the permit. 

The staffer has 10 days to determine whether the property meets historic criteria. If not, a demolition permit is granted. If so, the City’s demolition delay ordinance provides sticks and carrots to incentivize property owners toward preservation.

Ultimately, the delay doesn’t prevent structures from being demolished. Property owners can choose to ignore a structure’s historic significance and wait out the 45-day delay. If they demolish a structure within the 45-day period, they are fined up to $2,000.

But the ordinance also buys time by requiring property owners to meet with City staff, commissioners and community members to discuss alternatives to tearing down, including tax exemptions and economic development incentives for historic preservation.

As an overlay, the demolition delay request goes through the zoning process but involves the district landmark commission, where the request is then sent to the City Plan Commission and gets final approval by the City Council.