Ledbetter neighbors ask City of Dallas to fix decades-old problems before approving new developments

Gloria Chavarria has lived on Ingersoll Street in the Ledbetter neighborhood for most of her life. 

Since she was a teenager, she has asked the City to fix the flooding issues that she says have destroyed Ledbetter roads and sidewalks. 

“I’ve been fighting for our streets to be fixed — since I was 17 — and nothing is getting fixed. Our street is the only one [that] never gets fixed,” Chavarria says. “We have cracked and uneven roads, and flooding issues because of slanted land.” 

Chavarria walks her grandchildren to Gabe P. Allen New Tech Academy every day. When it rains, they have to walk through ankle-high water. She says the children often arrive on campus with dirty, wet shoes.

Chavarria has glaucoma, and she says she’s even fallen on the uneven, rocky street, due to not having sidewalks. Now, she says, she’s worried that a new development just up the road with 300 single-family homes is going to make these problems worse.

On Oct. 23, the City Council approved a request to change the zoning of almost 45 acres of land on the west side of Ingersoll Street and Iroquois Drive, and north of Nomas Street, to be a Planned Development District (PD). 

Home builder D.R. Horton plans to clear the 45-acre site for Westfork Development, which will feature approximately 300 homes ranging from 1,500 to 4,000 square feet. The development will include new, wider roads to accommodate street parking, with home prices starting around $300,000. Plans also include a 2-acre green space within the community, open for use by surrounding neighborhoods.

The property previously was zoned as MA(A) Mobile Home District, R5(A) Single-Family District, and LI Light Industrial District, allowing for the possibility of mobile homes or even a large “Amazon” type of distribution center.

Ledbetter residents voice concerns: Fix our neighborhood first

Two community meetings were held prior to City Council’s approval. The first took place in July at Voice of Hope, where Ledbetter residents made it clear they didn’t want mobile homes, townhomes or warehouses in the development. The developer responded by pledging not to build mobile homes or townhomes, said Matt Houston, the consultant who led the community meetings.

Ledbetter residents were happy with that promise, but they still wanted more guarantees of how the City would address their dilapidated infrastructure before councilmembers approved a developer’s plans to build new homes with better streets, sidewalks and drainage. So West Dallas Councilmember Omar Narvaez tabled the Council’s Oct. 8 decision to allow for another community meeting. 

Residents packed the Jaycee Zaragoza Recreation Center on Oct. 21 to voice their concerns. 

“Why do you want to bring in new roads, new houses, new sidewalks, when the City doesn’t even look after the houses they currently have?” asked Alicia Marroquin. She’s 59 and has lived in the Ledbetter community all of her life. 

“Start fixing the neighborhood that has been here for years, before even thinking about building.”

They expressed opposition to a population increase, noting that their neighborhood schools, Eladio R. Martinez Learning Center and Gabe P. Allen New Tech Academy, are already overcrowded. Ledbetter residents also pointed out that the nearest grocery store, a Walmart across I-30 from West Dallas, experiences long checkout lines throughout the day.

Neighbors were most concerned about the flooding that happens after heavy rains. Nick Torres, a Ledbetter resident for years, said the flooding has been a constant issue for his family.

“We’ve had to call the City over and over to tell them that the overflow of the water is literally about to come onto our porch. Nobody does anything,” Torres says.

Narvaez told neighbors that a pump station is being built as a solution for flooding issues in Ledbetter. He also said that “for seven years, we’ve been fighting off Amazon-style warehouses from being built in that land.” 

Same landowner, different housing project four years later

Two days later, at the Oct. 23 City Council meeting, Narvaez and his fellow councilmembers approved the zoning change.

We have reached out to Narvaez four times by phone and email to ask him more about the pump station and his decision in favor of the property owner and developer, but have not received a response.

The zoning case report points out that this development project does not meet two of the recently approved Forward Dallas! Comprehensive Plan goals: 1) strengthening existing neighborhoods and promoting neighborhoods’ unique characteristics; and 2) ensuring that the zoning is flexible enough to respond to changing economic conditions.

The last time the property owner, JAMP Westfork, LLC, asked to rezone this area was in October 2020, a request for a Clustered Housing District (CH), which pushes as many households as possible within close proximity to one another. Neighbors Carmen Gonzales, Debbie Solis and Wendi Macon attended the City Plan Commission meeting to oppose the zoning change, and commissioners denied it, so the request never reached the City Council.