Dallas Council to Vote on Controversial Auto Salvage Yard

The City Council will vote Wednesday on a potential auto-parts recycling business down the road from a new Dallas landmark.

The salvage yard would be located on Singleton Boulevard, the street that will connect with the city's "signature" bridge, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.

The bridge was designed by famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and is under construction. It will extend the Woodall Rodgers Freeway across the Trinity River from Downtown Dallas.

The West Dallas Chamber of Commerce opposes the new auto salvage business on that street.

"This is the backbone of West Dallas," said Victor Toledo, chamber president. "It's raw land. It's never been developed before. You bring in a use like that? It's incompatible with the positive changes that are happening in this area."

Zoning consultant Santos Martinez said the property owner has agreed to many compromises to make the business more acceptable to neighbors.

The measures include additional set back from the road for added paved parking in front of the business, a tall screening fence around the salvage yard and extensive landscaping.

Martinez said the site is surrounded by other property already zoned for industrial uses, miles away from the Trinity River and closer to Loop 12 on Singleton.

"This seems to be the good spot for where it should be," he said. "But on top of that, we've talked to the neighborhoods and talked to other businesses around us and worked in good faith to try to get other compromises that we feel are appropriate."

The Dallas Plan Commission and city zoning staff have both recommended approval of the project.

A Dallas Morning News editorial Tuesday urged the City Council to reject it.

Councilman Steve Salazar, who represents the area, has delayed the final City Council vote twice before.

Salazar said Tuesday that the set back and landscaping measures would make the project nicer than some other businesses around it but still has concerns. He said he might delay the vote again Wednesday to give the two sides yet another chance to work out their differences.

Salazar is not running in the City Council election in May because he must step down because of term limitations.