Dallas Neighborhood Transformation as Old Becomes New

The Gilbert Emory neighborhood of West Dallas near Singleton Boulevard and Sylvan Avenue is an example of sweeping changes happening in some older Dallas communities near the center of the city.

North Texas is booming with new people arriving every day and new construction is attempting to keep up with demand as new home sizes and prices soar.

The contrast between new and old is remarkable in Gilbert Emory and some residents are disappointed.

Homeowner Tatiana Farrow completed her new house there in 2018.

“It was really woodsy. There were a lot of single-story houses that were built after World War II and I didn’t know that there were plans for a lot of multifamily development when I started building my house,” she said. “I thought this would be great. It feels like you are in the suburbs but you’re really close to downtown. I thought this would be a perfect place to live.”

Since then, many other newcomers have made the same decision. 

A five-story apartment complex now towers over the neighborhood.  Many older homes have been demolished with lots cleared for new construction. 

“We're losing a lot of older trees in the neighborhood.  And the density you can just feel it, it's starting to feel really crowded,” she said.

Gilbert Emory was once a Freedman’s Town of former slaves. The old Frederick Douglas Elementary School has been replaced with a tightly packed development of 28 townhomes where Farrow complains a 100-year-old Oak tree was removed.

Homebuilder Julio Roman with Adaptable Development has just completed a two-story home that he is proud of in the neighborhood for a client.

Roman said the client selected West Dallas because the land is more affordable than other parts of Dallas and the new home does include a fenced yard.

“I think we can achieve something that’s esthetically pleasing to keep the smaller homes and larger homes like this,” Roman said.

Roman grew up in old East Dallas and said he is surprised to see the conflicting land uses and drastic changes happening in West Dallas.

He said the new home he built is already appraised at $100,000 more than the cost of building it.

“It amazes me in the sense of where it's happening,” Roman said. “You get all this hodge podge because there are certain developers who are able to get away with certain things.”

Traffic from another development of 270 townhomes passes through a single street and into Gilbert Emory.

Old single-story duplexes that had yards are replaced with super-sized two-story new ones that take every allowable inch of the lot.

“The houses that they’re building don’t really have yards. So, people with children that move in, it’s as bad as being in an apartment. There’s no place for kids to play. Sometimes kids here, they’ll play in the street,” Farrow said.

Now a new development of townhomes has been approved on the heavily wooded land beside Tatiana Farrow’s home. She said she is unhappy about trees that will be lost in that land.

City codes and zoning that allows all of this date back years. 

City Councilman Omar Narvaez who represents West Dallas said it is difficult to undo poor choices of the past.

“The building started while I was in office, but the zoning happened before I was on the council,” Narvaez said. “I've learned from the mistakes of the past.”

Narvaez said single road access to the large cluster of 270 townhomes is hard to serve with public safety vehicles. 

To combat soaring taxes for existing neighbors, Narvaez said neighborhood empowerment zones have been created, including Gilbert Emory, to provide a cap on tax values for property owners who invest a certain amount of money in their property for upkeep.

“Gentrification, if it’s not handled correctly, is a bad thing,” Narvaez said. “The hardest part of being one of the fastest-growing parts of the entire nation is that everyone wants to live here. It's a plus and it's a negative.”

Tatiana Farrow said Councilman Narvaez is listening to resident concerns, but she does not agree with him on everything.

“I do think that sometimes certain issues fall through the cracks,” she said.

New townhome prices in Gilbert Emory start at about four times what some of the small old homes were valued at and new single-family homes can be even higher valued.