Warehouses going up all around North Texas bring jobs and property tax money for cities that approve them. North Texas is a booming distribution hub for the nation.
But some homeowners in some places oppose the hulking neighbors.
The Capella Park neighborhood in far Southwest Dallas near Spur 408 and I-20 is one of those places.
When you pull up at Capella Park on Merrifield Road, you see a grand entrance and streets filled with large, well-maintained homes.
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The original development was backed by the nearby Potters House Church.
“Every name back here comes from the Bible, which was very essential to our family moving here,” resident Darrell Hebert said.
Owners who made an investment were told barricades on those streets would lead to several future phases of nice big homes.
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Instead, the residents now are fighting warehouse plans on vacant land around them.
“The warehouses buying the land are offering more money for the land and they can cheap and quickly build. That's not what we want to see down here,” resident Colin Larson said.
A plan set for a Dallas City Council vote Wednesday calls for warehouses, some apartments and small homes on small lots on nearby land along Merrifield Road.
Wednesday's vote was delayed from the Aug. 24 city council meeting.
“So, it's multi-family and single-family but very small. Nothing compared to the homes we have back here in Capella Park,” Hebert said.
Neighbors would be able to see the warehouses from parts of Capella Park and they worry about heavy truck traffic.
“We want to see that the traffic remains slow. We want to see generational wealth for homeownership, there’s a housing shortage in Dallas and this is the last affordable land to build homes on,” Larson said.
Another warehouse plan even closer to the existing homes was defeated two years ago with heavy opposition from Capella Park.
“We've had a little success, but it's been at a great effort. And it comes at a cost to our neighborhood. We don't put our focus into our neighbors and our surrounding area. We put all our focus into fighting warehouses, over and over again,” Larson said.
Wednesday’s plan was opposed by the Dallas Plan Commission, but the developer appealed to the Dallas City Council for a final decision.
“There is a warehouse district just to the west of us and there's still good land there. That's where the warehouses should go,” Larson said.
The residents said they will be out in force Wednesday for the vote, to send a message again to Dallas City Hall.
“There should be a voice of the people that's louder than the money from developers,” Hebert said.
The developer of the new plan is Crow Holdings. Messages to the company and the lawyer representing the firm in the city zoning case were not returned Thursday.
