South Dallas neighbors claim mystery about North Dallas megachurch rezoning request

Neighbors say mystery surrounds a wealthy North Dallas megachurch rezoning request for an old South Dallas Middle School campus.

Watermark Church claims it simply wants to expand services for the community with a different land use designation for the site it bought four years ago on South Second Avenue.

The Pearl C. Anderson Middle School was a 9-acre campus with athletic fields in addition to the building that opened in 1963.  It closed in 2014.

“When they said Watermark was coming, I was like, great! A church across the street,” neighbor Jackson Kelly said.

He bought his home 5 years ago when he said the vacant school building was a nuisance.

Images provided by Watermark show graffiti and trash inside the building in bought in 2019.

New images show improvements Watermark has made for church services and athletic events on the site.

Kelly said he agrees the building is much better, but recent youth events he has witnessed at the site have been a nuisance.

“It's just not the right type of crowd. Cars will be speeding back and forth, loud music, smoking,” he said. “It’s not like church at all.”

Pastors of other South Dallas churches who had been serving the neighborhood years before Watermark were critical of the North Dallas megachurch entrance in their part of the city from the start.

Pastor Todd Atkins leads Salem Institutional Baptist Church.

“I think there’s still a lot of mystery. Even though we have had some community meetings, there has been some dialog, but there’s still a lot of mystery of what is the long-term vision,” Atkins said. “South Dallas has a history and sense of pride and self-worth. We don’t mind new partners, but we have to have a partnership.”

The old school is currently in a single-family zoning district.  The church has requested a zoning change that it says will allow more services to be provided at the site.

“Are we talking about just things in the building? Are we talking about things on the whole property? That is our fear. Let us dive down in detail. And then what is the community going to get out of it?” Atkins said. “This is going to be a permanent zoning change and with something of that magnitude, there must be extreme transparency and every member of that community needs to know exactly what’s going to happen.”

The Dallas Plan Commission has already approved the zoning change. It still needs final Dallas City Council approval.        

Neighbor Jackson Kelly said he does not think Watermark has earned enough trust for the zoning change.

“I think they need to get more involved in the community here and be straightforward with what they're trying to do and what they're doing,” he said.

The initial property purchase also raised community suspicion.

Watermark paid $211,000 for the site which is now valued at nearly $5 million on the Dallas County Appraisal District website.

Watermark said it was the only bidder in a Dallas Independent School District auction for the surplus school.

“Is there a design that you’re not sharing with us,” Atkins said.

The currently listed property ownership entity is a limited liability corporation with none of the tax exemptions that a church would normally receive. 

An estimated 2023 tax bill of $123,156.38 is shown on the Dallas CAD site.

Through a spokesperson, Watermark Church declined an NBC 5 interview request Friday but provided an email with information.

It said the non-profit status of Watermark Church transferred to the new LLC and that Watermark has applied for tax exemption on for the South Dallas site that has not yet been posted by the appraisal district.

Here is the rest of the Watermark Email:

Over the last several years, we have had the privilege of learning from, serving alongside, and worshipping with the South Dallas community. Since acquiring the property in 2019, we have renovated approximately 24,000 square feet of the Pearl C. Anderson facility to make the building safe and functional for the community. In 2021, we began hosting worship services at 3 PM on Sundays. Since then, our congregation has continued to grow and thrive – especially our kid's ministry, which serves about 60 kids and students each week from the community.

In addition to services on Sunday, here is a snapshot of what happens on our campus throughout the week:

• Watermark Health’s mobile clinic is on campus every Tuesday and Thursday to provide medical services such as urgent care services, back-to-school physicals, flu shots, and COVID-19 testing.

• Watermark Community Development Corporation hosts several programs, including weekly financial literacy classes, a financial matching program to help individuals purchase business assets, the Job Connection Program to connect the unemployed or underemployed with new or better jobs, and the Business Cohort Program to provide coaching and resources to help South Dallas entrepreneurs take their businesses to the next level.

• In partnership with Dallas College, we are piloting a vocational training program focused on technology skills.

• Local youth football and rugby leagues utilize the campus fields for sports.

• Watermark South Dallas has hosted several neighborhood clean-up days, community outreach events, and a summer day camp for local children.

Over the last few years, we’ve hosted dozens of formal and informal community meetings to get input and feedback from the community on what additional services would be most useful for Watermark South Dallas to provide in the Pearl C. Anderson facility. From those meetings and conversations, the top needs consistently expressed by the community were youth development, healthcare, job training and placement, and a fresh food solution. Our next planned initiative is a renovation of the facilities’ gymnasium and outdoor fields to serve the community through an expanded youth sports program.

For the last year or so, we have been in a process with the Dallas City Council to secure new zoning to expand the range and scope of community services offered at the facility to meet the 2 needs expressed by the community. Our proposed zoning change was approved by the City Planning Commission in May and will go before the Dallas City Council later this year.

Months ago, Watermark South Dallas also formed a Neighborhood Partner Team to allow members of the surrounding community to speak about the current and future plans for the Pearl C. Anderson facility. We are finalizing a Good Neighbor Agreement between Watermark and the Neighborhood Partner Team to provide clarity and accountability to our relationship with the community moving forward.

We are grateful to be part of the South Dallas community and look forward to partnering with community members and other local organizations for years to come.