City News Roundup

Trinity toll road tribulations lead this summary of Dallas city news

With the holidays, things have been quiet in the realm of city news, other than the razing of a bunch of houses in southern Dallas and some noteworthy things written about the Trinity toll road. Here are the highlights:

Demolition derby
On December 30, Mayor Mike Rawlings presided over the demolition of a dilapidated house in West Dallas, the 272nd demolition in 2014 in a campaign to improve neighborhoods by tearing down junk dwellings. In the past four years, Dallas has demolished approximately 940 rundown houses, many of which are said to be infested with drugs, rodents, mold and other nuisance elements.

But what will go in their place? There are hints about apartment buildings, but veteran developer Monte Anderson emphasizes that "small lots and infrastructure that supports the small house movement are extremely valuable."

Some of the worst properties are run by companies that don't keep them maintained. Four ownership groups own nearly 700 rental houses, rated from "poor quality" to "unsound": HMK Ltd., the Topletz family, G.W. Works and Joseph Bevers' JB III Investments.

To drum up development, the mayor formed an organization called Impact Dallas Capital, with 14 "developers, money managers and community leaders" to serve on the board. No clues who; maybe there'll be a big reveal in February, when the city council gets briefed on ~~their~~ a proposal by chief resilient officer Theresa O'Donnell.

Sam's Club update
Trammell Crow started tearing down an office tower on the east side of North Central Expressway at Haskell Avenue, where it intends to build the detested Sam's Club. "We are remediating the building in accordance with federal, state and local regulations, and continuing to prepare the building for demolition," said Trammell Crow representative Scott Krikorian in an email to the Dallas Business Journal.

Word of the day: charrette
Watch out for the bewitching effects of charrettes, warns former city council member Angela Hunt. Charrettes are meetings where participants visit stations and draw on boards, play-acting in an exercise that makes them feel like they're having input into city government. "It's shameless political theater," she says.

She predicts that charrettes will return as Trinity toll road advocates rush to get their road approved by the federal government in 2015. Charrettes will be one more distraction, like the "dream team" of consultants drafted by Rawlings and the toll road advocates, despite the fact that the design actually can't be changed at this point, not without starting a federal review process over again.

"The consultants, the charrettes, the solemn reconsideration, it's all political theater designed to distract Dallasites while the city moves forward with its plan to build a massive toll road in the Trinity floodway," Hunt says.

Why toll road?
If you've wondered who or what would benefit from the toll road, the Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze has an answer: the rich people who own land in the southwest corner of downtown Dallas. "I believe the real purpose of the toll road is to provide a discrete point of ingress and egress for the bustling recreation, convention and transportation center in the southwest corner of downtown that major land owners there have dreamed of for decades," he says. The southwest corner is owned by some of Dallas' most powerful families — "the sort of people who never complain, never explain," he says.

He has a great line about a quote from former DART board chairman William Velasco regarding the idea of DART detouring to the southwest corner.

It didn't make any sense to me at first, but now it makes all the sense in the world," [Velesco said.] Yes, that would be after the chit-chat. No sense before. All the sense after.

Toll road meeting
State Sen. Royce West will host a meeting on January 8 to discuss the Trinity Corridor Project, and he has a star-studded guest list: Mayor Mike Rawlings; former city manager Mary Suhm; six city council members, including Philip Kingston and Scott Griggs; North Central Texas Council of Governments transportation director Michael Morris; Dallas County commissioners John Wiley Price and Elba Garcia; developer Monte Anderson; and Patrick Kennedy, Walkable DFW blogger and urban planner.

West is about to head back to Austin for the 84th Session of the Texas Legislature and says that he wants to gather "the various voices and viewpoints together around the table in the hope of refining my thoughts and positions on these projects that will impact Dallas and North Central Texas for years to come."

Trammell Crow creeps one step closer to Cityplace Sam's Club.

Photo courtesy of Trammell Crow

Trammell Crow creeps one step closer to Cityplace Sam's Club.

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Park news

New I-35 deck park in southern Dallas moves closer to spring 2026 debut

Courtesy rendering

Renderings for Halperin Park.

A massive deck park spanning Interstate 35E in southern Dallas is set to open in late spring 2026. Called Halperin Park, the five-acre community space has been under construction since 2017 and will be completed in two phases:

Phase One (finishing in late spring) will include the section from Ewing Avenue to Lancaster Avenue and will feature a pavilion, amphitheater, playground area, interactive fountains, a second level overlooking the Dallas Zoo and the highway, and a large event room for every dining and special events.

Phase Two (to be completed over the next five years) will add the park section toward Marsalis Avenue, with an additional pavilion and extra gathering space.

The project is being developed by the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation and built by the Texas Department of Transportation. Funding comes from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, as well as the private Halperin Foundation, which donated $23 million in 2024 and secured naming rights.

In January, the Dallas City Council approved spending up to $8 million to complete Phase One for spring completion.

The public-private initiative will create $1 billion in economy impact over the next five years, according to a study by UNT Dallas.

Rendering of Halperin ParkCourtesy rendering

A park with purpose
Developers say the park aims to integrate the west side of Oak Cliff, which was somewhat segregated with the construction of I-35 in Oak Cliff in the 1960s, leading to low-income communities and generational poverty.

The project started nine years ago, when the Texas Department of transportation planned a reconstruction of I-35 and began gathering neighbors’ feedback. The result was a plan to widen bicycle and pedestrian lanes in the service roads alongside the highway, and to build a deck over the highway between Ewing and Marsalis avenues, adjacent to the Dallas Zoo. (Similar Klyde Warren Park's "deck park" concept.)

While the project faced some skepticism at first, it later gained momentum as private supporters continued to join.

“Forty percent of the Dallas population lives in South Dallas, yet this segment only accounts for 15 percent of the tax base,” says April Allen, President and CEO of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, citing the opportunity to address the economic equality in the area through the development of the park and all the business it can bring.

Rendering of Halperin Park.Courtesy rendering

Neighborhood pride
For Allen, this project is personal. The Toronto-born executive first moved to Dallas 22 years ago to work at Neiman Marcus, after getting her engineering degree in Canada and her MBA at Harvard. Oak Cliff felt like the right place for her as an intown neighborhood, with a confluency of cultures, local pride and an entrepreneurial spirit, as she describes it. Her first Realtor told her Oak Cliff was “not the right place for her." Instead of choosing a different neighborhood, Allen chose a new Realtor.

She has lived on the same street in North Cliff since, now raising her two kids with her husband, an Oak Cliff native, whom she credits for her further understanding of the neighborhood, its roots and civic dynamics.

Under Allen’s leadership, Halperin Park is focused on a community-first approach that provides support to the neighbors through programs around health and wellness, after-school activities, local food trucks and markets, and educational workshops to help expand homeownership and financial acumen.

To highlight the history and culture of Oak Cliff, they will feature an annual Walk of Fame, lifting up the stories of those who contributed to Oak Cliff history, with the first one happening as part of the inauguration of the park, organizers say.

They will provide their own 24-hour security team to ensure a safe place for families and kids, with clean and well-lit crosswalks.

Given their proximity with the zoo, parking will be available on the East side of the park at the zoo site, with a walkway to the park. They are working on parking options for the West side.

“We want to create a space for community growth and more business in the area," says Allen. "We are already seeing this come to life with projects such as East Dock, and we are excited for future investment that the park will bring."

parks