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City of Dallas plays hot potato with fracking and hopes no one notices

After hearing hours upon hours of public speakers debate the merits of fracking in L.B. Houston Park, City Plan Commissioners were pretty frank about their unsuitability on the subject. Below, a sampling of commissioner comments on December 20:

"I don't think this is the time or place to vote on this." — Sally Wolfish
"I just don't feel comfortable voting for the motion today." — Michael Anglin
"I'm unable to support this motion. I think it is premature. I don't feel well equipped to decide this issue." — Paul Ridley

That night, the commission voted unanimously to deny the permits. But on January 10 (with only a vague reference to potential lawsuits by applicant Trinity East Energy), the commission hit the reset button. Another public hearing on gas drilling is scheduled for February 7.

I'll grant you the threat of litigation, in that any person at any time can file a lawsuit against the city if he feels wronged. Now, whether that case would hold up in court is an entirely different matter.

Minutes from a 2008 meeting of the Park and Recreation Board characterize the city's lease agreement with Trinity East as one of sub-surface mineral rights (hence why it has to get permission for surface drilling). The actual oil and gas lease between the city and Trinity East (which was obtained for a cool $10 and the promise of potential royalties) includes amendments acknowledging that the decision on a specific use permit is at the city's discretion.

However, if commissioner Sally Wolfish is to be believed, a denial of drilling permits would open the door to lawsuits.

The lease also states that before drilling can take place, the City Council must authorize oil and gas drilling on park lands and in the flood plain. (There are currently ordinances against both.)

By all accounts, the City Plan Commission isn't comfortable approving a special use permit to allow natural gas drilling in L.B. Houston Park, because it's currently illegal. Until someone says otherwise, Dallas parklands are not for drilling.

The City Council has the power to amend the ordinance but has neglected to address the issue since the plan commission passed the buck in December.

The closest the council came was to issue a public notice about a potential January 23 hearing on gas drilling, which did not occur.

"It's sort of a chicken-or-the-egg situation, I guess," park planning manager Michael Hellmann said in a January 24 interview with CultureMap.

On paper at least, nothing has changed about the special use permits once again before the plan commission. Drilling in Dallas parklands and flood plains is still illegal, and, ostensibly, wildly unpopular.

In an interview with CultureMap, commissioner Paul Ridley said he still has the same reservations about granting the permits that he did last month.

"We should not be recommending applications to the City Council that are in direct opposition to city ordinances," Ridley says. "It does not appear there will be any action to amend those ordinances before February 7."

For me, the issue isn't even fracking or natural gas drilling. It's about a nonsensical approach to a problem. The City Plan Commission has said it can't in good conscience act in contrast to current city code. The City Council, which can amend the code, is abstaining from the debate until after the commission makes a decision.

Even though commissioners plainly stated that they felt ill-equipped to consider these permits in light of current law, that's exactly what they're being asked to do again on February 7.

For what it's worth, Hellmann says the City Council has placed a new round of public notices to hold a hearing on drilling in parklands on February 13.

Nothing like showing up a week late and a dollar short with the entire city at your doorstep.

Hydraulic fracturing is a relatively new process to extract natural gas from deep within the earth.

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Hydraulic fracturing is a relatively new process to extract natural gas from deep within the earth.

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Sprawling Celina

This booming Dallas suburb is the No. 1 fastest-growing city in U.S.

Facebook/City of Celina

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Small cities in big Texas metro areas were the fastest growing municipalities in the United States last year, and the Dallas suburb of Celina ranked No. 1 in the country, followed closely by other DFW cities.

Celina, Princeton, Melissa, and Anna — all part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex — were the Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 fastest-growing U.S. cities with populations of 20,000 residents or more from mid-2024 to mid-2025, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In general, smaller communities in the South, such as these, outpaced the rest of the nation, which has experienced a population slowdown since the start of the immigration crackdown last year, according to figures released Thursday, May 14.

Fulshear, in metro Houston, was the second-fastest growing U.S. city. The five Texas cities' year-over-year growth rates ranged from almost 15% to almost 25%.

In pure numbers, Celina, with only 64,000 people, grew by more residents — 12,700 — than Seattle and Houston, cities that are 12 times and 37 times larger respectively.

Small- to medium-sized cities hit a sweet spot between the largest U.S. cities, which were most impacted by the loss of immigrants from the crackdown started last year during the second Trump administration, and anemic growth in small towns, according to Matt Erickson, a Census Bureau statistician.

Texas cities dominate
Nine out of 10 of the largest population gainers in pure numbers were cities in the South because of a healthy job market and its comparative affordability. The biggest numeric gainers were Charlotte, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; and Celina.

Fort Worth leaped over Jacksonville last year as the 10th most populous U.S. city, putting four Texas cities in the nation's top 10 most populous, with the other cities being Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.

Austin skipped over San Jose for the 12th most populous spot, as Texas’ capital city surpassed 1 million residents for the first time. It is now one of a dozen U.S. cities with 1 million residents or more.

Seattle was the only non-Southern city to crack the top 10 in numeric population gains last year, at the No. 5 spot.

What's driving population losses
The two cities with the greatest rates of population loss last year — Twentynine Palms, California, by Joshua Tree National Park and Key West at the southern tip of Florida — were in places with tight housing markets. Their losses ranged from -2.4% to -2.9%.

In Twentynine Palms, a large chunk of the housing stock has been converted into short-term rentals for tourists heading to the national park. Just under 40% of its housing is occupied by its owners, compared with the national average of 65%, according to Census Bureau figures.

Hemmed in on all sides by water, the limited housing stock in Key West, as well as some of the highest home insurance rates in the U.S., have driven up housing costs for the Conch Republic. The median price for a home in Key West was $1.3 million at the start of this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Other cities that had some of the biggest rates of population loss last year were hit by natural disasters.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck Florida’s Gulf Coast within weeks of each other in late 2024. Remnants of Helene blew through western North Carolina, leaving behind damaging tornadoes and flooding. Among the cities with the greatest rates of loss were Asheville, North Carolina, and several cities on Florida’s Gulf Coast, including Pinellas Park, Dunedin, Largo and Clearwater.

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