Oak Cliff News

Dallas enacts ordinance to protect historic Oak Cliff neighborhood

A prototypical Craftsman style house in Winnetka Heights.

Winnetka Heights Neighborhood Association

A Dallas neighborhood has new protections: On April 24, the Dallas City Council unanimously voted to approve the South Winnetka Heights Conservation District, an ordinance that will protect the historic development patterns for the area and encourage development that is compatible with existing housing stock.

The area is part of the original 1908 Winnetka Heights neighborhood. The vast majority of the homes are Craftsman and Transitional Bungalow style and 91 of the 95 homes were built before 1939.

According to a release, it's a neighbor-led initiative that started in 2019, and it marks the City’s first new Conservation District since 2011, 8th overall in Oak Cliff, and 18th overall citywide.

“I am thrilled to see the creation of this new Conservation District in Oak Cliff thanks to the determination of our residents and follow through of our city staff, who overcame obstacles including the COVID-19 pandemic and a ransomware attack,” says Council Member Chad West. “As we plan strategically for Dallas’ growth, we need to simultaneously allow for the preservation of architectural history and culture. It can be a difficult balance, but we can and must do both.”

Michael “Patty” Evans is the local resident who led the initiative to establish the conservation district.

"We are excited and relieved that after four years of coming together to serve our neighborhood, the City of Dallas agreed that we are important, our neighborhood is important, and why we choose to live in South Winnetka Heights is worth saving," Evans says.

Neighborhood support was widespread, with 76 percent of property owners signing the petition to initiate the process.

Several other neighborhoods in District 1 have submitted paperwork to initiate the process to create other new Conservation Districts in the area.

The City Council also voted to create a new Special Provision Sign District (SPSD) for the Wynnewood Village shopping center. The 80-year old shopping center has a number of new stores coming, including a Target. The new SPSD will preserve historic signs like the original Wynnewood Village pylon sign through a condition to maintain legacy signs.

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Rent Report

Here's how many Texans are paying too much for rent, report reveals

Grace Cary/Getty Images

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Millions of Texas renters, both current residents and new arrivals, suffer from wallet whiplash.

A new report from the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers shows 45 percent of the state’s renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Renters occupy more than 4.2 million Texas households, representing nearly half of the state’s residents.

Worse yet, 81 percent of extremely low-income households in Texas spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing, the report says. For that income group, Texas has a shortage of 864,000 affordable homes.

Thirty percent is the standard financial benchmark for spending too much income on rent, while 50 percent puts a renter in the “severely cost-burdened” bucket.

“To sustain growth and secure future prosperity, Texas will need more than 320,000 additional affordable homes [rented and owned] to address workforce housing affordability and meet the demands of a growing population,” says the report.

“Today, the state is creating thousands of new jobs,” the report adds, “but housing supply has not kept pace with demand, driving up housing costs and constraining continued economic growth.”

Not surprisingly, people who live in or move to three of Texas’ biggest metro areas get hit with the state’s highest apartment rental rates. Here’s Apartments.com’s list of the 10 most expensive places for renters in Texas, based on apartments whose average size ranges from 713 square feet in Austin to 771 square feet in Plano:

1. Frisco — $1,477 per month
2. Plano — $1,461 per month
3. Austin — $1,417 per month
4. Dallas — $1,413 per month
5. McKinney — $1,363 per month
6. Grand Prairie — $1,327 per month
7. Irving — $1,318 per month
8. Garland — $1,237 per month
9. Fort Worth — $1,217 per month
10. Houston — $1,183 per month

San Antonio boasts some of the lowest average rent among Texas’ 10 most affordable markets: $1,075 per month. Mesquite, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, also fits into that category, with average monthly rent of $1,052.

Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced more than $114 million in grants to help develop or rehabilitate properties, providing more than 4,400 affordable rental units.

“As our state grows, we must ensure that Texans have access to the affordable housing they need to thrive,” Abbott says.

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