A Town Hall on Thursday to Introduce Proposal For West Dallas's New 'Urban Structure'

A Town Hall on Thursday to Introduce Proposal For West Dallas's New "Urban Structure"

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Jan. 10 2011 at 9:09 AM

On the other side is a memo City Manager Mary Suhm sent to the city council and Mayor Tom late last week in which she extends an invite to Thursday's "public discussion" of the Dallas CityDesign Studio's West Dallas extreme makeover. Brent Brown and Larry Beasley, funded by the Trinity Trust's $2-million gift, have been at this for more than a year -- meeting and greeting with residents and stakeholders near the foot at the Calatrava bridge and discussing how to best utilize the land on that side of the Trinity.

There was the so-called Dream Session in September '09, followed by the Urban Structure Charrette in February of last year. Now it's time for the town hall, which, per the invite to the Mattie Nash-Myrtle Davis Recreation Center at 6 p.m. Thursday, will introduce the Urban Structure: "the result of input and ideas from residents, businesses, community leaders, and landowners through a year-long process by the City of Dallas' CityDesign Studio." Says Suhm, "The event is only part of the public discussion concerning the plan. We anticipate a great conversation about the future of this area will continue over the next couple of months."

You can sneak peek some of the development scenarios -- from the near future to the very long-term -- here. City Design Studio Invite

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Jim

Im completely for it. This can make Dallas a class city, rather than a dull city.

Hannibal_Lecter

"how to best utilize the land on that side of the Trinity"

"Best" as defined bye city staffers whose primary mission is to maximize property taxes, and by pie-in-the-sky dreamers who believe everyone wants to live like Manhattanized termites who spend sixteen hours a day drinking coffee at street-side cafes.

Downtown_worker

Most of this dense development was contingent on the Trinity River Project and its lakes. Since the lakes look to be on indefinite hold, why isn't anyone talking about how much of this development isn't going to happen? Yes, there will be organic growth in Oak Cliff and La Bajada (people will take the new bridge whether they want to or not simply due to being an extension of Woodall Rodgers), but not the explosion of buildings and cranes envisioned by this plan.