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SIZE LIMITS FOR ELM THICKET/NORTHPARK HOMES?

Commission favors shorter homes, slightly less lot coverage

Zoning proposals to limit home sizes in the Elm Thicket/Northpark neighborhood have pitted those in favor of preserving the area’s historic character against

those who claim changes would reduce property rights. (PHOTOS: RACHEL SNYDER)

By Rachel Snyder

rachel.snyder@peoplenewspapers.com

Dallas City Plan Commissioners have sided with longtime Elm Thicket/Northpark residents seeking to preserve the history and character of the neighborhood.

The commission recently voted unanimously to support a slight decrease in the lot coverage allowed for new homes there.

The proposals would limit maximum lot coverage to 35% for multi-story homes and 40% for single-story homes instead of the 45% allowed in most of Dallas. Many of the original homes in the area are at most 30%.

The proposals would also drop the maximum height of homes by about 5 feet and largely do away with flat roofs used in some new two-story homes.

The neighborhood, bordered by Inwood, Lovers, Bluffview, Lemmon, and Mockingbird, is about 521 acres of primarily single-family homes with some duplexes on the edges.

“It is historically a Black/African American neighborhood,” explained Andrea Gilles, assistant director of planning and urban design. “There are many sources that cite that this is also a freedman town area within the city.”

Gilles said that the area, which was redlined in the 1930s through the 1960s, has seen changes in the last couple of decades. “There’s been a sharp decline in the Black and African American population in this area, and a really significant increase in the Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx populations, and the white populations,” she said.

Gilles added that the area is seeing significant property value increases and higher housing costs with more new constructions and teardowns. Those changes prompted a zoning process “looking at how you incorporate moderate changes to the zoning that soften the different development styles,” she said. The Dallas City Council, likely later this year, will have the

Their new neighbor final say on the contentious zonnext door will loom ing case, which has over them with been in the works since 2016. less disrespect and “The proposed hostility. zoning does not correct the sins of Mark Rieves the past, nor does it begin to make up for the sins of the past,” said Mark Rieves, a former plan commissioner and member of the Elm Thicket/Northpark steering committee.

But it does provide, Rieves said, “a nod of respect to the existing legacy residents who have called Elm Thicket home for half a century. Their new neighbor next door will loom over them with less disrespect and hostility.”

Zac Thompson committed to maintaining the West University Boulevard home where his late mother lived all her life. “We have a chance to maintain a history that is unique. This is one of the last communities in Dallas that is historically Black.”

However, some stakeholders are unhappy, seeing the proposed changes as infringing on their property rights.

“There’s no way the group that wants these changes could have gotten more than 50% of property owners to agree to all of this,” Allison Silveira said. “It is a fact that housing is one of the primary ways for wealth accumulation in this country. Are you really going to inhibit and deny that to neighbors in this area?”

Get Ready for a STRONG MARKET this Fall!

Alex Stein first appeared in ABC’s reality show The Glass House in 2012. He’s since appeared at municipal meetings throughout the area, including Dallas City Council and Dallas County

Commissioner’s Court meetings. (PHOTOS: ABC/CRAIG SJODIN, SCREENGRABS)

Who Is Alex Stein?

HPHS alumnus uses public meetings to gain internet virality, spread misinformation

By Rachel Snyder

rachel.snyder@peoplenewspapers.com

Some may know of Highland Park High School alumnus Alex Stein from his appearance on The Glass House reality show, which debuted on ABC in 2012.

In it, contestants lived together and competed in activities viewers helped pick.

In the show’s first episode, Stein asked, “America, should I turn into the most epic villain in the history of reality TV?” and shared his game plan. “Nobody in this house is going to do what I do because I got no shame, and I got no fear,” Stein declared.

More recently, a video of Stein performing during the open microphone portion of a Dallas City Council meeting in February went viral. In it, he wore scrubs and rapped about COVID-19 vaccines.

In June, Stein sued Dallas County over his removal from County Commissioners Court. In May, commissioner John Wiley Price had Stein escorted out about 30 seconds into comments about Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

“You’re not allowed to admonish members of this court,” Price said, interrupting Stein repeatedly. “You are not allowed to attack members of this court.”

Stein’s use of municipal government open mic sessions has helped him access larger platforms, including Tucker Carlson Tonight, Glenn Beck’s Blaze Media, and Alex Jones’ podcast. A jury recently decided Jones should pay punitive damages to two families for spreading lies about the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

During a March 18, 2022, appearance on The Alex Jones Show, Stein called Jones a “personal hero.” “Right around 2016, you woke me up, realizing about pizzagate, realizing that these people in power are sick perverted Satanists,” Stein told Jones, referencing a discredited conspiracy theory alleging Hillary Clinton ran a child sex trafficking ring out of a Washington

What they say is D.C. pizza parlor. Stein, noting how you’re not supposed he, like Jones, grew to be boisterous, up in North Texas, added, “What I’m but you can be saying is we’re kind boisterous. of cut from similar cloths.” Alex Stein Stein’s appearances at municipal meetings around the area, including in University Park, have been aided by the 2019 passage of House Bill 2840, which requires governmental bodies to allow time for public speakers. “What they say is you’re not supposed to be boisterous, but you can be boisterous,” he said on an episode of Blaze Media’s News and Why It Matters podcast. “As long as you don’t go there and cuss and be really profane … you have your constitutional right to speak at those local meetings.” And in the internet age, with so many meetings streamed online, that means exposure. “It plays on their local live feed, so it does go somewhere,” Stein said. While his public meeting raps can be ambiguous in their political messaging, he’s also posted videos heckling members of Congress, including one calling Houston Republican Dan Crenshaw a “globalist RINO” (Republican In Name Only). Stein, through his father, Rhett, declined to speak to People Newspapers about his plans and Park Cities roots, but it seems like Stein’s “show” is likely to continue.