Dallas City Council members recently devoted much of their meeting to a debate about whether South Lancaster Road should be renamed in memory of South African leader Nelson Mandela or whether, given that the VA Medical Center is located there, a prominent local veteran should be heralded.
Let’s set aside such distractions and get to the real issue in this neighborhood: the weedy and expensive expanse of dirt that was supposed to be the site of a development project called Patriots Crossing.
Since 2009, the City Council has steadily doled out $4.5 million for the project. Yigal Lelah’s company, Sapphire Road Development LLC, paid inflated prices to acquire an entire block of land for his housing, office and retail project. Now, five years later, the empty land serves only as a makeshift parking lot for VA hospital patrons.
Otherwise, it’s a monument to trash and weeds — a multimillion-dollar eyesore. In May, the site became, by far, the most expensive item ever to appear on this monthly list of neighborhood detractors in southern Dallas.
In the past two years, the city has placed multiple labor liens on the property because of code violations. An architectural design firm hired by the developer has filed liens for an unpaid bill of $103,482. These performance and financial discrepancies should be more than adequate for the city to claim Lelah’s firm has defaulted on its contract. Lelah didn’t return a call for comment.
City Hall should have shown Lelah the door and demanded back its money — taxpayers’ money — long ago. Officials say City Hall is now trying to bring in a prominent southern Dallas developer to rescue the project. If such a deal entails keeping Lelah’s company as a partner, the city’s answer should be an emphatic no. His company has failed to deliver, and it’s time for him to repay the loan in full.
The city should not engineer a secret deal that effectively hands this project to another “favorite son” developer, no matter how good his reputation is. The project needs to be completely redesigned and rebid, with all competitors’ ideas placed on the table for a full discussion. City Hall must not erode public trust by arranging a backroom rescue.
Completed
No. 1: The gas station at Elam Road and U.S. Highway 175 had been an eyesore and potential danger because of broken pumps and code violations. The pumps are now fixed. Some long-term repairs remain, but they are not substantial.
No. 2: The owner of an abandoned warehouse at 2711-2826 N. Westmoreland Road has covered loading dock doors and other gaping holes. Until the building returns to productive use, it is at least now off-limits to vagrants.
No. 3: The 4800 block of Dolphin Road had multiple unsecured houses and businesses full of code violations. The sites have been secured against invasions. Bulk trash has been cleared.
Improved
No. 4: Dallas Pallet Recycle, at 6512 Great Trinity Forest Way, operates a big-rig trailer storage facility and pallet recycling operation next to the entrance to the Great Trinity Forest. Local government online records show no permitting or certificate of occupancy, although the owner insists he has proper permits. The city ordered him to address code and usage violations.
No. 5: Recent demolitions of two houses in the 5000 block of Colonial Street have eliminated longtime eyesores and dangerous conditions. Invaders have moved to another house, where they’re slowly peeling away the exterior siding. Despite signs of improvement, this neighborhood still screams for an extreme home makeover.
No. 6: At the dead end of Pluto Street, off Singleton Boulevard, an improperly managed conglomeration of salvage yards and heavy machinery storage sites has attracted attention from the city attorney’s office. A cleanup of junk vehicle parts and dumped recycling material is in progress.
Stalled
No. 7: The 5.5-acre site of AAA Truck Parts at 6000 S. Lamar St., just over the southern back fence of the new Buckeye Trail Commons housing development, is a graveyard for old trucks, vans, dumpsters and heavy equipment. The city says it has notified the owner of multiple code and zoning violations.
No. 8: Heavy truck repairs at 2015 Brundrette St. in West Dallas are spilling onto the street. Multiple big rigs are parked on the street, one with its engine partially dismantled. The city says code violations were evident during a recent visit, and Dallas police have been notified of illegal land use issues. The street, taxpayer-owned property, is no place for private businesses to perform their work.
No. 9: A fenced slab at 3530 Singleton Blvd. is permitted for bus repair and maintenance, but several vehicles have sat there inoperable for years. The city has issued citations for the junk vehicles.
Worsening
No. 10: Each month, the Lee G. Bilal building, at 4408 Second Ave., continues to decay as the city awaits a responsible buyer to step in and save this badly vandalized but once stately building. Gaping holes have returned, as has a pile of dumped tree clippings.
With the completion of the first three items, we add these new items:
The backyard of a house at 2405 Seevers Ave. in Oak Cliff is jampacked, to the point of overflowing into the alley, with pallets, a trailer, ice cream carts and other junk. Whether this is an unauthorized commercial site in a residential neighborhood or a case of a hoarder run amok, the site attracts vermin and appears to violate code.
At 808 Jim Miller Road, a business whose certificate of occupancy is for heavy equipment or truck sales and service is instead using its property as a sprawling junkyard, with rusting machinery that apparently hasn’t worked for years.
A property at 3702 Singleton Blvd. is authorized as a contractor’s maintenance yard. Instead, it’s being used to store tractor-trailer rigs and nonfunctioning vehicles that either belong in a junkyard or an authorized repair facility.
