Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has never shied from controversy — and that now extends to his old neighborhood.
Though he’s earned a reputation over the years as a city benefactor — donating money to fight graffiti and saving the St. Patrick’s Day Parade one year — some neighbors blame him for increasing community tensions of late near his former Preston Hollow digs.
The brash billionaire has acquired a half dozen properties near the northwest corner of Northwest Highway and Preston Road. Recently, by removing trees, fences and one home, Cuban has stoked fears that he might turn the single-family lots into something with more density.
Cuban, in an email, said he’s in “no rush to do anything beyond cleaning the property and opening it up for anyone to see.” He acknowledged that he was trying to “generate interest” in the property and said he was “exploring all options but no decisions have been made.”
Some neighbors, including former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, have expressed concern that by clearing the properties, Cuban is exposing nearby homeowners to traffic noise and potential intruders. Long-term, some worry about what kind of development might come to their well-heeled neighborhood.
“It’s a beautiful area that a lot of people didn’t even know about,” said Meredith Houston, a neighbor who lives next door to Cuban’s properties.
Development at and near Preston Center — the commercial and retail area on the south side of Northwest Highway at Preston — has been under scrutiny of late.
Two proposed residential projects, which would have featured high- or mid-rise towers, fizzled under neighborhood protests. The battles raised broader questions about the future of the ever-popular — yet in many ways outmoded — area.
City Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates, who represents the area, has teamed with the North Central Texas Council of Governments on a land-use study of Preston Center. It’s the first in-depth look in 25 years at the area’s zoning, traffic and other characteristics.
The first community meeting on the study took place last week in a church near Preston Center. During the question-and-answer session, one name kept coming up: Mark Cuban.
“What can we do to stop him?” one woman asked.
Cuban now lives a few blocks away, on the other side of the Dallas North Tollway. But for about 12 years, he lived right near the Preston and Northwest intersection — basically next door to Ebby Halliday’s iconic “little white house” office.
No plans for the properties that he’s bought have been submitted to the city, and he hasn’t sought any zoning changes.
At the community meeting, Gates made it clear that she’d like things to stay that way.
“It’s single-family,” she said of the existing zoning. “I have a pretty strong bias that single-family remain single-family.”
Gates has asked for an informal moratorium on zoning changes in that area until the land-use study is completed, in the next year or so.
Pressed by some in the audience on how she might look on a request for rezoning, Gates said: “Mr. Cuban’s representative knows how I feel.”
Cuban, asked by email what thoughts he had on Gates’ comments, replied: “None.”
He added, “Now I know what she thinks.”
Cuban’s removal of trees and other barriers from the land — although it was within his rights and in compliance with city rules — has particularly irked some neighbors. What was once a comforting cushion against from the din of the intersection is gone, they say. Some also say they feel less secure.
Houston said her car and her husband’s were broken into one night after Cuban cleared a fence and some trees. The crimes occurred while her family was home and the cars were behind a gated fence.
“It says something to me that that’s never happened before,” she said.
Cuban said he was sorry to hear about the break-in. But he took an opposite view on the broader safety concerns.
“The fence actually provided cover to any misdeeds,” he wrote. “Now it’s easy to see if anyone is on the land and there are fewer places to hide.”
Follow Tom Benning on Twitter at @tombenning.
