Warehouses seem to be going up all over North Texas. Local cities compete for the tax money warehouses bring to help provide services. Warehouses pay high prices to property owners for raw land. But one Dallas neighborhood is fighting to block a new warehouse development beside their homes.
Capella Park is a planned community in far southwest Dallas on hilly terrain overlooking Mountain Creek Lake. The neighborhood near Spur 408 and Keist Boulevard was originally planned by the Potters House Church. One street is named for the church and others have Biblical names.
“Here is a gem in the middle of Dallas,” homeowner Jerry Smith said.
Smith owns a new house on the edge of Capella Park Phase One, backing up to what was to be phase two, with more houses. Smith said he and other homeowners are angry about a warehouse proposed instead on the phase two site by Hillwood Development Company.
“It would kill the property value of my investment,” Smith said. “It's extremely upsetting that I would have a warehouse behind me when me and my wife have invested in Dallas and I'm very upset.”
Renderings created by neighbors show how the warehouse would tower above the homes.
“There's no neighborhood that has boomed because a warehouse has moved in their back yard,” said homeowner Darrell Chris Herbert.
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His home on a Capella Park hilltop has a great view of the lake and surrounding vacant land.
Hebert said he selected the neighborhood because it is still inside the city of Dallas, but also has beauty and features that are hard to find in other parts of the city.
“There’s no need to surround a community of people with concrete,” Hebert said. “We would love for them to do residential homes versus warehouses in the neighborhood, definitely.”
There are plenty of other more appropriate sites for warehouses, according to the neighbors. Several warehouses are already nearby on Mountain Creek Parkway.
“I can accept that,” Smith said. “But leave them down on Mountain Creek Parkway.”
The Capella Park phase two location is already zoned residential for houses and Hillwood has requested a zoning change to allow a warehouse according to the neighbors. A Hillwood spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday.
The company also develops residential communities and Smith said that is what should be done of the Capella Park land.
“I just can't believe the City of Dallas would betray this beautiful community because you can't find the trees and the wildlife and the peace and the tranquility hardly anywhere else in the southern sector of Dallas,” he said.
The neighbors have been told the Dallas Plan Commission will consider the issue next month and that city staff has already recommended the change be denied.
Dallas City Council Member Casey Thomas, who represents the area, said Tuesday that he also opposes the warehouse request for that site.
So, the neighbors have some key support on their stand against this big warehouse.
