Northwood Estates Neighborhood Association members planned and advertised their regular business meeting for March 18 and invited developers with Sycamore Strategies to talk about a controversial proposed Public Facility Corporation project, Cypress Creek at Forest Lane.
As the neighbors living nearest to the proposed apartment complex at 11520 North Central Expressway, NENA board president Traci Williams said she thought Northwood Estates residents would benefit from direct communication with the developers.
But within a few hours of sending out the notice of their meeting, Northwood homeowners got word that District 10 Councilman Adam McGough was planning a meeting for the same date and time Saturday morning.
McGough also invited the developers.
“The councilman has placed the developer in the awkward position of having to decide either to attend the city councilman’s meeting under the councilman’s control or a meeting with neighbors and stakeholders living nearest to the site,” Williams said in a press release she wrote with NENA infrastructure chair Sonja Gold. “The D10 councilman has not met with the neighborhood nearest to the site in 2023. Our voices are being silenced.”
We contacted McGough for an explanation of why he scheduled his meeting at the same time as the Northwood Estates meeting and have not received a response.
McGough is not seeking re-election in May due to term limits. Four candidates are vying for the District 10 seat: Sirrano Keith Baldeo, Brian Hasenbauer, Kathy Stewart, and Chris Carter.
Stewart, whom McGough has endorsed for his District 10 seat, told daltxrealestate.com she has concerns about the Cypress Creek at Forest Lane project.
“While I am not closing the door on Public Facility Corporation developments, this one has several hurdles to overcome such as lack of proximity to grocery stores and safe travel to schools; a deed restriction that holds some weight; the percentage of market-rate rentals is less than 50 percent, and the affordable units are all less than 80 to 120 percent of [Area Median Income],” Stewart said Thursday.
Dueling Meetings
The Northwood Estates Neighborhood Association meeting is set for 10:30 a.m. Saturday at New Mount Zion Baptist Church chapel, 9550 Shepherd Road. It’s the NENA’s regularly-scheduled monthly business meeting and is not generally open to the public.
Those familiar with the project have told daltxrealestate.com that the Sycamore Strategies developers have opted to attend McGough’s meeting.
McGough’s council liaison Maddy Madrazo wrote the following email response to the NENA Board’s announcement of their meeting on the same day at the same time:
“The developer and representatives from the Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Department will host a community meeting to discuss the proposed Cypress Creek at Forest Lane project meeting on Saturday, March 18 at 10:30 a.m. in Classrooms 1 and 2 at the Forest Green Branch Library. We hope your team and any/all other neighbors and stakeholders can participate.”
The NENA email is time-stamped March 6 at 8:30 a.m. Madrazo’s response, which appears to be a “reply all” message to the NENA announcement, went out March 6 at 12:45 p.m.
Cypress Creek at Forest Lane
The Cypress Creek project has been under fire since it was first proposed in 2021. The Dallas Public Facility Corp. considered the project on Feb. 28, and a vote was postponed to the next PFC board meeting, set for noon on March 28.
Residents of Forest Point, Northwood Estates, Northwood Heights, Royal Lane Village, and Urban Reserve opposed the project when it was first brought up in early 2021.
McGough called the project “shady and surreptitious” in a memo issued last month ahead of the PFC board meeting.
“From the very beginning of this project, it has been handled outside the course of normal procedure and without needed community engagement,” McGough wrote. “I am disappointed and disturbed to learn of the steps our city manager has taken to direct staff to move a project forward without including the council representative or the community. The community has been excluded and disrespected from the beginning. That is why there was vast opposition to this project two years ago.”
The project was approved in 2021 despite opposition from McGough, surrounding neighborhoods, and then-State Rep. John Turner. Development was delayed, however, when it was discovered that deed restrictions prohibit housing construction on the site.
A way around that, however, is to sell the land to the city, lease it back tax-free from the Dallas PFC, and go forth with developing and managing the project. Developers said last month there’s an urgency attached to the project because tax credits will expire next year.
William Roth, who owns an office building adjacent to the property, spoke against the project during last month’s PFC meeting, specifically referencing poor public policy in disregarding property rights that have been in place since the 1970s.
The project is supported by at least one PFC board member, Alan Tallis, who noted in a guest column for daltxrealestate.com that the vacant Cypress Creek parcel is currently assessed on the tax rolls at around $2.5 million, thus paying property taxes of around $45,000 annually.
“The development fee on that project alone is $1.1 million; then add in the other fees and lease payments,” Tallis wrote. “Certainly, basic mathematics suggests that is a win for the city in an area that could well benefit from a Class A apartment community.”
