Darryl Baker

Sadly, Tom Leppert's strong point is that he is NOT Ed Oakley. Ed has been such a disappointment, and I fear that he will continue to be. I'm still on the fence for my mayoral vote.

I have heard it may be developers because he has bought up (either alone or with others) key parcels of real estate directly in the path of the proposed tollway and other Trinity River developments. Doesn't this just stink of Bobby Folsom and the North Dallas Tollway extension and Far North Dallas annexation that forced the City to buy millions of dollars of land owned by Folsom and Jack Evans?

"Old Heads" like us, Cay Kolb and others who still REMEMBER stuff like this are ignored or dismissed by decision makers who think they know better that us. They wreak havoc, collect their fees and move on. Remember City Manager Chuck Anderson and his ilk? He went on to ruin DART like he did City Hall.

By the way, are you keeping up with what the City (Dev. Sers.) is trying to palm off on us in the way of "Form Based Codes (Zoning)"? Despite the moderate successes of the Oak Lawn PD, 51-A has worked out pretty well. The Oak Lawn PD 183 should have transitioned to 51-A, but I fully understand the distrust of the City that made the Oak Lawn Committee and others not want to take the risk. This new "trend of the moment" that FBC's proposes is ill-conceived for Dallas. I think a group of consultants (who stand to make the MOST money ever made by strapping City Hall with a code that will NOT work) has sold the Manager and Council a bill of goods.

Just look for a public meeting near you. They are proposing this as a way of developing the Trinity River Corridor with mixed uses and urban forms THEY think "look cool". However, every time you ask the staff a question about how this really works or will work for Dallas, they answer by saying, "It's too early to say" or "we don't really know yet". Although I had already researched the issue on the internet and with a zoning consultant, I asked the lead planner on this what the track record was for FBC's and he had to admit that it has never been proposed on the scale that Dallas is looking at.

Based on what we were able to find out, in Dallas, they are recommending a minimum of 40 acres (this comes from the consultant side). The cost to develop concept designs and a draft document is between $120K and $300K.