The city’s Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee has postponed a vote that would essentially take away a resident's right to file what's known as a scheduled closure — a tactic West Dallas residents want to use to close an 80-year-old shingle factory they say is polluting their air.
For two years, Singleton United/Unidos Director Janie Cisneros and other West Dallas residents have been organizing around the shutdown of an 80-year-old shingle factory.
And the community says the closure process — also known as amortization — is one of their last efforts to urge the city to prioritize the health of their community.
That committee's decision comes after numerous community members and environmental activists showed up at City Hall on Tuesday to oppose the drafted ordinance.
Cisneros says as it stands now, the proposed ordinance will not help her West Dallas community, only hinder it.
“What are we doing, Dallas?” Cisneros said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Why would you remove a powerful tool that residents can leverage to help our communities thrive…to protect our families from harm.”
The City Attorney’s Office drafted the ordinance to comply with new state legislation. But the residents who showed up say the proposed code change goes above and beyond new state laws. And committee members say the residents who showed up to speak out against the plan raised valid questions that had not been answered previously.
"I hope the city attorney's office took copious notes," committee member Enrique MacGregor said. "Because there were plenty of questions raised by the public that really deserve an immediate answer."
City executives say after Senate Bill 929 was signed into law in early May, the whole amortization process — used by the city for decades — has changed.
“Under the new system it’s really treated as eminent domain, not amortization,” Executive Assistant City Attorney Casey Burgess said. “Really only city council can authorize eminent domain.”
Eminent domain is a tool that governments use to essentially take private property and convert it into public use. But community organizers say new state laws have nothing to do with eminent domain — and they say that language never shows up in the legislation.
“There's no language for eminent domain in the state law,” Downwinders at Risk Director Jim Schermbeck said. “That is a red herring that’s thrown in now to justify the exorcism of this basic right that is enjoyed right now.”
Burgess admitted that SB 929 doesn’t actually contained language that could remove a residents right to file for amortization on their own. He says the City Attorney's Office rational for the proposed ordinance has to do with putting taxpayer money "at risk."
“If someone brings a successful case on this, the city could be having to write a check for millions on dollars,” Burgess said. “The thought is it should be the City Council making that application, making that decision.”
Cisneros’ has been organizing her West Dallas community for years. They say the GAF Manufacturing facility — which churns out shingles and other roofing materials — is polluting their air. Along with shingle production, the plant pumps out high levels of severely damaging pollutants.
Researchers and medical experts say there are no safe levels of what comes out of the GAF factory — or particulate matter pollution. Cisneros had hoped her application to bring a shutdown date for the facility, would be accepted by the city.
And according to Cisneros and other advocates, the city has not hired a consultant to actually calculate how much money they would owe GAF executives.
“Don’t get it twisted. Residents living next to harmful non-conforming uses know about costs,” Cisneros said. “People in West Dallas have paid a hefty price…We’ve paid with deteriorating health, medical bills…shorter lives.”
Cisneros' group did hire a consultant that calculated the costs. The result? In between $36 million and $45 million with an exit timeline of two to three and a half years.
That's nearly half the time originally quoted to West Dallas residents nearly two years ago.
After the meeting, Cisneros tried to file her application for amortization of the GAF facility, directly to Burgess.
“These need to be submitted to Development Services, they wouldn’t go to us,” Burgess said after the meeting had ended.
When Cisneros’ asked if Burgess was going to accept her application — his reply was a hard and fast no. The only reason Burgess gave was that the application is not submitted with the city attorney’s office – and that SB 929 had preempted the city’s current code.
For the second time in the span of six days — Cisneros was referred back to the Oak Cliff Municipal Center to try and drop off her application with the Dallas Board of Adjustment.
The answer was the same: no deal.
Board of Adjustment staffers told Cisneros and other community organizers that had driven from City Hall to the municipal center that they had been instructed by the city attorney’s office not to accept amortization applications.
The city’s ordinance has not been passed. Zoning commissioners postponed the adoption of the ordinance until Nov. 14.
When asked if there is anything West Dallas resident could do about the situation, Burgess had no more than this to say:
“Not for right now,” he said.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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