After multiple delays, the Dallas City Council is again scheduled to consider rezoning the former “Shingle Mountain” site. Residents in the southeast area of Dallas were subjected to the 70,000 ton mound of toxic roofing and other construction material being dumped in their backyard.
The rezone has been six years in the making. The council decided to punt on the issue at the end of last year.
That came after lengthy public comment and debate from elected officials. Floral Farms residents told the council that the zoning change from industrial uses to agriculture would significantly limit the possibility of future industrial polluters.
“Floral Farms is made up of homes, open spaces, agricultural uses like green houses and keeping horses,” Marsha Jackson, a Floral Farms resident and community leader, said in a Monday press release.
“We are a diverse community of business owners, immigrants, and families that have lived here for generations,” Jackson continued and added that the community is “no place for harmful industrial polluters.”
Business owners in the area voiced concerns over what would happen to their operation if the entire area was rezoned to a different land use.
“I’m a 29y-ear-old man, I own this property with my brother, this is a very, very large investment for us,” Eli Amzallag, a business owner in the area, said during a hearing last year. “You guys are trying to demonize who we are…you’re really going to destroy everything I worked so hard for, and I’m a young man.”
To make the decision more complicated, the zoning change vote required a supermajority vote. That means 12 council members needed to vote in favor.
“Shingle Mountain” stands as one of Dallas’ most significant environmental issues in recent history. The inaction by city officials at the time sparked local, regional and national discussion over how industrial polluters end up in traditionally underserved communities.
The mound was the byproduct of the Blue Star Recycling Company that started operation in 2018. The mound towered over the resident of Floral Farms.
“It was pretty monstrous,” District 9 Council Member Paula Blackmon said during a council meeting last year.
Robert Wilonsky, the former city columnist for The Dallas Morning News, wrote often about the community subjected to live around the toxic mountain.
Wilonsky said city staffers — sent to the area to investigate — “looked like ants compared to the towering mound,” in a 2019 column published in The News.
“Almost six years to the day since I wrote my first column…about the place that came to be known as Shingle Mountain, Dallas continues to betray Marsha Jackson and the residents of Floral Farms,” Wilonsky wrote on social media after the council delayed their decision last year.
The delays stem from city staffers concerns over SB929, signed into law last year. That law changed the city’s process for dealing with scheduled closures of nonconforming uses — or amortization.
While the council voted for more time to consider the implications of rezoning the area — and possibly disrupting some of the business operating in the area — other elected officials asked residents to temper their expectations.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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