The Dallas City Council has removed a legal tool that residents could use to fight polluting industries. Wednesday’s vote comes after some West Dallas residents and activists tried to use the process to shut down an 80-year-old shingle plant along Singleton Boulevard.
They say the plant’s emissions are harming their health.
The development code change removes a residents’ ability to start the scheduled closure process of nonconforming land uses — or amortization. City officials have said the main reason for the change is to bring the city into compliance with Senate Bill 929, which was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2023.
The bill essentially changed how cities pay for amortization costs. But it is silent on who can start the process. It was the city of Dallas’ decision to remove it.
The ultimate reason?
The city could be on the hook for millions if an amortization case goes through — and the owner chooses a direct payment operation to shut their business down.
Caleb Roberts is the executive director of Downwinders at Risk — a 30-year-old environmental activism group focused on clean air in the Dallas Fort-Worth area. Roberts told the council there needed to be community input — before the financial analysis.
“The key thing is, allow adverse impact to be discussed and then financial conversations to happen after that,” Roberts told the council.
Some residents and activists who showed up to council chambers Wednesday to speak say the agenda item felt rushed.
The item was placed at the very end of the council’s agenda. But when the body came back from its break, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson told the crowd that the hearing would be taken out of order and moved up.
As a result, only one person who signed up to speak was able to.
“[I’m] pretty pissed they moved it first and all of the speakers couldn’t talk,” Roberts told KERA in a text after the hearing.
“People were here and just coming back from break,” Roberts said and added the ordinance is “a major deal that is more than just compliance and [the city council] just shorted the public’s ability to speak on it.”
Janie Cisneros is the leader of Singleton United/Unidos, a West Dallas community group focused on closing down the GAF shingle factory a stone's throw from her home.
Cisneros told KERA in a text that she had stepped out of chambers for a minute, and when she returned the amendment had been passed.
In 2023, Cisneros tried twice to file for what’s known as a scheduled closure — or amortization — of the plant. Those attempts failed and she ultimately filing a lawsuit against the city of Dallas for blocking her applications.
There was little discussion about the council’s vote — other than to make sure the resolution made the new rule retroactive to February 2023. That means Cisneros’ lawsuit — which was filed in early 2024 — could be null and void.
Two council members told KERA after the hearing that the city attorney’s office had advised the item needed to be passed before the council took up the Floral Farms — the former site of Shingle Mountain — zoning case. That case also involves nonconforming land uses.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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