Irving Mayor Al Zapanta was elected earlier this year with over 67% of the vote.
He succeeds Rick Stopfer, who left the mayorship after completing the three terms individuals are limited to under city law.
Zapanta, a former city council member, is 85 years old. Throughout his career, he's held a variety of roles in the military and in both the public and private sectors.
KERA's Andy Lusk sat down with Zapanta earlier this month to hear more about his experiences, his goals as mayor and what he sees as Irving's place in the growing Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Andy Lusk: I want to hear a little bit about the three-year plan that you're coming into the mayorship with. What's your approach from day one till the end of that term?
Al Zapanta: What I'm going through right now is setting that in motion. I will tell you my three primary objectives that'll evolve into other areas of focus during my three years.
I see year one, right now, of setting down what I call my 'planning building blocks.'
The primary one is to focus on the former Dallas Cowboys stadium site. It's 80 acres that the City of Irving owns and it's been a dead asset for over 14 years. We have not been able to do anything other than keep it up maintenance-wise, but no inflows of any activity, tax, etc. So, my focus is, how do we then invite in interested parties?
This mayor, Irving is open for business on that site. So, now you know what I've already committed to as my number one objective.
The second one is how we maintain a presence in Austin and Washington. Once you understand how government affairs work in the political arena, if you're not there early on and trying to help shape whatever legislation, or at least have a counterargument, you don't wait until the day of the hearing because then it's already been cooked and baked and you're too late. So, that's my second role, to engage early on with our elected leadership at both the state and the federal level.
And then the third is to really spend time working with my other colleagues that have all been elected. I feel very, very fortunate that I received over 67% of the vote across the board. So, that said, I have a mandate to do things for, across and with my other eight members of the city council.
Lusk: As we all know, the Metroplex is growing and changing, and there's a whole lot of new stuff popping up all across the cities. What do you feel Irving's role is going to be as the Metroplex develops?
Zapanta: It looks like we're going to be finalizing our letter of agreement where we were able to change up, jointly, with the other 13 cities that are part of DART, the governance [model] — because Dallas and the Dallas City Council basically had the majority of the vote.
Now it's been shaped to where a decision was made and agreed to where 45% of that vote will be Dallas, and the other 55 will be split between, I think it's now down to 11 of our 13 cities, where now Irving will have two appointments.
So, we still have our former mayor, who I've elected to ask him to stay on.
Lusk: That's Rick Stopfer, correct?
Zapanta: Yes, Rick Stopfer, a dear friend and [I have] a lot of respect for what he did as mayor for nine years.
So, there'll be a time where I'll have the ability — once the [interlocal agreement (ILA)] is finally blessed by the state — and then I'll make that appointment. I'm still considering who that will be when the time comes.
Lusk: When are you expecting the ILA to go through?
Zapanta: Hopefully sometime before the end of the year, probably between now and October.
So, we want to be part of that and one of my focuses is to look at more of the regional aspects as to how we play, because we're right in the middle.
The beauty of Irving is that we sit right between Dallas and Fort Worth. A lot of history has not been very positive because we've been squeezed between the two giants here in the Metroplex. I don't mind telling you that I felt, with my history with the Department of Transportation, that DFW should have been called DIFW: Dallas-Irving-Fort Worth.
Lusk: Are there a lot of plans to bring in new data centers or to court that type of business?
Zapanta: Let me be blunt: right now, and the governor has moved on it, the backlog for data centers in Texas is at a standstill because of the backlog in getting Oncor and the utilities, the power providers, to be able to then do the kind of engineering studies they need, if they need to put a new station somewhere, amplify or do more to an existing one. There is now a real stoppage until things get ironed out.
Now, we have five data centers here in Irving. We made a decision to actually allocate where they could do it — not in our residential areas, okay? So, we're focused on that and we're okay with data centers, but we also have to be prepared.
These data centers, they've been around for 15, 20 years. They may have been smaller, but now they're getting to be a million square feet of space. So, that means that's an impact on water, power, the environment, traffic. So, we're very familiar with that because we've taken the time to try to put the right kind of ordinances in place to then try to manage the growth, because there will be growth.
Lusk: As this region blossoms and as Irving is finding its role in the Metroplex of the late 21st century, what do you see it taking on?
Zapanta: During my 85 years of life, I will tell you, there's been a lot of change. And it's continuing to change, especially when you look at what's impacting us with data centers and AI. There's a lot more that's going to happen to us in the future.
At this point, I'm not thinking beyond 10 years, to be honest with you, because I may not be around beyond 10 years, or more.
But that's what's beautiful about our country. We have our ups and downs, but we always seem to get together and come out of it together. And because now, we're focused on manufacturing and bringing it back on shore — which I'm a big proponent of — as well as a lot of the other light industrial, whether it's chip making, etc., that's coming back here, that's gonna be the future for us. Our country is resilient. We're innovators. And we'll continue to do that.
I don't know what that's gonna look like, but whatever I do as a mayor for these three years and beyond is, I've gotta be in a position to try to help.
Got a tip? Email Andy Lusk at alusk@kera.org.
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