Fate Of Dallas Warehouse Project In Judge's Hands Amid Claims Of Environmental Racism

Stonelake Capital Partners' plans for a 200K SF warehouse in Oak Cliff will go under the microscope this week, with a judge set to hear allegations from an adjacent church that the development would perpetuate a trend of environmental racism.

Friendship-West Baptist Church on Wheatland Road filed a December injunction request in civil district court aimed at stopping the project. The request, set for a hearing Monday, claims that the industrial development would pose health and safety risks and exacerbate noise in the area while furthering “historical hardship and developmental discrimination in the community.”

A lawyer for the Black megachurch called approval of Stonelake's plans yet another example of the disproportionate impact the city’s antiquated zoning laws have on communities of color.

“Consistent with a pattern of developmental and environmental discrimination in this city and in countless others across this nation, defendants are attempting to build a warehouse project contrary to the wishes of the community and contrary to the best use of the property,” attorney Paul Stafford said in an email to Bisnow.

Despite the property’s industrial zoning, Stonelake’s business permit was initially denied by the city based on insufficient ingress and egress from an Interstate 20 access road. The city noted the company had also failed to secure access rights from the Texas Department of Transportation, according to court documents.

That permit denial alleviated concerns around truck traffic on Wheatland Road and was a temporary win for the church. But soon after, Stonelake filed an appeal and the decision was reversed. 

The reversal was the impetus for Friendship-West’s injunction request, The Dallas Morning News reported. But it also spurred Stonelake to sue the city of Dallas on the grounds that it initially denied its permit for political reasons. The firm also accused the city of trying to thwart its project by rezoning the property.

“Politics does not trump legal rights,” lawyers for Stonelake wrote. “The City and the Building Official cannot use a simple building permit process as a backdoor way to rezone property and prevent development.”

Neither the city nor Stonelake responded to Bisnow’s requests for comment.

The city of Dallas is no stranger to accusations of environmental racism. Residents of Joppa and West Dallas have waged similar battles against the city, resulting in several lawsuits in the same vein. Friendship-West itself has a history of environmental activism, helping in 2020 to dismantle Shingle Mountain, a dumping ground in southeastern Dallas surrounding the home of a longtime parishioner.

Janie Cisneros, leader of West Dallas advocacy group Singleton United/Unidos, said the situation in Oak Cliff feels eerily similar to her community's fight to remove the GAF shingle plant from Singleton Boulevard. Similar pushbacks should be expected until the city rewrites its “racist zoning practices,” Cisneros said in an email.

“This gross negligence is making residential rights clash with property rights,” Cisneros wrote. “This will not stop until the city of Dallas implements equitable zoning. Until then, companies will continue to take advantage and benefit from historic environmental racism in BIPOC communities, and residents will continue to fight to protect their health and their families.”

The city’s Racial Equity Plan, passed in 2022, outlines methods to tackle the disproportionate impact pollution and climate issues have had on historically disadvantaged communities. A comprehensive land use overhaul that aims to address some of these same inequities is underway. 

But those intentions are thus far incongruous with the city's actions, environmental justice advocates say.

“Forward Dallas is still in progress, but there are also authorized hearings that are not moving forward as aggressively as they should,” Cisneros said. “Our Black and Brown communities deserve relief and respect. No one signs up to live in fear of industrial encroachment.”