Neighbors Concerned About Proposed Development Inside Kings Highway Conservation District

The Xs represent garages. The circles represent trees. The big blank areas represent the sites of existing houses.

The potential for traffic jams and the creation of a homeowners association were the main concerns at a meeting last night regarding a new development near Twelve Hills Nature Center and the Rosemont schools.

Austin-based PSW Real Estate plans to build 32 single-family homes on land bounded by Kings Highway, Mary Cliff Road, Kyle Avenue, and Montclair Avenue. The firm wants to tweak the zoning of the Kings Highway Conservation District’s Sub-Area 6, but City Councilman Scott Griggs, who arranged Thursday’s meeting, called this “a great opportunity.”

The previous developer, Incap Fund, had planned to build about 60 townhomes on the same site. Usually, Griggs pointed out, developers want to change zoning so that the property gets more dense, not less. “This is a unique opportunity to do things the other way,” he told 40 or so neighbors who turned out to hear about the plans.

PSW plans to build a private drive that would run east from Mary Cliff. That would require the creation of a homeowners association, which was news to Jonathan Braddick, president of the conservation district. Some attendees were worried about being subject to the association’s bylaws, but Griggs said such rules would apply only to the homes PSW is building.

Timbergrove Circle resident Darla McCalib told PSW managing partner Ryan Diepenbrock that the aforementioned private drive is “going to create chaos.” PSW’s plans call for the private drive to be connected to no streets other than Mary Cliff. “You really need to think about a second exit because of the traffic you’re going to create,” she said.

We’ll have more details in the March 1 edition of Oak Cliff People.