Two Sundays ago, my sons and I took a stroll around the lake in Kidd Springs Park, and I marveled at its beauty. So this item on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting of the Park and Recreation Board caught my eye:

Authorize a professional services contract with Linda Tycher & Associates, Inc. for a landscape master plan/design development to include a schematic design and topographic survey, tree survey, erosion control study for the lake edge, and schematic design of an updated trail around the lake and updated tree garden landscaping to a more water wise design at Kidd Springs Park located at 700 West Canty Street - Not to exceed $41,47

I would provide you a link to Tycher’s website, but it seems to be down as I’m typing this. Check lindatycherdesign.com at your leisure.

The city’s Landmark Commission will conduct a series of public hearings this afternoon, and one of them concerns Lynda Dyer’s house in the 100 block of North Willomet Avenue. Dyer wants to replace three windows on the front of her house, but because the house is in the Winnetka Heights Historic District, she needs the Landmark Commission’s approval. The city’s historic preservation planners want her request denied, but the commission’s Winnetka Heights/Lake Cliff Task Force said Dyer should be able to do what she wants.

The post starts out somewhat provocatively:

Are you paying attention, Dallas City Halll? Ft. Worth is kicking our $%@#%%’s in bicycle infrastructure!

But much of the blog entry quotes a post from FortWorthology, which quotes DFW.com writer Eric Griffey.

How is Fort Worth becoming bike friendly faster than Dallas? From Griffey:

Part of my trepidation about the ride stemmed from my ignorance about the civic efforts that have been made on behalf of cyclists in recent years. The seeds of this bicycle renaissance were, in fact, first sown in 2006, when the Fort Worth City Council began discussing the creation of a progressive bike plan. The next year, Fort Worth South Inc., a nonprofit group created by the city to promote the Near Southside, worked with the city to develop a new zoning code for the area. This code gave the neighborhood an updated look, with widened sidewalks and new streetlights. It also added street markings called “sharrows” — denoting that bicyclists and cars share certain lanes of the road.

The city works with nonprofits to expedite projects. I wonder, though, where the money comes from for them, and how fast thoroughfare amendments can clear their council. That appears to be the problem in our fair burg.

The City Council is scheduled to consider $3.2 million in TIF funds for Sylvan Thirty this morning. (Skip to item 108 on the agenda.)

If you wanted to get a good look at where District 33 begins and ends right down to the block, Jason Roberts has done all of the hard work for you.

However, if you want to do this for other districts, or other geographic data altogether, he’s posted a helpful tutorial on his campaign website.

Implementing a development deal with Bishop Arts Village, which got $2 million from Dallas back in December 2010, is still part of the city’s plan for improving North Oak Cliff. So says the agenda for this afternoon’s meeting of the City Council’s Transportation and Environment Comittee. (You have skip to Page 108 of 109.)

Zac Lytle, the president of Bike Friendly Oak Cliff, is scheduled to brief the City Council’s Quality of Life Committee on Ciclovia de Dallas this morning. That’s a festival that will keep vehicular traffic off the Houston Street Viaduct all day on April 14.

Photo: Ten Bells Tavern

Bishop Arts District merchants are singing the praises of Councilwoman Delia Jasso, who they say scored them new street lights. The lamps, which have become something of a trademark for the district, now sit outside Indie Genius at Zang and Seventh and what will be Ten Bells Tavern at Madison and Seventh.

As The Canyon sits right now, it’s a pretty large proposed development, coming in at 186 acres. And now developers are hoping to make it even bigger.

At Thursday’s City Plan Commission meeting, Canyon reps will ask for a 9 acre expansion of the site’s planned development district. The expansion would come in the northeast corner of the site, at the intersection of Westmoreland Road and Remond Drive.

According to the fine folks at Google Maps, the site is currently home to a few radio towers and a garage, but is largely unimproved.

For the whole dog and pony show, check out the city planning documents. To expedite your reading, search “Canyon” on the page, and you’ll be brought right to the appropriate docs.

I had to you at “free wine,” right?

Tonight’s monthly meeting of the Winnetka Heights Neighborhood Association at Turner House will feature a wine tasting courtesy of Oak Cliff Beer and Wine. The tasting starts at 6:30, and the meeting will follow at 7 p.m.

District 1 Councilwoman Delia Jasso will be addressing the group this evening, as will the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League and the Turner House leadership. And there’ll be a presentation on navigating the historic district’s Certificate of Appropriateness process, too, according to the WHNA blog.