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The Dallas Dirt podcast with Candy Evans takes you inside the real estate news stories you’ll find daily on CandysDirt.com and beyond, giving you more insight, juicier details, and the inside scoop from one of Dallas’ most well-connected real estate personalities.
Speaker: Welcome to Dallas Dirt.
I'm April Towery.
your host today.
I am the city hall
reporter for candystart.
com and our guest today is John Bonifer.
Welcome.
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker: tell us about yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm a chiropractor,
most days of the week, but, kind
of been involved with city stuff.
started out as friends of Santa Fe Trail
is just being on that board and then
eventually being president and That blew
up into changing a whole intersection
which got me more involved with just
how the city works and doesn't work.
Speaker: So you, have gotten
really involved with this Forward
Dallas Comprehensive Land Use Plan.
Or have you always been this involved?
Speaker 2: not probably since
about 2014 when I started.
trying to get Garland Gaston Grand changed
and, Just paying attention to my city.
I love my city.
I was born and raised here.
My family has been here
for about 150 years.
I grew up in the back of the car with
my mom telling stories about history.
it comes from my heart of loving my city.
when Ford Dallas came along, I was
invited to go to a neighborhood
meeting at white rock Hills.
And listened to what they were planning
I'd previously been on Garland road
vision, the head of Garland road vision.
So I saw a lot of what forward Dallas
was trying to do at that point.
Garland road vision was a plan passed
in 2011 by the city, which took that
whole corridor from Garland gas and
grant out to Northwest highway and
envisioned kind of An impressionist
painting vision of what we wanted
that to look like along Garland road.
So some of the storage units
turned into apartments, some of
the commercial areas turned into
residences, parks, things like that.
It was just a broad vision and
it wasn't a zoning document.
So I knew what Dallas was trying to do.
And then I went to that White Rock Hills
meeting and met with Patrick Blades,
who kind of lives in my area, knew him
from previous run ins with City Stuff.
And I was just quiet, but apparently
there was a project on Ferguson Road
at the time, down the street, that
a lot of that area was upset about.
And some of these issues that
we've kind of heard through Forward
Dallas started to bubble up then.
The people speaking, they weren't
like me, very diverse crowd that were
upset about some of these similar
issues with what's going on their
neighborhood height, the things next
to their backyards, things like that.
And I just kind of figured at
that point, that first meeting.
That the city, it was just staff would
absorb that into what they were planning,
because we were just drawing with markers
on maps and, saying, oh, wouldn't this
be beautiful here and drawing ducks
and bicycles and houses and stuff.
And it was just kind of fun little
meeting, and I thought they would absorb
That into what was coming up long story
short prior to when it went to city plan
commission there was nothing really in
there for the single family neighborhoods
I thought I was like, This isn't
what Garland Road Vision did.
why are you doing this
to the neighborhoods?
And other people around East Dallas
had started to see that it felt like
an attack on their neighborhoods.
To CPC and then through those
meetings I feel like that process just
created turmoil Unnecessarily through
neighborhoods I live in a little
neighborhood of Cassie view Haven the
post world war two neighborhood , but
started reading some of them, the matrix
and the, and some of the planning, it
really did say that if my neighbor sold
her house and someone wanted to come
along and build a duplex, eight plex, nine
plex, there was nothing stopping that.
Speaker: Did you really ever believe
that if forward Dallas were to go forward
in that iteration at that time, we're
talking, you know, this was months ago.
That a developer was going to be able
to come, that this was a setup for a
developer to come in, knock down the
home next to yours and put in a 9 Plex.
Speaker 2: ultimately, yes, because I
think we have an economy here in Dallas
where we have developers from all over the
country coming in and investing who don't
have the sensitivity to our neighborhoods.
And all that would take would be to take
that document when their proposal came
up to CPC and wave it around and go,
look, your document says you can do this.
You need to let me do it.
And CPC would be obliged.
To go through with that, just
like Garland road vision.
we had a controversial development there
with the shoreline project and Garland
road vision was brought into that,
and the developer used it correctly.
Incorrectly.
That's still sort of an argument
amongst people, but, to allow that
project to be built along Garland road.
And if it came down to a neighborhood
or a house and someone did that, you
would probably, yeah, ultimately, yes,
because CPC, it wouldn't just be a wave
of a magic wand and it pop up, it would
have to go through the CPC process.
But I think what we saw through CPC
is that you have a very favorable.
Voting for a project like that.
ultimately, yes, I don't think it had
enough stops to say, wait, hold on.
Let's listen to what the
neighbors feel about it.
Speaker: and you live in district
nine, which I got redistricted
Speaker 2: I'm about 500, 600
feet away from district nine.
Speaker: Well, I was going to say district
nine has a reputation of, of being,
passionate, is that the right word?
Um, really involved and, they
had some wild Neighborhood
meetings, but I don't know.
if that goes across the
board to district two
Speaker 2: I think that's
all of east dallas.
Speaker: Okay,
Speaker 2: I think east dallas probably
has a little chip on its shoulder because
The saying is the north has all the money
the south wants all the money And here
we are over in east dallas kind of with
our hat in our hand So you get a lot
of passionate people in 14 and 9 and 2
now And seven that really pay attention
to some of these things that probably
aren't on the national radar of news.
some of these nuances that are
municipal, which crazy people
like me can find passion in.
Speaker: so do your neighbors
sort of look to you for guidance
on, why does this matter?
It's a land use plan.
Speaker 2: People want to
understand what a land use plan is.
I think a lot of your average people
in Dallas got educated on some nuanced
things that happened at city hall
that normally don't make the news.
Speaker: well, you've been a good
go to person for me as a reporter.
Like what's, the pulse of the
community and what our residents,
actually concerned about.
We get such a snapshot by watching
those council meetings and
you're a council meeting watcher.
I think you're a CPC watcher as well.
Speaker 2: I wasn't till this process.
But yeah, I'll kind of
listen to what's going on.
Speaker: Do you think that there were
people with, agendas from the get go of
like, we've got to find a way to tailor
this plan to allow for more density?
Speaker 2: I think yes, There is a push
for more housing now, whatever that means.
And that doesn't mean more
housing is a bad thing.
it's how the city is supposed to do it.
it just seems very
rushed and not methodic.
there is an agenda.
to push that housing narrative as a
solve for everything, whether it be
homelessness, economics or tax base,
I don't think people have the patience
for the process to be sensitive to the
people who live here, who have lived
here, who have kids in school, who
invested into their property already
as they thought it was going to be.
People bought houses planning
to live for 10, 15, 20 years.
and then to come in and just change
that out from underneath them,
doesn't seem like the city should be
protecting that, not disturbing that.
Speaker: What is the housing
mix like in your area?
Are there a lot of apartments?
Speaker 2: There's about half a mile, on
Garland Road, And then near Oates, there's
some smaller apartments, kind of near
the Bishop Lynch and Brian Adams area.
Speaker: now is the sentiment that
people don't want apartments near
their homes because It's incompatible.
Are they concerned about crime?
Are they concerned about traffic?
Like what's the real underlying?
Speaker 2: people just don't like change.
And I understand that having gone through
the Gaston Garland, process, I thought
we were changing something for good.
Having an apartment near where you
live, the reality is, a new apartment
probably, we probably wouldn't have
to worry about as much crime in a
new apartment cause it'd be lighted
and, probably more expensive.
But a lot of it is just height.
I think that comes up as the biggest,
barrier to having something built near
you is the height you have a yard.
I have a one story house.
I have a friend over in Little Forest
Hills who built a pool in his and,
brought my stepdaughter over there
and kids and we went swimming one
day I walked in his backyard and
there's a brand new two story pool.
shoe box house that's being
built overlooking into his
yard that wasn't there before.
And he's like, we don't
know where it came from.
It just popped up.
And I think that's where a lot of people
that triggers a lot of people I can
see why it makes a lot of people upset.
April Towery: So we saw a lot of
people mobilize and get interested
in this and get educated and
bring different viewpoints.
people were sending me, studies
and research and, white papers and,
things that other cities are doing.
And what, what, what do we
have to gain from all that,
research and citizen involvement?
Speaker 4: I think it tells me I think
a process like this, although I don't
like it all, drew all those people doing
their crazy internet research, they
somehow kind of become of a fan of this
typically boring municipal government.
Like it makes it a little exciting
and I, like that because it means
people care about this city more.
They need to be listened to and there are
crazy people and there are sane people.
There are people who don't have the time.
There are people who don't care,
but our city government needs
to listen to the people who are
paying attention because they know,
April Towery: do you think
ultimately the people felt heard?
I know they did not at one point,
but when the plan was adopted, the
final round of amendments were made.
was there enough public
input incorporated?
Speaker 4: I think they do feel heard.
there are some people that stood up.
I think Melanie van Landingham, and I
were at odds on this Garland Gaston thing.
Now I'm a big fan of hers, the way
she's kind of stood up and CPC grilled
her like just a citizen for no reason.
like she was at a.
Congressional trial.
she held her own.
I became a big fan of her.
So you have people like that
stand up that knowledgeable.
I think, you know, we need more of that.
We need more people involved
that have the time that can.
understand some of these
little nuanced issues.
And I think a lot of people, even if
you're appointed or elected, kind of think
people aren't really paying attention
or don't understand the real issue here.
And I don't think that's true.
I can find everything about this
issue on my phone right now.
they need to start taking, quit
taking the neighborhoods for granted.
Speaker: Well, Johnny Botts,
John Botterford, thank you
so much for being here today.
that is all we've got.
stay tuned for our next
episode of Dallaster.