After hearing from a coalition of business and property owners in the Lower Greenville area that represent 5,500 households, the city council voted moments ago to approve the Lower Greenville Planned Development District, which will place tighter constraints on bars and late-night businesses on the troubled strip. The PDD has overwhelming support in and around Lower Greenville and has long been the joint project of council member Angela Hunt and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano.
"I think this is a new day on Lower Greenville," Hunt said during today's council meeting. She asked property manager Mark Andres to come up to the public-comment podium to illustrate her point: He told the council that many, many business owners he's talked to about occupying some of his spaces are "waiting in the wings," anxious for the PDD to be approved so they can move in.
"Torchy's Tacos, other businesses you can find on South Congress and Guadalupe [in Austin] have looked to Greenville Avenue," Andres said, "but [they] weren't planning on doing anything until this has passed."
Torchy's and the gang can get on it now, as long as they're willing to
get a specific use permit in order to keep doors open past past
midnight.
Dallas Police Department Deputy Chief Mike Genovesi and
DPD Assistant Chief Vince Golbeck also spoke in front of the council
when asked by Pauline Medrano to address the uptick in late-night
violent crime in the area, which the PDD hopes to combat. Problem hours
are 11 p.m. to about 3 a.m. Said Goldbeck: "We can statistically show
that there is no violent crime, really, other than those hours on Lowest
Greenville."
Residents in the area spoke in hopes that the PDD will
make those few hours safer again.
