City Council Angers Residents Over Pepper Square Dallas Vote

Concluding what several Dallas City Council members referred to as “the most difficult” zoning case to come across the horseshoe in years, the council on Wednesday approved a mixed-use development planned for North Dallas’ Pepper Square shopping center, much to the ire of dozens of neighborhood residents and leaders who sat in the council chamber hoping for a different outcome.

Around 870 housing units and revamped retail spaces will be built on the nearly 16-acre site; approximately 150 of those housing units will be earmarked for retiree housing. When the development was first proposed almost three years ago, more than 2,000 units were planned. The council voted 10-4 in favor of the project, with Council members Jesse Moreno, Carolyn King Arnold, Cara Mendelsohn and Paul Ridley voting in opposition. Mayor Eric Johnson was not in attendance.

In the years since the Pepper Square redevelopment was proposed, the conversation has been defined by combative community meetings and a failed attempt to oust the district’s representative, Jaynie Schultz. Those opposed to the Pepper Square development accuse Schultz of being on the side of Developer Henry S. Miller instead of the district’s constituents.

Despite being eligible to serve two more terms on the council, Schultz is not running for reelection in May. Earlier this year, she told the Observer that the Pepper Square drama has left her “disillusioned” with Dallas and that she is ready to move on. On Wednesday, Schultz addressed the council chamber stuffed with residents wearing yellow “NO Pepper Square” shirts and warned that the seemingly straightforward rezoning case has burgeoned into a “political scapegoat” over the years of debate.

“Our community has become divided. North Dallas has become a test market for media campaigns,” Schultz said. “We are in this together … I hope our community can return to the warm, friendly place it was when we all chose to move there.”

Mendelsohn attempted to defer the rezoning vote until after the May elections, stating that because Schultz is not seeking reelection, the district’s new representative should be charged with determining Pepper Square’s future. Several leaders of neighborhoods near Pepper Square told the Observer last month that they were advocating for a vote delay as a final push to thwart the development.

Miller, the project’s developer, said that if a vote on the project was further delayed, he “might just drop it” altogether. The statement received raucous applause from the chamber, but Mendelsohn’s proposal failed around the horseshoe.

Still, several outspoken council members were clear about their positioning alongside the dozens of homeowners who showed up at City Hall on Wednesday. Mendelsohn and Arnold wore yellow, the color of the development’s opposition.

Around 50 residents who live in the shopping center’s vicinity spoke to the council about their fears that the development will burden the community with traffic and encroach on the privacy of nearby neighborhoods. Before voting against Pepper Square, Arnold said she had visited the area last fall and was “shocked” by the traffic that already strains the area.

“If I lived in this neighborhood, I’d probably be down here today,” Arnold said before voting against the rezoning request. “I know we hear about all that ‘Not In My Backyard,’ I get it, but there is an attack on single-family neighborhoods.”

However, developers say that several traffic studies show the development could help alleviate the area’s congestion by offering a “live-work-play” style community where residents don’t have to get in their car to visit a park, restaurant or workspace.

Not all who addressed the council opposed the development, but for each supporter of the project, around five speakers were against it. Adam Lamont, a North Dallas resident and educator, told the council that the Pepper Square development plan had been a “very long process” but ultimately resulted in a project that aligns with Dallas’ housing needs as the region's population grows.

“Pepper Square is an almost perfect place for us to have new housing,” Lamont said. “My request is that we do go big, that we get as many places for people to live here as possible.”

A number of those opposed to the development urged council members to consider the impact a vote of approval could have on their upcoming district races in the May election. Several speakers threatened to fund and offer social media and grassroots support for challengers against those representatives who voted for the Pepper Square development.

“You are either with the people or with the greedy developers,” said Damien LeVeck, who lives near Pepper Square. “Your political careers will be defined by how you vote today, and your political futures depend on it.”

LeVeck, who also serves as the executive director of the politically influential Dallas HERO organization, wasn’t making empty threats, either. Within minutes of the council voting to approve Pepper Square’s rezoning, LeVeck took to X to post a video disparaging Council member Chad West, who voted in favor of the development, for being pro-developer and voting in favor of Pepper Square.