City Investigates Controversial Members-Only Club In Oak Cliff

For a small monthly fee of around $250, you too can be a member of one of Dallas’ most controversial members-only clubs. Unlike an exclusive country club, this one doesn’t enforce a strict dress code, nor will you meet your next partner to hit the green with. In fact, trade the usual millionaires that frequent unmarked private social clubs and their glasses of top-shelf scotch for suburban moms with a dairy-free nut-milk latte. 

Getting into Le Sol House, the hospitality spot located in two unassuming houses on Canty Street in Oak Cliff, ain’t easy, and you’d better submit your application while it’s still there in its current capacity. After years of neighbor complaints, albeit mostly on social media, the city has launched an investigation into the club for code violations related to occupancy requirements for home-based businesses.

“Whether you like Le Sol or not, imagine if the house next door to you was bought to become an event venue,” Rob Shearer, a spokesperson for the Kidd Springs Neighborhood Association, wrote on Facebook in March. “Imagine weddings, concerts, pool parties with amplified music and open bars, weekend after weekend. The traffic. The noise. The sheer disruption to your life and your home.”

Le Sol House, owned by Taylor Madison, a local travel agency owner, has been embroiled in controversy for several years, primarily because it operates as a full-fledged business in a residential neighborhood.

In select circumstances, businesses can operate out of residential homes in Dallas, but there are many hoops to jump through, like square-footage use, maximum employee requirements and parking requirements.

Every day, a myriad of cars file into the public lot conveniently located across the street from the community swimming pool and check in to Le Sol House for yoga classes, sound baths, and other types of holistic wellness activities one might pay a pretty penny for. 

Not just anybody, though. Members must pass the application process, which requires a personal reference, a professional reference, a headshot and a link to all social media pages. Bonus points are awarded in your favor if you can get an existing member to refer you. 

Le Sol House falls under the umbrella of a fru-fru holistic wellness events space, slash yoga studio, slash co-working space, slash occasional coffee shop. Madison declined our request for an interview, but she did speak to D Magazine recently when the publication got a peek inside the club. They had good things to say about a tarot reading event. They even got Madison to sit for an interview, where the business owner confessed to having worked arduously through the zoning process to keep her business above board. 

“What I’ve learned is that zoning is a long and expensive process,” Madison said to D. “And it’s rooted in structures that weren’t designed with women-led or community-centered spaces in mind. We’re preparing for a [Special Use Permit] rather than a full zoning change, and my intention has always been to move through it in a way that protects the community we’ve built.” 

The Open Investigation

A spokesperson with knowledge of city operations told the Observer that the article from D prompted action from the city, sparking an inquiry into whether Le Sol House was fulfilling the occupancy requirements to operate a home-based business. By city code, a home-based business must be occupied within the principal dwelling or in an attached garage, and sometimes requires a certificate of occupancy (CO). 

“With regards to Le Sol, Code Compliance currently has open cases for two properties to address outstanding code issues and continues to provide my office and the concerned neighbor with regular updates,” Council member Chad West said in a statement provided to the Observer. “I will continue working closely with Code Compliance to ensure that these properties either come into compliance with the Home Occupation Ordinance or pursue the rezoning process, allowing neighbors the opportunity to provide input on whether this use should be permitted in Kidd Springs.”

According to D, an open records request turned up few results for noise and parking complaints filed with the city about the two properties. However, Le Sol House is certainly plagued with online controversy, and West himself has been caught in the crossfire. 

Shearer’s initial post, with almost 50 comments, was in response to a meet and greet with West scheduled at Le Sol House while he was campaigning for reelection. The event, following significant outrage, was eventually relocated to avoid a conflict of interest, with West highlighting that it was never intended to be a fundraising event and that his office hadn’t received any complaints about the properties since 2024. 

“That is a blatantly illegal land use, not even a molecule of ambiguity. Operating without a [CO] by the way,” one fairly upset Facebooker, Bruce Richardson, wrote on Shearer’s post. “… I have gone years trying to avoid confronting the obvious, but Chad [West] has heaped misery onto this entire City for the last several years, and I am DONE with it and DONE with him. How hypocritical can you be to create all this chaos in the name of housing, and then throw a fundraiser at an illegal business operating in HOUSES that should be occupied with RESIDENTS!!!!”

The neighborhood’s long battle with gentrification is far from over, and while prices rise on the South side, the North becomes increasingly protective. But West, a small business owner by day, says business should be welcome in his part of town so long as they comply with the city’s rules. 

“I was very fortunate to move into a neighborhood like Oak Cliff that supports entrepreneurship, and I continue to support small businesses and want them to be successful,” he said. 

West will continue to work with neighbors and Le Sol House until a solution is found. 

“If we don’t like the rules that are in the city code, we look at changing the city rules,” he said. “But everyone’s got to play by the same rules under city code.”