Amortization allows the city to force a formerly compliant business to close without compensating the owner if the city calculates that the owner has already earned back its investment in the property.
Now, Cisneros is suing the city to make it start the amortization process in an attempt to run GAF out of town. “We’re just looking for some justice,” said Cisneros, who is also the leader of the West Dallas neighborhood group Singleton United/Unidos.
GAF has a plan to leave West Dallas in 2029, but some residents, including Cisneros, want the factory gone sooner. The suit also names the Dallas Board of Adjustment, as well as Kameka Miller-Hoskins, interim chief planner and administrator for the board. When reached for a response, the city said it wouldn’t comment on the pending litigation.
The Dallas city code includes a subsection regarding eliminating nonconforming uses. A property is in nonconforming use when it isn’t compatible with current zoning. This subsection provides a process for the amortization of such properties. Through this process, a nonconforming use can be given a compliance date, which is a date the nonconforming use of the property in question must end.
The statute says that any person who resides or owns real property in the city may request that the Dallas Board of Adjustment consider establishing a compliance date for a nonconforming use. Upon receiving this request, the Board of Adjustment “shall hold a public hearing to determine whether continued operation of the nonconforming use will have an adverse effect on nearby properties.”“We’re just looking for some justice." – Janie Cisneros, Singleton United/Unidos
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Despite what the city code says, the city has announced on its website that it “is not accepting applications for the Board of Adjustment to establish a compliance date for a nonconforming use” due to “recent changes in state legislation.”
According to the lawsuit, the city is likely referring to Senate Bill 929, which requires municipalities to provide compensation to a property owner if the property owner’s nonconforming use is required to cease operation due to amortization. The city is working to amend its amortization process to be in line with SB 929. As part of the change, the city is trying to take away residents’ right to file for amortization.
However, the city code has not yet been changed, and SB 929 does not alter the Board of Adjustment’s obligation to hold a public hearing after a resident or landowner requests the consideration of a compliance date for a nonconforming use, the lawsuit says.
Cisneros tried twice to submit an application to the Board of Adjustment requesting that it consider establishing a compliance date for GAF’s nonconforming use at its shingle factory in West Dallas. But, on the advice of the city attorney’s office, the board refused to accept Cisneros’ application both times.
“We’re not allowed by our attorney, we’ve been told not to accept applications,” Cisneros was told by the board, according to the lawsuit. She was directed to the city attorney’s office, which refused to accept the application.
Cisneros claims in her lawsuit that the city has no right to refuse her application. Through the lawsuit, Cisneros is seeking a writ of mandamus and/or a declaratory judgment to make the city accept her application and hold a public hearing regarding the possible amortization of the West Dallas GAF shingle factory.
“It’s a service. It’s a right. It’s on the books,” Cisneros said of the amortization process. “How are you going to halt a process? That doesn’t make any sense. The only thing that makes it make sense is they’re halting this because they don’t want us to pursue amortizing GAF. There’s just a lot of injustice there.”
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