The cleanup job was finished two weeks ahead of schedule and included soil and fill removal and restoration of the site to its pre-industrial use condition. The mountain was there thanks to a company called Blue Star Recycling, which bought the land in January 2018 as a place to grind and pile discarded shingles. The company initially said only 260 tons of the material would be kept on the site, but that quickly ballooned. Eventually, there were between 60,000 and 100,000 tons of waste piled about six stories tall.
Dallas acquired the property in 2021 and removed the mountain of shingles from the former unincorporated freedman's community. During this work, the city found that the filling of the site in the ’70s and ’80s contained concrete, metal and brick that had left the soil contaminated with levels of lead above residential regulatory standards. That cleanup, which began in August 2023, took 2,634 truckloads of approximately 47,412 cubic yards from the property to the local landfill.
But removing the waste and the contaminated soil was just the first step in the community's vision for the site. If residents get their way, a park will be built on the property, complete with a trail, splash pads, a playground, a community garden, a basketball court and several other features.
The park plans were designed by Citizen HKS, the pro-bono arm of the Dallas global design firm HKS Architects. After months of community input, the final design was revealed on Oct. 21, 2021. It would be more than a park, though. It would be a symbolic reclamation of a neighborhood that had once become known as “where shingle mountain is.”
The park is part of the Floral Farms neighborhood-led use plan that was developed by 150 residents in 2018. The plan also seeks to rezone the neighborhood to remove industrial zoning uses in the hope of preventing another shingle mountain.
Marsha Jackson, a longtime resident of the neighborhood who lived next door to shingle mountain, says a park is the least the city can do for the community.
“Look at the harm that we have here,” Jackson told the Observer. “We have been permanently damaged. My health is permanently damaged.” She says her vocal chords have been permanently impaired by the pollution from shingle mountain.
When Floral Farms residents first reached out to the city and their City Council member about shingle mountain in January 2018, their calls went unheeded, Jackson said. “So, all this harm they did to us and they didn’t listen to our calls, this [the park] is a way for them to say ‘Community, listen. I hear you,’” Jackson explained. The city did not respond to a request for comment about the proposed park.“We have been permanently damaged." – Marsha Jackson, Floral Farms resident
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Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has long been vocal about the city having as many parks as it can. “So, why is there push back for something that we ask for?” Jackson asked. She’s been told by her City Council member that before the city can move forward with a park, it needs to determine how the property will be zoned. Jackson said she’s going to keep advocating for the park in the meantime.
She understands there are voices other than residents in her area and that all opinions will have to be taken into account — developers and business owners, for example. But she doesn’t think that should stop the city from supporting the park.
“Sometimes people just have to take a stand and say ‘I support the community.’” Jackson added.
Jackson believes her City Council member, Tennell Atkins, doesn’t want to be in the middle of all this park talk. According to The Dallas Morning News, Atkins has told residents they should advocate for the rezoning of the land and the park as part of Forward Dallas, the city’s comprehensive land use plan that it is currently in the process of updating.
Reached for comment, Atkins wouldn’t say whether he supported the park. Instead, he thanked the current and past mayor and the city manager for helping facilitate the cleanup and finding the funds to make it happen. As for the future of the site, Atkins said: “We’re in the process of saying ‘What’s it going to be zoned for?' It’s a placeholder right now. We still have to go through the process of what the zoning is going to be.”
Before the Observer could even finish asking about his views on the park, Atkins interrupted, saying “I cannot even address that right now.”
He added: “Whatever the community wants and what it’s going to do is in the process and procedure. It’s a process and procedure that I’ll follow. I’m not going to get way ahead of my skis. My deal is, make sure it’s safe, and make sure we maintain it and make sure we do everything we said we were going to do when it’s complete. Once we complete where we need to go, then I will figure out what the community thinks is best for them and find out what the community wants at that time. At this time, it’s premature.”
Jackson said she’s been told it could take another year before there’s any movement on the park. However, she’s also been told that a draft of the Forward Dallas plan could make it to City Council by the end of this year. She’s not sure why it would take so long to see progress on the proposed park.
One vital question that’s been raised is how the park will be paid for. “Yes, it’s going to take some money, but they don’t have any problem when they’re going and using money for other parks they’re building either,” Jackson said.
She understands that the land will have to be rezoned. However, she said it doesn’t seem like the city cares all that much about zoning in the rest of the neighborhood. Jackson claims there are businesses in the area that aren’t complying with their zoning, but the city appears to let it slide. To her, it's as though the residents are being held to a different standard than the businesses there.
“I just want them [the city] to be more passionate about the community and let them know that the residents will have a say-so,” Jackson said. “We worked really really hard on our voices being spoken about, the harm we have here. So, listen to us. That’s what you didn’t do at first in January 2018 when we first started complaining. This is the time now to have open ears to the community and to listen to our concerns.”
