Sorry, Frisco. Dallas Mayor Wants Your New Universal Studios Theme Park in Hensley Field.

Some residents in Frisco are upset about Universal Studios’ plans to build a 97-acre kids' theme park in the city. The park still needs to be approved by the Frisco City Council, but as WFAA reported this week, some Frisco residents have told their council members they worry the park could bring more traffic and crime to the area.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson might have a solution for those Frisco residents: Bring the park to his city. In a post sharing the WFAA story about Frisco residents’ concerns, Johnson wrote, “Two words: Hensley Field.”

Hensley Field is a 738-acre site that once housed a U.S. Naval Air Station until it was closed in 1998. The Navy’s time there, however, left the site contaminated, and the soil still needs to be remediated. Dallas has wanted to develop the land since the ’90s. With the approval of a Hensley Field master plan last year, it's arguably closer than ever to making that happen.

Asked if a Universal Studios theme park is actually something the mayor would like to see at Hensley Field, his spokesperson, Tristan Hallman, said, “Yes, it is.” Asked why, Hallman said, “Because Mayor Johnson wants exciting new developments of all kinds in the city of Dallas, and Hensley Field features 738 acres of blank-slate developable land in a prime southern Dallas location.”

But some say there are better plans for Hensley Field that would benefit Dalllasites much more than a Universal Studios theme park.

Responding to Johnson’s post, the local organization Dallas Neighbors for Housing wrote on Twitter: “Can guarantee that the current mixed-use development plan will generate more tax revenue and help more Dallas residents (current and future) than putting a theme park in Hensley Field.”

“Two words: Hensley Field.” – Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson

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At its last meeting of 2022, the City Council approved a 20-year master plan for Hensley Field that could bring up to 8,414 residential units to Dallas’ starved housing market. There are three possible scenarios included in the plan with various numbers of housing units and space set aside for non-residential uses.

In scenario one, the city attracts a major corporate user to the area. In this case, the development will include 5,783 housing units. Scenario two would see residential development take the lead at Hensley Field, with 5,956 units; the third scenario would have the city look to Hensley Field as a “living laboratory of resilience,” according to the plan. We’re not exactly sure what that means, but this scenario would include 8,414 units. Each option offers thousands of square feet for non-residential uses.

It’s set to cost about $390 million and be paid for with federal funds and 2017 city bonds. On top of housing, the plan includes space for entertainment venues and a marina.

In any of these scenarios, Hensley Field will be a 738-acre project. So, there’s room for entertainment in the plan. But Adam Lamont, co-founder of Dallas Neighbors for Housing, told the Observer he’s not sure a Universal Studios theme park is the right kind of entertainment for Hensley Field.

“Hypothetically, it could fit but you would have to take out a lot of stuff,” Lamont said. “I know right now they’re planning on having almost 7,000 units of housing there. The way I look at it is you’re probably going to have to lose a thousand units in order to make a theme park work there.” This is assuming a theme park would take up about one seventh of the space at Hensley Field. “Personally, I would much rather have the thousand units,” he said.

The master plan calls for at least 20% of the homes for purchase to be made available to households making less than 80% of the adjusted median income, and for rent to people making less than 60% of the adjusted median income. Another 10% of the homes will be priced for buyers and renters making between 81% and 120% of the adjusted median income.

"Dallas likes to put its eggs into big buckets." – Adam Lamont, Dallas Neighbors for Housing

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Lamont is not sure how serious the mayor is about a Universal Studios theme park at Hensley field, but he said Dallas officials are always looking for eye-popping projects. “That’s probably one problem we have with a lot of the Dallas status quo as a group, this focus on the big splashy project instead of the more common sense, straightforward one,” Lamont said. “Dallas likes to put its eggs into big buckets, you know, with the convention center and things like that, while ignoring more basic things that work better for their citizens.”

Lamont also pointed out Hensley Field’s close proximity to Arlington, which is already home to another theme park, Six Flags Over Texas. “There’s already an entertainment district not far from there, so trying to replicate it would, I think, be a losing strategy.”

The development of Hensley Field is expected to begin in 2025 or 2026. However, there’s still the issue of all the contamination left there by the Navy. The Navy agreed in a 2002 court settlement to cough up more than $18 million to have the site cleaned by 2017. The Dallas Morning News got its hands on letters between city officials and the Navy that year in which the Navy said it could take an additional 15 years and $27 million to get the job done.

It still hasn’t been completely cleaned, and it’s uncertain when it will be. But before the master plan was sent to City Council, Arturo Del Castillo, Dallas’ chief planner, told the City Plan Commission the Navy was committed to cleaning up the site.

Maybe one day, if the mayor gets his wish, it’ll be all nice and clean for a new Universal Studios theme park.