Dallas Council members, neighbors criticize city plan to reroute traffic connection from North Oak Cliff to Downtown

A Dallas Council committee told city staff to come up with new proposals to manage the traffic connection between North Oak Cliff and Downtown as neighbors fear it could cut the area off from the city’s urban core.

The city said its preferred proposal would make the Jefferson viaduct a two-way street, but change its endpoint Downtown from Young Street to Hotel Street, below the new Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Previous plans called for Houston Street – currently the Southbound connection from Downtown to Oak Cliff – to become pedestrian only.

City staff said increasing costs for the $3 billion-plus Convention Center redevelopment forced them to change their plans and lower the building – removing the possibility for Jefferson to connect directly to Downtown.

Director of Convention and Event Services Rosa Fleming said the change would save approximately $500 million – although some Council members appeared to doubt the number.

“I have never seen anything in writing that says that,” Council member Paul Ridley told WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely. “That’s word of mouth that it’s going to cost half a million dollars.”

Neighbors in North Oak Cliff said they fear the changes will cut off their connection to Downtown Dallas – and argue the city is turning its back on their area.

“Now they’re going to deprive us of getting to and from Downtown?” asked Attorney John Barr, whose law office sits just beyond the Trinity River in North Oak Cliff. “Just because the guys doing the convention center are over budget?”

Barr said he is considering suing the city to stop the move.

“This is a bad idea and they recognize it as a bad idea,” Barr said. “That’s like telling North Dallas ‘We’re going to stop the Dallas North Tollway.'”

During a March 23 meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Council members instructed staff to come up with alternative plans for the connections.

“You’re going to forever change the traffic which is going to be a nightmare for people,” said Council member Cara Mendelsohn. “The truth is if it’s going to take another 500 million to get it right, I’d rather spend that and have it done properly.”

City staff are set to present their revised proposals to the committee in April.