a high-rise development<\/a> planned for the corner of Preston and Royal, organizers said. The council has yet to vote on the developer \u2014 and Willis recently pushed to delay a decision until next month.<\/p>\nWillis said she advocated for a delay in the vote on the zoning for the development to allow engineers to come up with an improved traffic plan, which would be incorporated into the zoning requirements.<\/p>\n
“This is not personal, this is all about what’s proper for this neighborhood and accountability,” said recall petition organizer Margaret Chabris. “She should pay attention that we’re not happy with her representation. And this is our opportunity to make that known.”<\/p>\n
She raised concerns about the height of the development \u2014 and said it was out of character with the existing neighborhood.<\/p>\n
In an interview with WFAA, Willis repeatedly characterized the recall effort as “threats and intimidation” ahead of a vote on the rezoning necessary to build the development.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately [it’s] not the best way to go about city governance,” she said. “I just know while some are choosing to threaten me, I am spending my time and energy meeting with neighbors, the developer [and] city staff on how we can solve the issues.”<\/p>\n
Chabris said her group is not making threats, but Willis should listen to what they want. “We want to be heard, we want to be championed,” she said. “We want our voices to matter and this is the way we do it.”<\/p>\n
She said she’s aiming to collect the 9,000 or so signatures needed to force a recall vote in May before a December deadline for submission to the city secretary’s office.<\/p>\n
Other unhappy constituents are also turning to recalls. A group opposed to Dallas Council Member Chad West is currently collecting signatures. Similarly, the group’s website names concerns about new developments as one of the key reasons for the petition effort.<\/p>\n
“I’m proud of my record leading on neighborhood preservation, safer streets, fewer vacant lots, and support for small businesses,” West said in a statement.<\/p>\n
He also pointed out that any successful recall effort against him \u2014 or Willis \u2014 would take effect with only months to go before an already scheduled city council election in November 2027.<\/p>\n
“It’s unfortunate that a small number of neighbors are choosing to put the district through this recall process, given the minimal impact it will have,” West said.<\/p>\n
Other recall efforts are already on the ballot. In Rockwall County, voters in the city of Fate will consider recalling the mayor and several Council members over allegations of political disputes and ethics complaints.<\/p>\n
In McKinney, voters are seeking to recall several elected officials after they unanimously voted to approve zoning for a mosque.<\/p>\n
And in Granbury, some citizens are seeking to recall the mayor and several Council members over a data center proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A neighborhood group upset over a zoning case is collecting signatures to force a recall vote of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-472526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}