Love Field continues to pitch north entrance to city officials, but questions remain
Stay updated on the latest goings on, talking points and next steps on our special section #NoNorthEntrance.
Time to shed some light and raise our voices
In addition to the community meetings that Love Field was mandated to conduct, they are now making the rounds to convince others about the merit of a north entrance. Last week they were a guest of the Greater Dallas Planning Council and this week they are presenting at the Dallas Parks and Recreation Board meeting. In all these sessions, Mr Duebner continues to reiterate that the only options Love Field has are to the north. We beg to differ, not just on the basic premise that an alternate entrance is needed, but also on the conclusion that said entrance must be north facing. In the latest version of the Love Field presentation, there are actually some details (gasp!) that show where in the metroplex Love Field passengers live. This is the first time we've seen this information and it will not surprise you to know that the majority of passengers are from cities other than Dallas. The question we must all ask our City Officials is why their citizens should be asked to sacrifice property values and community for our neighbors in McKinney, Frisco, Plano and the Park Cities.
Once again your help is needed to defend Bachman Lake Park! The community has the opportunity to speak at the Park Board meeting on Thursday, August 20th, at 10AM. Can you sign up? If not, can you send a letter?
Register to speak by sending an email to srenda.green@dallascityhall.com before noon on Wednesday.
Write the entire Park Board from their website, its super easy!
THE ASK:
We ask that the Park Board reject the airport's short list entrance options because they all have a negative impact on Bachman Lake Park, especially ones that slice through the middle of the park with a vehicular bridge over the lake.
We ask that all Park Board members speak to their City Council representatives about the need to protect Bachman Lake Park from a north entrance.
We ask that the Park Board demand that the City Manager establish a task force with community representation that would look at all 11 original options in detail.
THE FACTS:
The creation of another entrance to Love Field is a decision that will impact generations to come and yet the community has not had a seat at the table.
The area is largely Hispanic and has the largest number of children under 5 in the city. For some, Bachman Lake Park it is the only green space they have. One could argue that Love Field and the City of Dallas developer community is intentionally targeting the area since it has been overlooked in the past with the assumption that the community won't speak up.
The Bachman area overall has one of the highest incidences of pedestrian/cycling accidents (see Vision Zero report). Currently, the only safe way to get to the park is driving. We need to reduce and slow down the traffic not add more vehicles to the area!
Bachman Lake Park has Northwest Highway as its north border and Shorecrest Road as the south border. In other words, the quieter/safer area of the park is where the airport’s five shortlisted options are being proposed. The airport would like Shorecrest to become a 4 lane divided road with a people mover.
Bachman Lake Park is going to be enhanced with a regional aquatic center and a regional skate park. The expectation is that the Bachman DART station will be a the primary transportation method to get to the skate park. The airport wants Bachman Station to be the termination point for their people mover. We believe that more transportation in this area is not safe for kids and families.
Bachman Lake Park has long been forgotten in all the City Plans regarding trails and connections, the community is trying to get this remedied and progress on these efforts will be impacted if the airport unilaterally imposes their preferred north entrance options. Love Field airport has stated that they would relocate their car rental facility to be by the new entrance (by the park) – translation: even more cars.
The Bachman Area is also in one of the city's highest heat index zones. Instead of adding more cement by creating an alternate entrance by the park, the airport should be converting all that into green space to absorb water and reduce heat.
There are major multi-million dollar projects being run by DWU, Love Field Airport, and the Parks Department around the park with little to no coordination with each other or with the community. The lack of an area plan or at least a park master plan is problematic.
The airport is proposing 5 north entrance options without ever having done a traffic analysis on the impact to the northern roadways. In addition, the analysis has never included community quality of life impacts (noise, pollution, traffic).
Stay updated on the latest goings on, talking points and next steps on our special section #NoNorthEntrance.