$800 Million, 240 Feet, One Corner: The Preston-Royal Towers Go Before the Dallas City Council Today

DALLAS — The most contested seven acres in North Dallas get their hearing today. The Dallas City Council, meeting from 9 a.m. at City Hall, 1500 Marilla St., takes up the proposed $800 million mixed-use redevelopment of the southwest corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane — the Preston Hollow shopping center site damaged by the 2019 tornado and mostly empty since. The case is the last zoning item on today's agenda, so it may not be heard until later in the afternoon. Developers Burk Interests and Greenway Investment Company are seeking a planned development district for roughly seven acres: in the latest plan, a 19-story hotel and condo tower rising to a requested maximum of 240 feet, an 18-story multifamily tower, a 12-story office building and a restaurant village, with about 175 apartments, up to 150 hotel rooms and no more than 50 condos. The site's current zoning caps height at 54 feet.

The road here has already taken most of a year. The City Plan Commission recommended approval of the rezoning on August 6, over significant neighborhood opposition. A property owner inside the official notification area then used a paid postponement to move the council hearing to October 14, and in October the council formally deferred its vote to today, November 10, with traffic at the Preston and Royal intersection at the center of the delay — engineering firm Kimley-Horn is developing traffic improvement plans for the intersection. The development team says the plan has been scaled back through the review, with the tallest buildings reduced by dozens of feet and shifted toward the center of the property, and argues the tornado-damaged site is a rare redevelopment opportunity at a major intersection.

The opposition is organized, and it has a name: Preserve Preston Hollow, the neighborhood nonprofit leading the fight, has collected more than 4,600 petition signatures against the requested zoning change and argues the towers are out of character for the surrounding neighborhood. The fight has also moved into politics: two political action committees filed recall notices on October 9 against District 13 Council Member Gay Donnell Willis, who represents the area, and District 1's Chad West, largely over zoning — a recall needs signatures from at least 15 percent of the voters eligible for that council seat at the last general municipal election to reach the May 2027 ballot, and the Willis drive has estimated it needs more than 9,500 valid names. Willis, who brought forward the October deferral, had not committed to a position on the project in the reporting read by this desk. What the council decides today — approval, denial or another deferral — will be reported by this desk when it happens; it is not reported here, because at staging it had not happened.