Dallas’ next major park project could include an element to grow professional sports in an area of southwest Dallas that people living nearby say is in serious need of accessible green space.
The Dallas Park and Recreation Board spent just over two hours on Tuesday discussing behind closed doors a proposal centering around undeveloped city-owned property in the 1200 block of N. Cockrell Hill Road.
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WATCH HEREThe park board took no action after its executive session.
The discussion comes after the same proposal first appeared on the city council's Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Sports Recruitment and Retention earlier this month, first reported by Robert Wilonsky of The Dallas Morning News, a NBC 5 content partner.
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SIGN UP The assistant director of Dallas Park and Recreation said that while there are few specific details ready to be released, the negotiations underway provide an opportunity to develop land the city has owned for nearly two decades.
“I think when we are able to reveal and tell folks what it is that we’re working on, I think people are going to be happy with it,” Ryan O'Connor said Tuesday.
The nearly 200-acre site sits surrounded by warehouses along N. Cockrell Hill Road, just south of Interstate 30.
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For nearly 20 years, the location, marked with a Joey Georgusis Park sign, has sat as an undeveloped and largely untraversable swath of high grass and trees.
It’s an area Michael Jones says he largely avoids, even though the property sits right across from where he lives on Pinnacle Park Road.
Jones said he sometimes jogs along the Katy Trail, which has more shade, but on Tuesday was running on the roadway near his home.
“Over here, it’s all sun and concrete. I’m 68, I don’t have any business being out here that long,” Jones said jokingly. “It would be nice to have a park where you can have a little bit of shade to walk in from time to time.”
Council member Chad West, whose District 1 gained the location after the last redistricting, said the area needs investment in green space.
“The proposal being brought to council is something that will benefit potentially both professional sports and also benefit the community members,” West said Tuesday.
West said he expects details of the proposal to be made public in the near future, with a council vote as early as the middle of next month.
“Before that time, I would anticipate a full council briefing so council members can ask questions and get up to speed, and, of course, the family that donated the park over 20 years ago to Dallas needs to be brought up to speed and met with as well.”
First proposed in a 2011 master plan, the development of Joey Georgusis Park included the addition of 10 soccer fields. O'Connor said those plans are still relevant today.
“When you think about soccer in Dallas, we need fields everywhere,” O’Connor said. “The master plan was very in tune with the demands back then and the demands today.”
Jones, who said he planned to jog about a mile or two Tuesday, said any kind of park development at the Joey Georgusis site is welcome—and overdue.
“I would like to know if they’re having a community meeting about it, I’d certainly give my input on what they can do with it besides letting it collect dust like it’s been doing over the years,” Jones added.
