FAIR PARK TOWN HALLS: COMMUNITY WEIGHS IN ON COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT
The Park and Recreation Department is taking its Fair Park commercial development proposal to the surrounding community for input on a “Leisure, Entertainment and Lodging District” on the campus’s northeast quadrant.
Two Fair Park Town Halls — one held May 4, 2026, and another on May 12 — have the Park Department briefing attendees on the proposed development and asking the surrounding community what they think of the idea.
Park department officials said this proposal is designed to generate revenue to cover the more than $44 million in Fair Park’s deferred maintenance. The town-hall message is that the city also wants Fair Park’s neighbors to benefit from economic development. And the attendees at the May 4 event made it clear that they want that too.
That’s not difficult to understand given the decades of municipal neglect (and worse) the South Dallas community has experienced. The Park Department officials envision, for example, a commercial zone with a possible hotel, restaurants, and retail.
With a “rising tide lifts all boats” narrative, officials say lease revenue from the development could help pay the deferred maintenance bill while providing jobs and new-business opportunities for the neighborhood.
The officials used only 15 minutes of the hour-long meeting to explain the proposed concept and devoted the remainder to Q&A at the well-attended gathering. The main questions touched on job opportunities, parking, zoning and use, and community benefit.
Job Opportunities
The desire for quality jobs, not just jobs, was clearly voiced by participants. Will potential private businesses provide job training and workforce development programs to people in the neighborhood?
In reference to the large construction project recently completed at the Cotton Bowl, one resident complained that he didn’t see any Black construction workers on the site and asked how it would be different for the proposed development.
Park Department director John Jenkins answered that there were ways to offer economic incentives to developers and companies encouraging them to hire from the neighborhood for construction and business staffing. But in a thinly veiled reference to legal restrictions on any DEI programs, he made it clear that the city cannot legally mandate such programs. He did say, however, that the city would be careful when choosing developer partners: “If you don’t want to do the right thing by the community, then we don’t want you.”
Parking
As the 40-acre site that would make up the Leisure, Entertainment and Lodging District is a giant parking lot, many questioned how those spaces would be replaced. One resident expressed concern that he or his neighbors might “find people in their front yards looking for a place to park.”
The proposed development would replace surface parking with structured parking, which will likely address those concerns. And then there is State Fair staging, which brings in large service rigs that have to be accommodated somewhere. There are people from the community who have business relationships, such as vendors, with the State Fair of Texas who have questions on how the development might impact their businesses.
The State Fair uses the entire park, as well as those parking lots, during the 24 days of the fair and periods before and after the big event for set up and breakdown.
The State Fair will have to renegotiate its contract with the city if development occurs there. Parking would undoubtedly be a major consideration for any changes between the city and the State Fair.
Zoning and Use
The question of zoning provided a tutorial on legal use of certain types of land, including parks. Locally, the land is zoned for Commercial use. The Park Department officials said there would need to be some zoning changes and permitting.
When asked why the Park Department has targeted these kinds of businesses — like hotels, restaurants, retail, and sports-related use — the answer was that the use needs to complement what is already in Fair Park.
That kind of private development may be desired, but there are also two state laws (Texas Local Government Code Chapter 272 and Texas State Law 40) that restrict the ways in which parkland can be used. The laws are meant to ensure that parkland serves recreational and public-interest purposes. Not only would something like an office building be incongruous with the rest of Fair Park, but it also wouldn’t be legal.
What’s Next?
The park officials say that once the town hall gatherings are concluded, there will be a call for concepts similar to what has occurred with the messy “will it stay or will it go” City Hall fight, where the public and professionals were invited to present their development ideas.
No timeline was given for the “call for concepts.” There is still a lot of work to do, as everything is in the concept stage at this point. The Park Department should continue with community engagement before fundamental decisions are made.
And please make those decisions in the light of day.