Unfair Park from p8 known sources of air pollutants like partic- ulate matter and sulfur dioxide. Some plants in Dallas may also be too close to res- idential areas, schools, parks and other public places. That’s why the city is consid- ering a few changes in how it deals with concrete batch plants. In November, the Environment and Sus- tainability committee outlined a few ways the city could better protect public health while also supporting Dallas’ need for con- crete and asphalt. Paula Blackmon, City Council member andchair of the Environment and Sustain- ability Committee, said the process for deal- ing with these plants is “fragmented.” “We can’t continue placing batch plants into communities with the least resistance and in the dead of the night without no one knowing,” Blackmon said. Right now, temporary concrete or asphalt batch plants are allowed in most zoning dis- tricts in Dallas, according to city staff. This includes residential districts as long as the plant is approved by the building official and screening and buffering criteria are met. Staff with the Planning and Urban Design Department are working on an amendment to the city’s zoning code for concrete batch plants. They want the code to be aligned with Dallas’ Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan by “ensuring new industries are an appropriate distance away from neighborhoods,” city staff said in a memo last week. The city is trying to tackle this in two phases. First, they want to a specific use per- mit process for these industrial land uses. This public hearings before the City Plan Commission and the City Council would be required before any new plants are permit- ted. The Zoning Ordinance Advisory Com- mittee and City Plan Commission have already started considering the changes. If they’re approved, they could go to the City Council for consideration in April. Then, for four to six months, the city will re- view its regulations and collect public com- ment to develop new rules for concrete and asphalt batch plants. The changes could include new defini- tions to land use categories and minimum distances between plants and from residen- tial areas, schools, daycares, parks and other public spaces. The city could also change performance standards for the plants “based on best management practices for storm water run-off and noxious pollutants and emissions.” But Leftwich said the idea that there’s a lack of oversight in their industry is a mis- conception. He said they have to go through rigorous permitting processes involving multiple federal, state and city departments. He said these processes also consider the environmental impact of the plants. Left- wich said if everything is done right, there shouldn’t be any particulate matter expo- sure to people outside the plant. “Most operators want to be good part- 10 10 ners with their communities that they’re in and be good neighbors,” Leftwich said. Asked how bad actors could cut corners in ways that might put people at risk and Jacob Vaughn how to police those bad actors, Leftwich said: “I try not to get into good actors and bad actors. I think the state has a regula- tory agency in place to oversee. The state comes and does inspections of our facili- ties. They make sure that requirements are being met. “It’s hard to operate a plant and not take into account, too, all the require- ments. … If people are doing their jobs cor- rectly under their operating requirements, they will be doing the right thing.” But when it comes to the locations of these plants, Leftwich said operators are limited on what they can do. If there’s an area of town that’s being developed, that concrete has to come from somewhere, Leftwich said, and it can’t be too far away from where it’s needed. “Most operators decide on where they want to be because the market is in that area,” Leftwich said. “Concrete has a half- life. It can only last 30 minutes to an hour once it’s in the truck. It has a pretty quick expiration date, so to speak.” He added: “Those industrial areas are slated to be industrial areas for a reason. If they’re abiding by all the permit require- ments and rules of the cities and state, they can operate in harmony with other people in those areas.” The problem is, though, that these plants don’t always operate in harmony with the people who live around them. One West Dallas plant in City Council member Omar Narvaez’s district was told to pack up and leave in 2019. It continued operating despite not having the proper permits. In November, the plant tried to get a specific use permit to continue oper- ating, but it was denied unanimously by the City Council. That month, Debbie Solis, a lifelong resi- dent of West Dallas, said many people in her neighborhood don’t want the plants. “We just want to have clean air. We want to be able to enjoy our homes,” she said. “We want to be able to live here and not have cement plants at every corner.” ▼ VOTING RIGHTS BURNING BILLS F REPUBLICANS FOR VOTING RIGHTS HAS LAUNCHED A NEW BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN SLAMMING GOV. GREG ABBOTT OVER HIS ELECTION AUDIT. BY SIMONE CARTER irst, they came for former President Donald Trump. Now, that same group of pro-voting rights Republicans is at- tacking another politician via billboard: Gov. Greg Abbott. Last week, the Republicans for Voting Rights (RVR) initiative launched a billboard campaign to remind the governor that there’s no need for an audit of the 2020 elec- tion. The former president won the Lone Star State by a comfortable margin, after all. Still, Trump asked for one last Septem- ber, and hours later, he received. Commuters in Dallas-Fort Worth can catch a glimpse of the signs, which feature a beaming Abbott holding a flaming stack of cash. “STOP WASTING TAXPAYER MONEY,” they read. “GOV. ABBOTT, END THE SHAM AUDIT.” Texas ran a good election that its leaders should be proud of, and they should stand by the results, said RVR Director Amanda Carpenter. “It is extremely disheartening to see Gov- ernor Abbott cast aspersions on his own election in order to soothe Donald Trump’s ego,” she said. “There was a time for audits, there were a time for lawsuits to challenge the results. That time is over. It is now 2022 and Republicans should be looking forward, not backward.” Twelve billboards appear throughout the state and will stand through Feb. 14. In addition to Dallas-Fort Worth, they can be seen in Corpus Christi, Amarillo, Laredo, Austin, Lubbock, San Antonio and Mid- land-Odessa. Last fall, the pro-voting initiative was also behind the “TRUMP LOST” billboard that sprouted up in Dallas. That sign de- picted the former president hunched over There are hundreds of batch plants in DFW, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. and similarly urged his supporters to drop the needless audits. “We want to be out there advocating for the conservatives out there that actually be- lieve in the right to vote, and believe in the right for everyone to vote, and want to sup- port that and protect it,” Olivia Troye, a Re- publicans for Voting Rights spokesperson, told the Observer late last year. Texas isn’t the only state that sought to reexamine the 2020 election results. Car- penter notes that similar efforts are “bub- bling up” everywhere; one in Arizona actually found that Trump had lost by a wider margin than previously thought. Even if these audits don’t reverse any outcomes, experts fear that they’re working to chip away at trust in the democratic pro- cess. Some warn that such moves could pave the way for future election challenges when a candidate again won fair and square. In Texas’ case, such a statewide probe may be costly, with one estimate saying it could amount to some $250 million in tax- payer money. In November, $4 million was drained from the state prison system to help fund county election audits. Texas serves as a role model for other states, Carpenter said. Soon, Republicans elsewhere could try to replicate the audit, which is bad for the system overall. Many pro-Trump officials have already failed to upend the 2020 election results, she said. If there were any systemwide prob- lems, they would have certainly been uncov- ered by now. “This is nothing but a messaging tool to try to keep the ‘Big Lie’ alive,” she said. “It’s effective because when people hear there’s an investigation, they think there’s some- thing wrong. But there’s not.” But during an interview with FOX last fall, Abbott defended the audit as legiti- mate. “Why do we audit everything in this world, but people raise their hands >> p12 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 FEBRUARY 10–16, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
