8 August 22 - 28, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents attorney or City Council member about the development.) West Kessler is crying corruption. Cher- nock is crying NIMBY. “NO REZONE” signs are being laced in front yards. And the whole thing has the potential to get incredibly ugly. A Zoning Case With Baggage J oseph Beckham’s front yard is so sloped that, in the summer, his dining room looks like a treehouse built into branches. But in the winter when the leaves are gone, the dining room windows look di- rectly onto the undeveloped land owned by Chernock. Beckham, who is the president of the West Kessler Neighborhood Association, opposed Chernock’s plans in 2015, the first time he attempted to get the land rezoned. At that time, Chernock owned four fewer parcels of land than he does now, but his motivations were the same: Dallas had a housing problem coming, and the only way to combat it was to build denser, more diverse housing types. He sketched out a development, Kessler Commons, that would include mid-range townhomes, apartments and homes. He planned to extend North Boulevard Terrace so it looped around itself, and the homes would overlook green space. An ingress/ egress point would lead traffic onto busy nearby Hampton Road. When he filed the initial rezoning request, it caused a stir in West Kessler. Residents opposed the traffic it would add to Hampton Road, they believed the density was “inconsistent” with the current land uses in the area and, to put it simply, they didn’t like Chernock very much. To hear Beckham tell it, the neighborhood was open to a compromise but the whole thing fell through when the requested decrease in density would have resulted in a smaller paycheck for the developer. To hear Chernock tell it, the design was adjusted a dozen times before he realized the neighborhood would never stop moving the goalposts. Listening to both sides in 2024, it’s no wonder a compromise was never achieved. Over coffee, Chernock pulls out a large black and white map of the current proposed development and points to nearby, six-lane Hampton Road, which can carry up to 45,000 cars in a given day. “You want to put density up against major thoroughfares and keep it out of single-family residential neighborhoods,” he says, pointing to the bus stop that would be adjacent to the property. “It’s the logical thing to do.” Later, in Beckham’s dining room, Beckham pulls out a large black and white map of the proposed development and points to nearby, six-lane Hampton Road, which can carry up to 45,000 cars in a given day. “You don’t want to add density to a high- mobility street,” he says, pointing to the map. “It’s totally counterintuitive.” Chernock says the density is consistent with the area, pointing to clusters of apartment complexes just north of Coombs Creek and the townhome zoning that covers most of North Boulevard Terrace leading up to his land. Beckham says the density is inconsistent, pointing to the single-family zoning along Hampton Road and into Kessler. It’s not just that the men are on different pages about the development. They seem to be reading books written in different languages. But back to 2015: At the City Plan Commission, the development received 13 votes in favor with one absence. “Then it goes to [city] council, and during that time, up to council I mean, the fight was really on, because the tensions were high, the stakes were high, and you know, the gloves were off,” Beckham told the Observer. “Everything was fair game.” In response to the contentious rela- tionship between West Kessler and Chernock, filmmaker and neighbor Kirby Warnock created a series of videos that mocked the development and dug in a bit personally on Chernock, which Beckham says were “hilarious.” Cher- nock didn’t think so, though, and a law- yer sent Warnock a cease and desist letter alleging defamation. So Warnock made another video about that. But Chernock was able to somewhat ig- nore the noise because he had found sup- port elsewhere. For the months he’d been planning, he’d had the approval of then-City Council member Scott Griggs. But the re- zone eventually failed for “political rea- sons,” he said. “[Griggs] knew he wanted to run for mayor, and was really hoping to have the support of the neighborhoods. And so he had cheered me on and supported me, he’d said this was a great development for over a year and a half,” Chernock said. “And seven days before the hearing he said I can’t support it. So that was it. It failed.” (Griggs did not respond to messages seeking comment.) Over the next few years, Chernock focused on building other developments in the area and on being a dad. And he continued to buy land on the northern edge of North Boulevard Terrace until he had nearly 5 acres. The rezoning case was denied without prejudice, meaning it wasn’t totally dead in the water, so Beckham knew it was only a matter of time until the development came back up for air. Then, earlier this year, City Council member Chad West named Chernock to the City Plan Commission. “When I heard he was plan commissioner I literally texted some folks in the neighborhood — because we know he had property and we know he had been acquiring more — I said ‘We’re F’d for sure,’” Beckham said. “We knew then that there was something coming.” Conflict of Interest? W hen West first asked Chernock to take over the District 1 Plan Commission seat, Chernock was reluctant. In 2022, he’d walked West through the 5 acres of land and told him he was planning to take another swing at bringing dense housing to the area. The plan’s latest iteration includes an apartment building of up to 100 units, although it will probably end up being fewer because of the steep topography. (“I wanted to share the highest-density scenario with adjacent residents to be transparent on what they would perceive as a worst case scenario,” Chernock said.) An additional 45 multifamily units and manor homes are drawn up for the eastern half of the property, and a road leading out to Hampton would be gated and used only by first responders in the event of an emergency. Traffic is planned to travel along an extension of North Boulevard Terrace and across a bridge over the creek. So Chernock responded to West’s offer by saying, “Hey, remember that plan I told you about? I’m putting it in front of the CPC this year.” But front of mind for West were the other, bigger projects coming up on the commission’s agenda: parking reform, zoning reform and the gargantuan Forward Dallas citywide development plan. For each of those tasks, Chernock was the man for the job, West said. “He’s diligent, he doesn’t get caught up in the social media chatter and sort of the waves of support or opposition that come and go. He stays true to what he believes — even though I may not always agree with him — is the right path forward for the city,” West said. “I told him as long as he meets the ethical rules of the city and gets the checks and balances done with the city attorney’s office, I’m completely fine with [him having his own cases on the CPC agenda.]” Before accepting the position, Unfair Park from p06 >> p10 Mark Graham Developer Christian Chernock wants to bring new, needed homes to Oak Cliff. Joseph Beckham played a big part in unifying neighborhood opposition to Chernock’s development plan. Mark Graham
