DALLAS, Texas — A tense meeting is expected Friday night involving business owners along Maple Avenue in Dallas.
The Dallas County business owners say they were never given a heads-up about a safety improvement project along the historic street that they say would reduce customer access and increase traffic headaches.
The meeting is being held at 5 p.m. at Reverchon Recreation Center. Area Council Member Jesse Moreno and representatives from the City of Dallas' Department of Transportation will host it.
The project aims to make improvements along Maple from Mockingbird to Oak Lawn, around a 2.5-mile stretch, that would center around new or enhanced pedestrian crossings, improvements to intersections, and additional bike lanes.
But doing that reduces the traffic from four lanes to two.
Frank Ashmore owns Sunshine Dry Cleaners on Maple, a business that has been passed through his family for 83 years since 1941. Ahsmore is a third-generation owner.
He's a local dry cleaning favorite in Dallas with decades of customer service experience. However, he told WFAA that loyalty only goes so far when customers don't want to put up with the traffic around your business.
Around 5 p.m., WFAA saw traffic on the busy thoroughfare snarl bumper to bumper.
"If you cut off 50% of the access to our retail businesses, it's a kiss of death," Ashmore said. "Those customers will eventually say forget it, it's too hard to get to--I'm out."
And yet, Ashmore feels like the city isn't fighting fairly. Moreno told WFAA that two mailed notifications were sent to businesses along Maple about the project to obtain feedback and that two public input meetings were held about it.
However, Ashmore says roughly 160 businesses weren't contacted about the project, according to a count by a local realtor who has been calling each one along Maple.
"The biggest stain I'm dealing with right now is our exclusion from the discussion of what will happen to Maple Ave. This will devastate every retailer on the block," Ashmore said.
Moreno said the third meeting at Reverchon is being hosted in good faith for those business owners.
Moreno told WFAA, "As we host our community meeting tomorrow for a discussion on Maple Ave., I want the community to take away the fact that this is not the end of the discussion. This is only the beginning. The community perspective is very important to me as a council member, and I encourage anyone interested in speaking up on or learning about this issue to join us."
The project could begin as early as 2026.