DALLAS — Numerous H-E-B grocery stores are planned to open around DFW. Meanwhile, Dallas is trying to pass a zoning change to bring a Sprouts store to Oak Cliff, an area in need of another grocery store.
The first information meeting for the new plan was held Tuesday evening at Kidd Springs Recreation Center, where Dallas City Council Member Chad West and others presented information about the proposed zoning change and what it would bring to the area.
Under current zoning regulations, Sprouts can't be built at the planned site, the northeast corner of Fort Worth Avenue and North Hampton Road. The City Plan Commission previously denied Sprouts' plan to build on the site, which they are now appealing.
Due to elevation and changes from the south to north side of the site, Sprouts has indicated it can't place its store all the way to the sidewalk along Fort Worth Avenue. In order to move the building footprint further back onto the site, it requires a zoning change.
West said there is no way to guarantee Sprouts will actually come whether the zoning change is approved or denied or if another grocery store concept would come in its place.
"It's not a done deal," West said. "The zoning will still be in place if Sprouts comes or not."
As it stands, the current plan for the 4-acre lot includes the Sprouts grocery store, as well as two additional restaurants on the property. The two restaurants will be required to provide patios and open space outside of the restaurants.
"There's a spirit of community," West said. "People will go and sit on a patio."
Some concern was raised by residents at the meeting about the potential of fast food restaurants coming to the site, but West said they could write in the zoning restrictions that the site couldn't be used for fast food restaurants in the future.
West said the zoning change has to be placed on a city council agenda by February but is hoping it won't take that long.
