District 11: Don't Vote for Bill Roth

  *All opinions stated are those only of the author, Adam Lamont, and don't represent Dallas Neighbors for Housing or YIMBYAction as a whole*

Early voting for the runoffs in District 11 and District 8 start today, May 27th. Dallas Neighbors for Housing has not endorsed in either of the races, but I do want to write an anti-endorsement against Bill Roth in District 11. One of my New Year's Resolutions with having a newborn child was to be more positive, so I felt hesitant to write this. However, this race is going to be close, and as a housing advocate, I do feel like I have to say something about Bill Roth. If you care about making housing more affordable in Dallas, you can't vote for Bill Roth. Roth isn't some run-of-the-mill guy who is skeptical of new housing. He is someone whose experience with the city of Dallas boils down to opposing housing, either Affordable or market-rate. 

One of the first housing cases that I followed closely was a proposed Affordable Housing development at the corner of Forest and 75. The Cypress Creek development was just a couple of miles from where I live in Lake Highlands, and I was excited to see something that would be part of the solution for the homelessness that I saw whenever I went by the gas station next to the Forest Lane DART station. The project was an LIHTC project with units set to have rents affordable for those making just 30% of the Area Median Income. The proposal needed to get City Council approval, which it did initially in 2021. It looked like this part of Dallas was going to get one of its first Affordable Housing projects in decades.

Well, it would have if not for Bill Roth. It just so happened that the land had a deed restriction on it from the 1970s that prohibited it to "office buildings, hotels, motels, and restaurants" unless the surrounding property owners allowed for another use. Bill Roth was one of those property owners, and despite some of the surrounding land already being businesses like a used car dealership and self-storage place, he refused to lift the deed restriction. Roth said that the spot wasn't right for housing and claimed to be looking out for "those families who'll be forced to live in this undesirable, isolated project." This framing by Roth is so disingenuous. No one was going to be forced to live in the apartments if they got built. They would have the choice to live there if they liked, but Roth decided it would somehow be better for those people if he took away that choice. That's not to mention that his classification of the location is flat-out wrong. The location was a less than 15 minute walk from the DART station and the Cottonwood trail, not to mention close to tons of jobs in North Dallas. 

In 2023, the city ended up trying to do a work-around where the Dallas Public Finance Corporation would buy the land, but Roth sued the city and developer. This time, Roth was a bit more open and honest about his motivations, saying that the apartments would "greatly impact and lower the value and damage the use" of the offices he owned nearby. Research on this actually shows the opposite, that new Affordable Housing often raises property valaes. That didn't matter to Roth, obviously. The lawsuit never went to court, but it was successful because it dragged on, and eventually in the summer of 2024 forced the developer to give back the tax credits that made the project viable. 

That a man who spent years blocking and suing the city from building much needed Affordable Housing in a wealthy area of the city now is turning around and running for City Council is sad. Roth's anti-housing actions extend beyond that as well. The number one campaign issue in District 11 is the Pepper Square rezoning at Belt Line and Preston. I'm not going to rehash the entire issue here, but the project is a positive one that could see 950 new homes in a mixed-use development on what is currently a pavement-filled shopping center. Council approved the rezoning this spring, but the opposition has sued the city trying to claim (wrongfully) that the rezoning violates Forward Dallas. Roth spoke at council against the rezoning, and on his website, he says he "opposes the forced introduction of high-density housing into established residential zones." Of course, on the Forest Lane project he opposed the apartments because they were isolated. So if you can't apartments away from housing because they are isolated and you can't put apartments near housing because residents oppose it, where would Bill Roth put housing? The answer for Bill Roth is always somewhere else, just not here. 

While opposing this new housing and the extra tax revenue that it would generate, Roth promises to increase the number of police officers and cut taxes. The way that he would achieve this is by "attracting new businesses and growing the commercial tax base." But that is pretty much impossible to do without building more housing. The last forty years has seen businesses in Dallas follow the new housing in the northern suburbs. Dallas can't attract new businesses without new residents. Roth is selling a fantasy, city-planning without a real plan. Ultimately, his reflexive stance against new housing would starve the city and force it to either raise taxes or cut services. 

So, District 11, if you care about actually making Dallas an affordable city to live, don't vote for Bill Roth. His opponent, Jeff Kitner, is by no means perfect from a housing perspective. Dallas Neighbors for Housing hasn't endorsed him because he isn't aligned on many issues we care about. However, the choice between Roth and Kitner is clear: Roth will oppose new housing regardless of where it is and whether it is affordable or market-rate. Vote for Kitner.