Dallas developer halts construction of new warehouse after Black Church fights ‘environmental racism’

After a lawsuit over allegations of racism, a predominantly African-American church in Dallas, Texas, succeeded in stopping a developer from constructing a large warehouse near the church’s property.

Stonelake Capital Partners agreed to halt the project on Thursday, greater than per week after a Dallas District Court judge ordered Friendship-West Baptist Church to suspend plans to construct a 20,000-square-foot warehouse, citing “environmental racism” by the leader churches and issues affecting spatial development policy.

Paul Stafford, a lawyer for the church, told the Dallas Morning News that the warehouse proposal underscored Dallas’ history of placing industrial facilities in low-income neighborhoods where people of color mostly live.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the warehouse could be positioned next to a church and government constructing and across the road from a neighborhood with many seniors.

Just last 12 months, Stonelake was denied a permit to construct a warehouse, and “the denial was based on the city’s concerns about the project’s impact on the community,” the lawsuit says.

The church argued that trucks driving out and in of the property would pose a security risk to homeowners and nearby students, while pointing to a “negative environmental impact.”

“However, anything that may be legal is not logical, and anything that is permissible is not prudent,” the lawsuit said. “In the absence of an injunction, Plaintiff and the community will suffer direct and irreparable harm from the loss of use of Plaintiff’s property and community assets as a result of the proposed development’s adverse impact on the surrounding community… through noise, pollution and public nuisance.”

It seeks from the megachurch’s attorney “damages in the amount of at least $500,000 for the loss of quiet enjoyment and diminished value of plaintiff’s property, as well as the loss of the ability to develop plaintiff’s property in a manner consistent with the needs and concerns of the community.” “

Meanwhile, the church became a platform for black leaders to discuss civil rights issues. As Axios Dallas reported, an enormous Black Lives Matter banner was displayed on the church in 2020 in reference to the police murder of George Floyd.

“If they decide to start building, they will find me lying in front of the construction machinery” – Senior Pastor Frederick Douglass Haynes III he told NBC5 in June. He also said a close-by truck depot is environmental racism, claiming the world has been victimized previously.

According to The Dallas Morning News, Haynes not only serves the church, but can be a community activist who was elected last 12 months to steer the Rainbow PUSH coalition, founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Last 12 months, Haynes and a few neighbors attended a town hall meeting to protest the warehouse. “Most of the people in my neighborhood are seniors who live on this area. It’s hard enough for us to get to Wheatland Road because it is,” neighbor Lovie Hawkins told NBC5.