Plan to reduce Maple Avenue to two lanes sparks controversy among business owners and residents

DALLAS – Business owners on Maple Avenue in Dallas are disappointed with a plan to reduce the number of traffic lanes from four to two. However, some area residents say changes are needed.

The change will affect Maple Avenue between Mockingbird Lane and Oak Lawn Avenue.

The two lanes being removed will be converted to a turn lane and a bike lane in each direction.

“This is going to wipe out some of these businesses,” said Martin Guajardo, manager of Avila’s.

Guajardo believes cutting the number of lanes in half will create traffic jams that will discourage his customers.

“Most of our business comes from the Downtown Oak Lawn Heights Health District,” he said. “They have a very limited time to come and eat – usually an hour. Of these, they will be stuck in traffic for 30 minutes. This will really hurt business. And many of these businesses are all family-owned. “

Dallas officials said they are proposing changes to make Maple Avenue safer.

According to a city presentation, Maple Avenue between Hudnall Street and Oak Lawn Avenue tops the list of city streets where fatal or serious injury crashes involving pedestrians occur.

Jorge Garza lives in the area and said he has been asking the city to do something to make Maple Avenue safer for years.

“People died here,” he said. “These drivers are becoming very aggressive.”

Garza said it’s nearly impossible to cross Maple Avenue.

“He has the best chicken tacos I can find in town, and I can’t walk six blocks. My wife and I go down and when we cross the road there are at least three intersections where we are not safe,” he said.

Garza believes the changes will improve not only safety, but also quality of life.

But business owners see it differently.

Guajardo said businesses in the area cater to drivers, not pedestrians.

“They are not going to go out. This is not really a place to walk. They’re not going to walk down the street with bags full of grocery store groceries. They’re not going to carry their laundry baskets and go to the bathroom.” laundry. They will drive and it will limit access to all these businesses throughout Maple.”

And what upset many business owners is that the city never notified them of the proposed changes. They learned about this only now, two and a half months after the end of the public comment period.

“We didn’t know anything about it,” he said. “My wife saw this on TikTok. My brother sent me something too. We talked to several people on the street. Nobody knew about it.”

A meeting was held Friday afternoon between the city’s transportation department and stakeholders. Nothing is known about the result yet.

Construction was planned to begin in about a year.