Victories in Dallas: Change starts at city hall

At a time when making progress on environmental and public interest concerns in Washington seems difficult at best, there are still places where one can make a meaningful difference right now. One such place is at city hall. 

It’s something The Public Interest Network’s groups have done many times over the past 50 years, from helping to win a toxic pollution right-to-know law in San Diego in 1982 to strengthening Chicago’s residential building energy efficiency standards in 2008. More recently, in Pennsylvania, our state group PennEnvironment helped pass bans on single-use plastic bags in cities, townships and boroughs.

I wanted to share with you some good examples showing why this work matters, deep in the heart of the state where I grew up.

In May 2024, Environment Texas helped win $345 million for Dallas parks, the biggest-ever municipal park bond. This came after a victory the previous year when, after years of advocacy by Environment Texas and our allies, the directors of Texas’s sixth-most polluting industrial facility, San Antonio’s municipally owned J.K. Spruce 1 coal-powered plant, voted to close it down by 2028.

These successes motivated Luke Metzger, the leader of our Texas state office, to hire Ian Seamans in 2024 as Environment Texas’s first exclusively municipal-level advocate, focused on Dallas.

In September of that year, Ian gave testimony to the city council as it debated Forward Dallas, the city’s new comprehensive plan. The final plan approved by the council included measures supported by Environment Texas to protect Dallas residents from environmental hazards, reduce pollution runoff and erosion and curb urban sprawl.

In June 2024, Plano, a city in the Dallas metro area, debated and ultimately passed a resolution to support cutting Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) funding by 25%. Some Dallas City Council members also proposed passing a resolution to cut the transit agency’s funding that summer. In testimony to the DART Board of Directors, Ian emphasized, “DART takes the equivalent of more than 150,000 cars off the road every year in Dallas/Fort Worth, and expansion of service is the only way we can create a walkable, environmentally friendly city that meets our climate goals.” Eventually, Environment Texas helped persuade Dallas City Council members to adopt a resolution calling for the protection of the transit system’s funding.

Over the last several months, Ian also testified at Dallas’s City Plan Commission and at Dallas City Council in support of reforms to the city’s off-street parking codes. Originally written in 1965, and not significantly updated since, the code has required an excessive number of parking spaces for buildings to operate across Dallas. The unnecessarily large parking lots exacerbate the heat island effect in the city, worsen flash flooding and encourage residents to drive, rather than take transportation with lower emissions. On May 14, the reforms passed 14-1, greatly reducing or even eliminating parking mandates for every building type across the city.

Reflecting on this expansion into municipal work, Luke says, “In the past, we’ve contributed to successful efforts to shift Houston’s bus fleet to clean, electric buses and to increase Austin’s commitment to clean and renewable solar power. I believe there are opportunities to win policies in Texas’ more conservative metro areas that make them greener, healthier places to live — opportunities that may also help popularize the idea of environmental progress for Texans of all political stripes, so that helping the environment isn’t just perceived by our state and federal leaders as ‘what people in Austin do.’”

I applaud all our advocates who have helped create change at the local level, in particular Luke and Ian at Environment Texas. Whatever locality you are in, thank you for all that you do to protect our environment and make America a healthier place to live.