The city of Dallas is taking a new step Thursday towards transforming hundreds of acres of mostly unused land at the site of the former Naval Air Station Dallas into a destination of restaurants, stores and homes.
The master plan draft shows what could bring new life to the 738-acre site, also known as Hensley Field, along Mountain Creek Lake. The 59-page presentation will be shown Thursday to the City Plan Commission for possible future action and recommendation to the Dallas City Council.
It has long been seen as a “blank canvas” for a mixed-use development that could spur economic growth to the western and southern sides of the city.
“When you drive into the site, you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, you could almost build an entire new city out here on Hensley Field,’” Eric Anthony Johnson, the city’s chief of economic development, housing and neighborhood services, told NBC DFW in a 2021 interview.
The land sits in a federal Opportunity Zone, a designation intended to boost economic development in distressed areas. The city has been awaiting an environmental cleanup from the Navy for pollution.
“This project will basically start to set the pace over the next 20 years to help grow southern Dallas,” Johnson said while the master plan draft was under development.
Hensley Field first opened in 1928 as a U.S. Army Air Field and became Naval Air Station Dallas in the 1940s. It provided military aviation training through World War II, the Cold War and Vietnam War. The site was returned to the City of Dallas in 1998 and has been mostly used for storage.
See the complete master plan below or click here to open it in a new window.
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