$390M Hensley Field Redevelopment Awaits Resolution of Dallas, U.S. Navy Cleanup Litigation

A 20-year, $390 million city of Dallas master plan for redeveloping Hensley Field in southwest Dallas is on hold pending environmental cleanup by the U.S. Navy. According to the Dallas Morning News, the city is suing the Navy yet again to get the cleanup finished, so the "hidden gem" can come to life.

Last December, we told you about a 20-year, $390 million master plan for redeveloping Hensley Field in southwest Dallas. Approved by the Dallas City Council that month, the plan could see the former Dallas Naval Air Station become a walkable, 738-acre mixed-use community with 6,800 residential units, a 40-acre “Innovation Village” on the Runway Peninsula, waterfront trails, a new marina, and historic preservation of the site’s military and pre-military heritage. 

But one thing has held up the city’s “hidden gem”: the environmental clean-up of toxic deposits of jet fuel, lead paint, and DDT  found around the site. As of last December, the Navy’s clean-up costs had totaled $92 million, but work still remained to be done.

The city of Dallas apparently got tired of waiting, because it’s suing the Navy yet again over the issue, according to a report today by the Dallas Morning News’ Everton Bailey Jr.

“The United States has failed to keep multiple binding promises to remediate the significant environmental contamination caused by its decades-long use of the Hensley Field site,” the city said in an Aug. 2 complaint filed with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, according to the DMN. “As a result, Dallas cannot implement its master plan that contemplates the reuse and redevelopment of the Hensley Field site into a vibrant mixed-use community for more than 12,000 residents and 12,000 jobs.”

A positive note was struck by Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax, however.

“We appreciate all of the U.S. Navy’s efforts to remediate the site for the past 20 years,” Broadnax said in a statement cited by the DMN. “We are confident that we can reach an agreement on the final phase of the project that ensures Hensley Field can be safely developed into a premier community offering mixed income housing, recreation, commercial space, and more.”

You can read the Morning News story here.

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