Dallas Weighs Cost of Closing West Dallas Industrial Sites

West Dallas residents have spent years breathing in what they say are the byproducts of industrial neighbors they never wanted. Now, for the first time, Dallas city officials are taking formal steps to figure out what it might cost to make those neighbors leave.

The Dallas City Council’s Economic Development Committee took up the question Monday, beginning work to determine the potential price of buying out GAF, a roofing shingle manufacturer that has operated near Singleton Boulevard for nearly 80 years. The process, known as amortization, would allow the city to estimate the cost of acquiring the property and forcing the company to relocate or close.

GAF has already announced plans to shut down its Dallas facility by 2029. But for Janie Cisneros, who leads the neighborhood advocacy group Singleton United, three more years is not an acceptable answer.

“We don’t want 2029, we’ve been saying that from the beginning, that’s too long,” Cisneros said. “Essentially, what it’s going to take to shut GAF down.”

Cisneros and her organization have pushed for roughly five years to remove heavy industry from the West Dallas neighborhoods clustered around Singleton Boulevard. She describes an ongoing physical toll on residents who live close to the plant.

“We feel it, we feel it when we breathe it in,” she said.

GAF declined to comment Monday. The city is also evaluating a second facility: TAMKO Building Products, located near the Joppa neighborhood off South Central Expressway.

TAMKO pushed back against the city’s review in a statement, arguing that forced relocation would impose significant costs with little environmental payoff.

“Forced relocation through amortization would impose substantial costs while delivering no measurable air-quality benefit. It would eliminate more than 100 high-quality jobs and end our ongoing community support,” a TAMKO spokesperson said. The company said it remains committed to working with city leaders and wants decisions “grounded in facts.”

Monday’s committee session was not a final vote or a commitment to action. Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Moreno made that clear.

“This is only the first step to a long process,” Moreno said.

The path forward involves a vote by the full Dallas City Council later this month on whether to hire a consultant to estimate the acquisition costs for both properties. That vote is enabled by a five-signature memo signed last fall by council members Adam Bazaldua, Laura Cadena, Zarin Gracey, Chad West and Paula Blackmon.

District 11 Council Member Bill Roth underscored that the financial question involves more than real estate value.

“This is a big deal. This isn’t about how much is your land worth,” Roth said.

The West Dallas and Joppa communities have long raised concerns about air quality and environmental justice, and the GAF and TAMKO facilities sit in neighborhoods that are majority-minority and lower-income. The fight to remove heavy industry from these areas reflects a broader tension that shows up in cities across Texas, where industrial facilities often operate in close proximity to residential communities with limited political power to push back.

TAMKO’s argument about job losses carries real weight in any city budget conversation, and Dallas officials will have to weigh that against community health concerns and the city’s own stated equity goals. The amortization process is slow by design, meant to allow companies a reasonable period to recoup investments before a forced closure takes effect. That timeline rarely lines up with what affected residents feel they can afford to wait.

For Cisneros, the committee meeting represents progress, even if the road ahead is long.

“We want our city leaders to take that into account,” she said. “To listen, to make it right by the residents, to protect the residents.”

The full council vote is expected later this month. If approved, the consultant’s findings would give Dallas a clearer picture of what removing both facilities would actually cost, and would set the stage for one of the more significant industrial land-use decisions the city has faced in years.