Does the Southwest Housing/Dallas City Hall scandal extend south?

Beyond that scandal with its recent indictments, is there a further story, with the Potashniks offering money or other considerations to leaders of the Best Southwest cities of Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville and Lancaster?

Contrary to what a friend of mine says a friend of his says, I’m pretty damned sure that answer is no, based on my time as a newspaper editor in Lancaster and familiarity with the Best Southwest in general.

First, what do the four cities have? Per that scandal with its recent indictments, Lancaster has a Southwest Housing low-income apartment complex. Cedar Hill has a Southwest Housing seniors complex and DeSoto has two. Duncanville has no Southwest Housing projects, though some of its projects in southwest Dallas are inside Duncanville School District boundaries.

So, throw Duncanville out. Beyond having no Southwest Housing projects, its city council protested a few years back about the number and size of those being built in southwest Dallas that would fall inside school district boundaries.

Throw Cedar Hill and DeSoto out. Senior citizens apartment complexes aren’t controversial, unless they’re real junkers. And, from the outside, the ones in Cedar Hill and DeSoto look OK.

That leaves Lancaster.

I was the Lancaster newspaper editor when the Lancaster Planning and Zoning Commission and Lancaster City Council approved the Rosemont of Lancaster site.

This process has several differences with any Dallas projects.

First, the site was already zoned multi-family. Second, Southwest Housing wasn’t in competition with another low-income developer, unlike Dallas. Third, the only controversy in Lancaster was whether the Potashniks would get Planned Development zoning to build a complex with four-bedroom apartments, or whether they would, if defeated there, under straight zoning for which the site was already zoned build a complex with just two- and three-bedroom apartments, but which would actually have a higher population density than their Planned Development site plan proposed?

Well, Lancaster leaders made the best of a bad situation and approved the Planned Development. Besides, if Nancy Moffett didn’t smell a rat, there likely wasn’t one.

So, it’s my considered opinion that there’s nothing to look at down here.