In Dallas' Joppa, Community Leaders and Developer at Odds Over Proposed Townhomes

Claudia Fowler couldn’t help but cry when she heard the details of 14 new townhomes that could sprout up in Joppa, a Dallas freedman's town where she lived most of her life. When renderings of the project were shown during a community meeting last week, Fowler could hardly stand it, she said. It just doesn’t make sense to her for new townhomes to be built in a freedman’s town.

Loosely named after the Biblical city of Jaffa, Joppa (pronounced "Joppee" by residents) was formed by freed slaves after the Civil War.

Fowler doesn’t live in Joppa anymore but is still active in the community. She said she was born and raised there, as was her daughter.

The townhomes would replace an abandoned and dilapidated hotel building that’s been in Joppa since Fowler was a kid, she said. She doesn’t particularly care about the old hotel. Instead, she’s worried these 14 townhomes will be the end of Joppa.

Parham Ghassemi, the developer of the proposed townhomes, said this project has been in the works since June 2019. By email, Ghassemi said in this time there has been little interest in the property itself but that at least six incidents of theft and vandalism have been reported there.

“The neighbors themselves are at their wit's end with the current status of crime and vandalism in the community, and DPD is doing the best they can,” Ghassemi said. “In the meantime, they are very excited about the notion of various builders and developers taking an interest in the rejuvenation of Joppa and cleaning up the neighborhood.”

Fowler isn’t so sure about that. She said the Joppa community has been fighting developers for years.

“In the '80s we fought them. In the '90s we fought them. If we do this, this is only opening the door to other developers to bring in what they want to bring in,” Fowler said. “If we do 14 [townhomes] today, it’s going to be 30 tomorrow, 65 next week, and 100 next year. Then, where will the freedman’s town aspect of our community be?”

She said many lots in Joppa are up for grabs. “If somebody gets off of a plane from across the water … they can buy all of them up. We’re gone. We’re done," Fowler said. "That’s the end of Joppa. Nothing we can do because it’s private money buying private lots.” If they had a historical designation, Fowler said they could avoid these kinds of developments. But as things stand, she said, “We don’t have protection. We’re not protected.”

Temeckia Derrough, a resident in the community and the founder of the Joppa Freedman’s Town Association, also said she opposed the townhomes. On social media, she pleaded with residents to oppose the project. "Joppa, let's stop this," Derrough wrote. "[If] they build one, they will build more."

But Fowler admitted that residents have mixed feelings about the development. Some feel the townhomes could be a nice addition to Joppa.
“Yeah, they’re going to be nice, but where does that fit in with a Black settlement?” Fowler said. “There are funds and grants coming to Joppa in order to restore Black settlements. How are you going to have grant money coming into your community to restore Black settlements and all that, and then you’re talking about building modern townhomes? I don’t see how 48 and two are going to add up to 50 on this one, as my great uncle used to say.”

Ghassemi said the townhomes are the best use for the land and that the project will provide more affordable housing in the area. But if the townhomes don't get the support they need, there is a backup plan on the table for a community setting of five or six family units.

But Fowler said she's ready for a fight. “I’m not backing down, and I mean that,” she said. “They want a war, they got one.”