The Neighborhood Committee’s Claim

The Head of the Neighborhood Committee declared that a noted architectural historian and architect went over the Inventory of our houses submitted to the City:

Willis Winters went through our inventory …

Head of Neighborhood Committee, Summer Loveland, Meeting 9

The Problem: Obvious Errors on the Inventory

And yet, there were obvious errors on the inventory that a noted architectural historian and architect would be unlikely to make.

So I wrote to Willis Winters, sending photos of three houses, and asked if he had said these houses were Spanish Eclectic. He wrote:

 Summer did ask me to analyze the three houses with photos contained in your email. These houses feature continuous second-floor balconies without support columns, and should be classified as the Monterey Style, which originated in California and is often referred to as the Monterey Colonial Style–a definite subset of the Spanish Colonial Style. However, as Monterey Colonial moved eastward across the United States away from California, the style morphed and transitioned to accommodate itself in different cultures and architectural traditions. The three houses you sent me are good examples of how builders and architects in Dallas adopted the Monterey Colonial and made it more “Texan.” One could argue that these houses can be traced back to the Monterey Colonial and are therefore descended from Spanish Colonial, but that does not make them Spanish Eclectic from a stylistic perspective. There is nothing Spanish about them–except, perhaps for the arch above a window that is outlined in dentillated brick. That is the only stylistic remnant of Spanish influence I can see, and it is not enough to classify the entire house as Spanish. Dentillated brick used like this would never be found on a Spanish house. So, if you need a stylistic modifier to “Monterey” I would offer “”Monterey Ranch” on the first and third houses, and for lack of a better description  simple “Monterey” on the second house (the one with dentillated brick). These three houses are not “Spanish Eclectic.”

Willis Winters to Julie Broberg, September 1, 2023

Did Willis Winters Go Through The Inventory?

I asked him that, too. He wrote:

Summer looked to me primarily for assistance/guidance on Lakewood residences that were not easily classifiable as to their style–the “difficult” houses, in other words. As a former Lakewood resident, architect and historian, I was very familiar with the neighborhood and the architects that designed homes there. I provided her with attributions of the homes designed not only by Charles Dilbeck and C.D. Hutsell, but lesser-known architects such as George Marble, Luther Sadler, Howard Meyer, E.G. Hamilton and others. 


I don’t recall how many specific houses on the long inventory that I checked and delivered an opinion on.

Willis Winters to Julie Broberg, September 1, 2023

So We Hired Willis Winters to Go Through The Inventory and Give a Comprehensive List of Accurate Styles

The results were shocking. You can see Willis Winters’s Report on House Styles in the Lakewood Expansion Area for yourself. Using Willis Winter’s report, we made Comparison Shows 60% of Neighborhood Committee Is Incorrect.

Impact: Bad Data in Neighborhood Meetings

We have repeatedly asked the City to correct the Inventory, but the Chief Planner wrote that the Inventory submitted by the Committee has nothing to do with the resulting Ordinance.

Really? Does the Submitted Inventory have Nothing to do with the resulting Ordinance?

How can we choose Contributing Styles when we miss 2/3 of them?

  • Expert Report: 18 Architectural Styles
  • Neigh Comm: 6

Why is an area with under 50% Contributing homes even considered for a CD Expansion?

The Expansion area chosen by the Neighborhood Committee is not “similar and compatible to CD2,” as required by the Ordinance.

Action Item

It’s time. Please write to demand an end to this misleading and misguided process.

  • cc: [email protected] so I can keep copies in case the City claims not to have heard from anyone.

Talking points:

  • This isn’t a game. It changes zoning forever.
  • We deserve the truth from our Neighborhood Committee.
  • We deserve fact-checking from our City.
  • The City did not follow the Ordinance for creating an Expansion. It used New CD rules to create this Expansion.
  • The Expansion area is not “similar and compatible with the current CD2.
  • No matter what the Ordinance says, the City presented bad data repeatedly. Neighbors based their decisions on incorrect numbers.
  • Remember, there were no teardowns of Historic Homes. The Hutsell on Lakewood was a Monterey, which the Neighborhood Committee wouldn’t have saved. They save Spanish Eclectic and Tudor Hutsells. Ask your non-contributing neighbors on Tokalon in Hutsell ranches.

More Info

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Inventory Errors and Impact

Willis Winters’s Report on House Styles in the Lakewood Expansion Area.

Comparison Shows 60% of Neighborhood Committee’s Inventory is Incorrect

Bad Data in Neighborhood Meetings

Comparison: List of Styles