Equitable Development Toolkit & Real Estate Impact Study for Harold Simmons Park
HR&A partnered with the Trinity Park Conservancy to develop an Equitable Development Toolkit that transforms a $150 million investment in Dallas’s Harold Simmons Park into a catalyst for community opportunity. Through comprehensive analysis and stakeholder engagement, we created implementable strategies to ensure the 200-acre park connecting Downtown Dallas, West Dallas, and Oak Cliff strengthens neighborhoods while addressing systemic inequities.
Our work began with understanding the complex dynamics at play through real estate market analysis, demographic research, and extensive stakeholder consultation. We engaged local community members, national experts, and regional leaders to identify how park development could either exacerbate existing inequities or create new pathways for opportunity. By examining both successful models and past failures in similar contexts, we developed a nuanced understanding of what strategies would be most effective for this unique Trinity River location and the diverse communities it serves.
The Equitable Development Plan provides the Conservancy with a detailed toolkit of policies, advocacy efforts, initiatives, and partnerships to achieve equitable development. The Equity Toolkit offers discrete tactics to prevent involuntary displacement, facilitate opportunity neighborhoods, protect cultural heritage, promote wealth creation and community ownership, and establish equitable practices within the Conservancy. We prepared an action plan detailing roles for the Conservancy, City, and private partners, while conducting a real estate impact study that estimated net-new property value and tax revenues through 2050, accounting for trade-offs between maximizing real estate value and uplifting equity and inclusion.
HR&A has continued to support the Trinity Park Conservancy in analyzing and developing capital and operations and maintenance funding strategies and updated impact projections to reflect changes in the park’s program. Harold Simmons Park broke ground in Spring 2025.
Explore:
Harold Simmons Park Equitable Development Toolkit
Press:
‘This parkis happening’: Dallas breaks ground on $325 million Harold Simmons Park — Dallas Morning News
