Three corners of Preston Road and Royal Lane are full. They hold Tom Thumb, Eatzi's, Royal China, Shake Shack and Bird's Bookstore & Art House, plus a new Tex-Mex spot where a sushi bar used to be. The fourth corner, the southwest one, is a seven-acre concrete slab. Medical office buildings stood there until the October 2019 tornado damaged them and they were torn down.

The Dallas City Council will vote on Nov. 10 on whether that slab can hold buildings as tall as 240 feet. Current zoning allows 54. Most of the public debate has been about height. The details of the case show that traffic around the intersection will increase under either outcome. The vote decides how tall the buildings are and whether a developer-funded upgrade of the signals along Royal Lane is part of the package.

The other three corners never stopped changing

The developed quadrants are busy. In her Oct. 9 District 13 newsletter, Council Member Gay Donnell Willis said a Kimley-Horn traffic study found the shopping center already draws more than 30,000 one-way retail visits a day across its three developed corners, according to the Preston Hollow Advocate.

That traffic kept growing this year:

• El Molino opened Aug. 10 at 6025 Royal Lane in the former Anchor Sushi Bar space. Anchor closed May 31.
• Palladino's Steak & Seafood is at 5959 Royal Lane. The Advocate's August list of restaurant arrivals included it.
• Campisi's announced an Aug. 1 opening at 5944 Royal Lane. This location focuses on pickup and delivery rather than dine-in, the Advocate reported in June. It is separate from the restaurant's planned move from its fire-damaged Lovers Lane site to 7709 Inwood Road, which the Dallas Observer reported is aiming to open in early 2027.

These corners have rebuilt before. In October 2019, the Advocate reported that the tornado tore the roof off a building on the southeast corner. My Family's Pizza, Fish City Grill, Interabang Books and Hollywood Feed were among the businesses largely destroyed, and Royal China and Central Market were heavily damaged. Royal China is still on the center's current tenant roster. The southwest corner is the only one that has sat empty since.

Twelve months, two height cuts

Developer Leland Burk and Gerald Stool's Greenway Investment Co. first presented the project in October 2025. It was a $650 million plan with a 28-story hotel and condo tower, a 24-story apartment tower, two office buildings and restaurants, with a groundbreaking estimated for 2028 if the zoning was approved. Since then, the plan has gotten shorter and its estimated cost has grown to about $800 million.

The June changes followed a May 18 meeting between council members and the community. The current plan keeps buildings at 54 feet for the first 50 feet back from the south edge before they step up. It also includes a half-acre public green space and at least 200 new trees.

At its Aug. 6 meeting, the City Plan Commission voted 10-4 to recommend the 240-foot height. The Advocate described more than three hours of debate before the vote. The same report said a petition brought by Reform Dallas opposing the project had more than 4,500 signatures. Preserve Preston Hollow, the nonprofit leading the opposition, has said it supports redevelopment and the proposed mix of uses if the project stays within the existing 54-foot limit. Burk has told The Dallas Morning News that a project at the 54-foot limit is "not workable."

The traffic numbers don't line up with the height debate

The council member whose district includes the site has made traffic her main focus. In the newsletter quoted by the Advocate, Willis wrote:

"Traffic is the number one concern I've heard since the zoning application was filed for the 7-acre parcel at Preston Road and Royal Lane. While the property is currently a vacant concrete slab following the demolition of medical office buildings damaged in the 2019 tornado, any future development will naturally generate more traffic than the site does today."

The second sentence of that quote matters most. The corner sends no cars into the intersection today, so any project built there will add some. The question is how many.

According to the Morning News, a Kimley-Horn study done for the developers projects about 5,000 one-way vehicle trips a day from the tower project. The same study estimates that a project built under the current 54-foot zoning, with no council approval needed, could generate more than 9,200. These are the developer's figures from a study the developer paid for. If they hold, the taller project would put fewer cars on Preston and Royal each day than a lower-rise project allowed today.

Height and traffic, the two concerns that come up most in this case, may point in different directions. Hotel rooms, condos and apartments usually create different trip patterns than a site full of retail or medical offices built under existing rules. Both projections are small next to the more than 30,000 daily retail visits the three developed corners already draw.

What else is attached to the zoning case

The month-long delay is about the intersection more than the towers. Willis has asked that traffic improvements reach beyond the Preston and Royal intersection to include signal coordination farther east and west on Royal Lane, and she has said the developer is interested in paying for them. The Morning News reports that Burk has committed to three phases of improvements, though final details are still being worked out:

1. New detection technology at Preston and Royal to improve signal timing, similar to the system at Preston Road and Forest Lane. The equipment there now is outdated and was installed quickly by the city after the 2019 tornado.
2. A signal-control system for Fire Station 41 on Royal Lane, so fire trucks can briefly interrupt normal light cycles and get immediate right of way.
3. A timing study and reprogramming of the signals on Royal Lane from Midway Road to Hillcrest Road, plus the two signals just north and south of the Preston and Royal intersection.

The first item ties back to the tornado. The signals at the intersection were put in as an emergency fix seven years ago and are still running. Burk's representatives told the paper he would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on signals and related infrastructure without city money. They also pointed to a signal retiming on Walnut Hill Lane several years ago that they said saved drivers nearly 150,000 hours of delay. The original October 2025 plan also included a new signal and crosswalk on Preston Road and more than 1,000 linear feet of sidewalk.

Still open before Nov. 10

On Oct. 14, the council agreed to Willis's request and moved the vote to Nov. 10. When she asked for the delay, she also cited a good-neighbor agreement with the nearby Royal Lane Condominiums. During the roughly 10 minutes of discussion, District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn asked whether other parts of the project could still change before the vote, mentioning concerns she had heard from residents about height. Willis answered that "negotiations are open," and the delay "gives us a period of almost a month to continue negotiations."

That leaves three things to watch over the next few weeks:

• Height. The Morning News notes it is unclear whether Burk would agree to cut the height again.
• The traffic package. Its final scope, especially how far along Royal Lane the signal work reaches, is still being negotiated.
• The Royal Lane Condominiums agreement. It is the one nearby-neighbor arrangement Willis has named in the case.

Approval would not change the corner right away. The developers' original timeline put groundbreaking no earlier than 2028. Until construction starts, the slab will look the same while El Molino, Palladino's and the rest of the center keep drawing traffic to the other three corners.

If you own a home near Preston Road and Royal Lane and want to know how the Nov. 10 outcome might affect your street, Katherine Roberts follows this case closely and is glad to talk it over. Request an Appointment for a private conversation.