A proposed expansion of Dallas’s Arts District got a big boost this week when a developer who had been balking at the zoning changes required for the expansion changed course and signed on as a supporter of the plan. “Despite vocal opposition from at least three property owners, City Plan Commission members on Thursday unanimously voted to lengthen the district.” The Arts District has become one of downtown Dallas’s most desirably urban areas, and the expansion is designed in part to force the owners of some of the dilapidated gas stations and vacant lots on the area’s outskirts to conform to the new high standard set by the district.