For years, the Flora Lofts development has been promising to finally put the "artist" in the Dallas Arts District by providing dozens of affordable live-work lofts for painters, dancers, actors, writers and educators, among others.

And for years, thanks in large part to technicalities and roadblocks thrown up by Dallas City Hall, Flora Lofts stalled. A project that was supposed to have opened its doors in the shadow of Museum Tower by the end of 2015 remains unbuilt; the ground, unbroken.

But a vote by the Dallas City Council on Wednesday has jump-started the moribund project. The developers, among them La Reunion TX and architect Graham Greene, now expect to begin work by July, with March 2019 penciled in as the opening date.

"Today was truly do or die for the project," said Catherine Cuellar, La Reunion TX's founding board chair, after the council's 14-1 vote. "And if it had died, it would have been a real shame."

When completed at the intersections of Flora and Pearl Streets, Flora Lofts will offer 43 affordable units that will be made available to artists vetted and approved by a panel to include artists who don't qualify for space in the building. The project will also accept Section 8 housing vouchers; just months ago the council voted against forcing landlords to accept vouchers as rent payments.

Units will be between 626 and 876 square feet and priced between $598 and $769 to accommodate working artists who would otherwise not be able to live anywhere near the Arts District, said developer Buddy Jordan.

Flora Lofts, which will sit at the base of a completely separate 364-unit high-rise luxury apartment tower called Atelier, will also house seven market-rate units: seven two-bedrooms and two three-bedrooms, each around 1,600 square feet with rent averaging around $4,400 a month.

Next door, some Museum Tower units are on the market for between $1.2 million and $16 million.

Flora Lofts, which comes with a nearly $25 million price tag, will also include around 10,000 square feet of much-needed ground-level retail in an Arts District bereft of such amenities; there will also be some 100 public parking spaces, oft cited as a desperate need for those driving to next-door Klyde Warren Park.

Dallas Theater Center artistic director Kevin Moriarty, among several Arts District higher-ups who went to City Hall to support the project, said Flora Lofts finally fulfilled "a vision that included artists living as well as working in the neighborhood."

Given the significant number of affordable units, funding for the project is complicated, to say the least.

Another view of Flora Lofts (and Atelier) in the Dallas Arts District by 2019, give or take (ZOM Holdings)

City documents show at least eight different sources, including state tax credits worth $4.5 million, $2.5 million in general obligation bonds approved by the city, $4.6 million out of the City Center TIF District and another $14 million in bonds issued by the Dallas Housing Finance Corporation. Greene himself is loaning $1 million to the project.

Council member Philip Kingston, whose district includes the Arts District, hailed the development as the kind Dallas should be building: affordable housing in a high-rent, "high-opportunity" neighborhood.

"We will achieve a neighborhood with income diversity, which is more resilient and sustainable than neighborhoods where we segregate by income," he said. "This is kind of the future for living together in cities."

A close-up of Flora Lofts

But two council colleagues didn't see it that way, with Carolyn King Arnold serving as the loudest voice in opposition.

In recent weeks, the council member from Oak Cliff has repeatedly cited the enormous pile of subsidies as the reason she's vehemently against Flora Lofts; on Wednesday, she cast the lone vote against the development.

"We're frustrated," Arnold said, pointing to the lack of affordable housing in her district. "We participate, but we are often — always — left out of the process. We don't get to partake of the fruits of the labor."

Arnold found a supporter in North Dallas colleague Lee Kleinman.

"We have serious affordable housing issues in Dallas, and this project does not address it," Kleinman said. "It addresses artists living in the Arts District, a laudable goal, but don't kid yourself."

Still, Kleinman wound up voting for the project.