Olive Talley: Want to Preserve The Character of Your Neighborhood? Oppose Elimination of Single-Family Housing

By Olive Talley
Special Contributor

If you live in a single-family neighborhood in Dallas, enjoy it while you can. It may not last. 

We now face an outrageous and inexplicable push to eliminate all single-family home zoning in the city.

If Dallas City Councilman Chad West, the chair of the Housing and Homelessness Solutions and his committee get their way, single-family homes throughout Dallas will be re-zoned as multi-family duplexes, imposing a “by-right” edict so that anyone can add a second residence to their property.  

This means your single-family neighborhood could double in density through rental properties. 

And if you don’t like it, you’ll have a short window – only 30 days — to reach a consensus with a whopping 75 percent of your neighbors to “opt out” of this forced citywide overlay that allows an ADU, Accessory Dwelling Unit, to be built overlooking your back yard. 

By what right does the city impose this kind of edict on neighborhoods?

We’ve fought for decades to reach compromises and build consensus for self-determination, especially in conservation and historic districts like my tiny Edgemont Park Conservation District and other Old East Dallas neighborhoods such as Junius Heights, Lakewood Heights, the M Streets, Swiss Ave Historic District, Munger Place, Peaks Addition, Hollywood Heights/ Santa Monica, Little Forest Hills and Lower Greenville. And that’s just in the East Dallas area I know.  

So what’s driving this steamroller plan to dump single-family housing zoning for multi-family duplex zoning? 

It almost feels like the city is trying to cram this down our throats under the dark cover of COVID when people are focused on staying alive, holding a job, taking care of their families and educating their kids in the midst of a pandemic. 

Here are some facts: 

• Homeowners in Dallas ALREADY have this right to build an ADU on their property. 
• Neighborhoods ALREADY have the right to “opt in” to allow for an ADU that is rentable or not.  
• The city offers two paths for getting approval for either type of ADU. Both involve filing an application, appearing before the Board of Adjustment  (BOA) at a public hearing for public input. 
• In the two years since the ADU ordinance was enacted, only SEVEN property owners filed applications for ADUs, according to city staff. 
• ALL SEVEN applications were APPROVED. Only two were for rent, according to city staff. Do either of those offer affordable rents?  No clue. 
• NO ONE has been blocked or prevented from seeking an application or building an ADU if they want it.  

Is there a backlog of requests?  City staff says no. 

Is the process too burdensome? No. 

Does it require pricey lawyers or zoning consultants?  No. 

Is the $600 filing fee too high?  No.  If someone wants to change the rules and impact everyone else in the neighborhood, they should bear the burden of the cost of applying for the change. And if they can afford to spend up to $200,000 to build another building, this is a miniscule cost. 

So, what’s really driving this? 

Mr. West says it’s a way to increase affordable housing throughout Dallas, by allowing citizens to rent out a detached garage, back house or so-called “granny flat” to seniors, young adults and low-to-moderate-income families. 

On the surface, that sounds reasonable. But, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. There are long-term ramifications for de-stabilizing single-family home neighborhoods. When you factor in more traffic, parking issues, noise, transient renters, pets, garbage and additional demands on the infrastructure and a thinned-out city code staff, a “By-right Overlay” is neither a fair nor equitable solution to the affordable housing problem.  

This is a solution in search of a problem, folks. There is NOTHING standing in the way for people to create an ADU on their property.  It will muck up a process that’s already working. And, it’s the wrong solution for affordable housing.  

If the city wants to solve the affordable housing problem, then why not propose a cap on rental prices in ADUs ? Will homeowners charge below-market rates after spending tons of money to fix up a place for the purpose of making money?  Not if profit is their motive. 

Maybe the city should STOP issuing permits that allow developers to bulldoze existing affordable housing – pushing lower-income people out of the near and inner-city neighborhoods —and replace their homes with pricey condos and high-rise apartments?   

Since the 1950s, the city has tried to wipe out East Dallas through up-zoning. 

As just one example, the city – with NO public notice to the property owners – rezoned Mt. Auburn neighborhood as multi-family.  The neighborhood spent the next few decades clawing its way back to single-family zoning.  And now, with taxes rising, developers and investors are swooping back in to grab whatever land they can and once again, shove out the little guys who cannot afford to stay and pay higher taxes. 

It’s a vicious cycle. And while it is exhausting to keep fighting the same fight,  we will not stop. And we will not stay silent.  We will not allow our neighborhoods to be de-stabilized through high-density zoning like this.  

And one last point about ADUs. One of the strengths of the existing ADU process is that it contains safeguards to protect neighborhoods, including size and height restrictions. The burden rightfully falls to the homeowner who seeks a “special exception.” Neighbors are notified and get to weigh in on zoning changes that directly impact their investment and quality of life.  It helps create peace and solutions for neighborhoods.  And, for ADUs that are built as rentals, the current ordinance requires the property owner to actually live in one of the houses.  That means they’ve got a stake in the neighborhood. 

Without safeguards, the city is opening the door for more investor-owned property as opposed to homeowners who actually live, work, and play in Dallas. 

Currently, another city task force is studying this very issue of short-term rentals (STRs) that are already disrupting neighborhoods, pitting neighbors against investors who are operating rental properties without living in them, making a buck off the backs of the neighborhood. 

ADUs today = STRs tomorrow. 

Many believe this ADU overlay is simply a ruse or backdoor route that paves the way for higher density through STRs. 

Please join me and ACT NOW to stop this nonsense.  Call your council members and your city plan commissioners and ask them to shut down this misguided proposal to wipe out your property rights and eliminate single-family zoning in Dallas.  This is a waste of time and potentially hundreds of thousands of your taxpayer dollars. 

Here’s an excerpt from a city staff report presented at the Zoning and Ordinance Committee this week: 

Read the full report here: https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopment/planning/Pages/Accessory_Dwelling_Units.aspx

(Good luck trying to listen to any recordings of past web meetings where this was discussed. The city cannot figure out how to post those. So much for public transparency in times of COVID.) 

Here’s a link to contact your city council member: 

https://dallascityhall.com/government/Pages/contact_mcc.aspx

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Olive Talley moved to East Dallas in 1986 from Houston, the Wild West of no zoning. She’s lived in her current home for 19 years and serves (unpaid) as the corresponding secretary for the Edgemont Park Conservation District. She’s an award-winning former journalist (Pulitzer-Prize finalist and three-time Emmy finalist) for her reporting for newspapers, radio, and network TV. She’s currently producing her second feature-length documentary.