ForwardDallas Comprehensive Land Use Plan Draft Released, Council Adoption Slated For June

In the wake of tough conversations about zoning and land use, Dallas staff has spent more than two years updating the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan, and city planners say the community will soon see the fruits of their labor. 

Interim Planning and Urban Design Director Andrea Gilles provided a brief update on ForwardDallas during a Dec. 4 Economic Development Committee meeting.  

“As many of you are well aware, we have had a lot of process, about two and a half years,” Gilles said. “It was very important to have this amount of process because we really needed to get the community up to speed. We needed community buy-in. I think we have a lot of that now.”

An updated draft plan and placetype map were released Dec. 11. 

“The City of Dallas has not had a comprehensive land use plan,” Gilles said. “We’ve had a vision plan from 2006 but we haven’t had a land use plan that guides zoning decisions within the city. It was really important to make that distinction.” 

It’s particularly important since the city has faced recent criticism over its development code, also undergoing an overhaul. The Dallas City Council is debating issues such as parking reform and minimum lot size requirements, which likely will come into play as ForwardDallas nears the finish line next summer. 

Housing And Land Use Planning

The plan won’t solve all the city’s problems when it comes to zoning and land use, but a Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee has been meeting twice a month for over a year to tackle the details, receive public input, and prepare recommendations. 

Gilles said the subject of housing came up repeatedly during the public input process. Such comments have served as driving principles, along with planning best practices.

“Environmental justice has been one of the top themes and subjects that has been discussed throughout this planning effort,” Gilles said. “There was a lot of conversation about housing accessibility, housing opportunity, housing choice. What does that look like from a land use perspective?” 

Economic development, transit-oriented development, and urban design also were important to stakeholders, Gilles added. 

ForwardDallas roundtable events are open to the public and scheduled from 6 to 7 p.m. Jan. 9 and from noon to 1 p.m. Jan. 19. 

ForwardDallas Placetypes

When crafting a citywide land use plan, each property cannot be individually evaluated, Gilles explained. 

“There’s been a lot of discussion around our residential areas and how we are addressing housing options within our residential areas, specifically our lower-intensity residential areas,” she said. “We talk about different concepts … incorporating more housing options across all of our residential areas. A lot of the discussion is about equity. Why should one area have to accommodate more housing than another area?” 

District 7 Councilman Adam Bazaldua asked that clear guidance be given on how specific land use goals outlined in the plan, particularly those focusing on industrial use, can be accomplished.

“Some are very high-level,” he said. “I’d like to have some definitive proposals for us to be sifting through. I also would like to know if you could have it coupled with some type of briefing on what this is going to do for non-compliant properties once everything is passed.”

The plan will likely go before the City Plan Commission in January for a review and public hearings. 

“What we would like to see is that ideally at the end of May, there is a CPC recommendation to City Council and that City Council review and public hearings could begin in June,” Gilles said.