Here’s Where Your Dallas City Council Member Stands on Minimum Lot Size Reduction

Reducing Dallas’ minimum lot size requirements to allow for greater residential density is far from being a done deal, as residents and elected officials spoke against the idea during a special meeting of the Dallas City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee on Wednesday.  

District 7 Councilman Adam Bazaldua, who supports reducing minimum lot sizes, called the gathering a “dog and pony show” driven by the “Not in My Backyard” crowd. 

CandysDirt.com broke down the arguments for and against reducing minimum lot size in Dallas in a Dec. 14 report. 

Reducing Minimum Lot Size: Neighborhood Nightmare or Affordable Housing Dream Come True?

District 14 resident Melanie Vanlandingham and others addressed the committee about protecting neighborhoods and carefully considering where greater density would work, rather than a blanket development code change that would affect the entire city. 

“Don’t gloss over the study results,” Vanlandingham said. “The Houston study showed that 80 percent of the new housing was already zoned for commercial or industrial. That’s why they didn’t impact existing neighborhoods. That’s why they didn’t displace residents. Look deeper. Try your experiment on those large swaths of extremely low-density commercial and industrial properties and large tracts of vacant land, like those along the Stemmons Corridor, for instance, close to hospitals and work centers.” 

‘Just a Conversation’

Interim Planning and Urban Design Director Andrea Gilles emphasized the briefing was “just a conversation” called for in a memorandum authored by District 1 Councilman Chad West and signed by four other Dallas City Council members. 

Gilles acknowledged the importance of being sensitive to location, context, and design of any new housing types. 

“There is no proposal on the table,” she said. “I know it’s come up a lot about affordable housing. Really in this conversation, we’re talking about different housing types at different price points, not affordable housing per se.” 

Assistant Planning Director Andreea Udrea explained that any type of change to the code “when it comes to housing” must include context-sensitive design standards.

At the close of the meeting, six residents spoke in support of allowing more homes on the same amount of land. Elizabeth Markowitz said she is raising her son in an apartment but the city’s massive lot sizes price out middle-income earners.

“This is something that is supported by the majority of Americans,” she said. “From data out of Houston, we know that reforming our minimum lot size requirements works to lower the price of housing. It also works to reduce the displacement of Black and Latino residents.”

---

Where Do Council Members Stand on Minimum Lot Size Requirements? 

Council members weighed in Wednesday on allowing multifamily units in single-family-zoned areas. The meeting was held just days before Christmas and not all council members serve on the HHS committee. Note that the comments below are just a portion of what was said. The full three-hour meeting can be viewed here. 

District 1: Chad West

We know where Councilman West stands on minimum lot size. 

He didn’t attend Wednesday’s meeting due to a previously scheduled family vacation and told CandysDirt.com that he’s grateful for the residents who showed up “to support the notion that every Dallasite should have a realistic opportunity to become a homeowner in a community that works best for their family.”

“Families like mine will be fine no matter what, but I can’t sit idly by as working families who have called Oak Cliff and Dallas home for generations feel priced out of their long-standing neighborhoods,” West said. “If we don’t increase supply, we all know who will be the ones to be priced out by a city that couldn’t do the right thing.”

District 2: Jesse Moreno

Moreno, chair of the Housing and Homeless Solutions Committee, said allowing multifamily development in single-family neighborhoods by right is “a big red flag for me and a non-starter.”

“I believe in neighborhood self-determination,” he said. “I support density. I support more people being able to live in the City of Dallas, but it has to be in the appropriate place … This cannot be a blanket approach.” 

Some speculated that Moreno pursued holding the meeting without West and structured it so that a “Not in My Backyard” crowd who opposes lot size reduction got to speak first and set the tone. 

Moreno said the meeting had to be held this week due to time constraints set in motion by the five-signature memorandum and the mayor’s directive that the HHS Committee take up the matter within a fixed time frame. 

District 3: Zarin Gracey 

Gracey said city staff and council members need to do a better job communicating. 

“It’s not a secret that Dallas has a housing problem,” he said. “I always remain open-minded to hearing smart solutions. The problem is, there’s a couple of things, particularly in southern Dallas, that we’ve been asking for. Sometimes when these smart solutions come forward, though they make perfect sense logically, the things we’ve been asking for get overshadowed, and that is a consistent frustration.” 

District 4: Carolyn King Arnold

Arnold said she did not want to support a proposal that would threaten single-family zoning. The plan might work for a new community but not for established neighborhoods, she said. 

“They’re not asking for duplexes and triplexes in single-family zoning,” Arnold said of D4 residents. “They want housing where their children can grow up in the house, play in the backyard and live what we would call a normal life where you can engage with neighbors.” 

District 5: Jaime Resendez

Resendez was not present at Wednesday’s HHS meeting but signed the memorandum that started the conversation. 

District 6: Omar Narvaez

Narvaez was not present Wednesday and has not publicly commented on the matter. 

District 7: Adam Bazaldua 

Bazaldua said he grew up in a duplex, played in a yard near a single-family neighborhood, and did not consider his childhood abnormal. 

“The NIMBY tone of this meeting is just out of the roof,” he said. “This is clearly an attempt to stifle the democratic process that we have in our city. This is also false to continue to portray this and put this on staff as if this were a proposal from them. This was five colleagues using a mechanism that was given to us as council members so that we could start a conversation.” 

Staff is working extremely hard to address the city’s antiquated zoning, Bazaldua added. 

District 8: Tennell Atkins 

Atkins said residents in District 8 are against higher density in single-family neighborhoods. 

“I’m very disturbed about the process and procedure,” he said. “I think right now we are getting the cart before the horse. We’ve been working on ForwardDallas [comprehensive land use plan] since 2006 and this subject just came up. It looks like you’re trying to shove this way in front of the cart right now.”

He asked if the minimum lot size issue was about affordable housing, to which Gilles responded: “This is not about affordable housing. This is about housing options.” 

District 9: Paula Blackmon

Blackmon was not present at Wednesday’s HHS meeting but signed the memorandum that started the conversation. 

District 10: Kathy Stewart

Stewart said high-density development is occurring naturally in District 10. She said she thinks her constituents would offer a resounding, “No thank you” to the idea of duplexes and triplexes in their single-family neighborhoods. 

“We are creating density just by the market demand,” she said. “When a shopping center is torn down, townhomes are going in and when an old historical home on Greenville is finally torn down, David Weekley goes in and puts in zero-lot-line homes. Density is just happening naturally. When there is an opportunity, there is a market for these more dense developments, and those are happening.” 

District 11: Jaynie Schultz

Schultz was not present at Wednesday’s HHS meeting but signed the memorandum that started the conversation. 

District 12: Cara Mendelsohn

Mendelsohn has spoken against minimum lot size reductions, saying that her constituents overwhelmingly have said they don’t want greater density in single-family neighborhoods. 

“The idea that you’re saying ‘context-sensitive means that it looks like a house’ is a very Dallas thing to say, that it’s about the appearance of it,” she said. “I don’t think they care as much about the appearance of it as they don’t actually want to have multifamily — no matter what it looks like — in an established single-family neighborhood.” 

District 13: Gay Donnell Willis 

Willis emphasized the need for duplexes, triplexes, and “missing-middle housing.” 

“We need all of that,” she said. “It’s missing. We desperately need this, and I hear this from people who live in single-family neighborhoods. Of course we need to have the conversation. We’re the ninth largest city in America.” 

The feedback on minimum lot size seemed a little lopsided, Willis added, noting that the speakers who showed up at the beginning of the meeting appeared to oppose higher density in single-family neighborhoods.

“It seemed a little one-sided,” she said. “I think there are some who might be speaking on behalf of other housing options that should be heard if I am to feel that this is a transparent, legitimate, and open process.”

Those who supported reduced minimum lot sizes were not present at City Hall and were permitted to speak virtually after the staff presentation. 

District 14: Paul Ridley 

Ridley said he agrees more housing and more housing options are needed in Dallas. 

“My agreement ends with the proposition that all neighborhoods should share in accommodating additional housing needs. I don’t recognize an obligation on the part of existing single-family neighborhoods to accommodate increased density against their wishes as a matter of right.” 

The councilman added that he thinks higher density is a good idea in areas where there is no current development. 

CandysDirt.com spoke last week to Ridley’s appointed D14 Plan Commissioner Melissa Kingston about minimum lot size. 

“I don’t think infill development in stable single-family neighborhoods with multifamily projects is popular,” Kingston said. “It might have the effect of encouraging people to tear down single-family housing to put up multifamily buildings. I would probably look at locations where it makes sense.”

Council members West, Bazaldua, and Blackmon issued the following statement Wednesday.

Protecting and preserving the diverse neighborhoods in Dallas has always been our main focus, along with starting this conversation around how our city moves forward. Many areas in our city are experiencing displacement due to higher taxes, and if lot sizes are modified beyond the 1950’s-era zoning standards, then families will have more options to stay in place.

We are committed to continuing this conversation through the ordinary process of community meetings, the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee (ZOAC), the city plan commission, council committee, and finally a council vote. It is important for all of our city residents to participate in this discussion as this will set a trajectory for how our city allows for both growth and preservation for future generations.

Dallas is now a mature city. Everyone should be able to have the economic freedom to choose a community that works for them, and we believe the policy proposals will do just that. With land values and appraisals at an all-time high, it is time to reassess how we allocate the size of our lots and the costs associated with them.

Councilman Chad West, Councilman Adam Bazaldua, Councilwoman Paula Blackmon