City Plan Commissioner Wants to Rezone Short-Term Rentals Near Bishop Arts, Change Hotel Definitions

A Dallas real estate developer is petitioning the City Plan Commission to allow two multifamily buildings he owns near Bishop Arts to continue operating as short-term rentals despite a pending legal matter that could ban such activity in residential neighborhoods. 

There’s another challenge, too. The builder and property owner, Christian Chernock, is the city plan commissioner for North Oak Cliff’s District 1. 

Judge Says Dallas Short-Term Rentals Can Continue to Operate Temporarily, Trial Date Set For June

Chernock filed two rezoning applications for his properties at 620 North Bishop Ave. and 719/727 North Zang Blvd. in the Kidd Springs neighborhood. The plan commissioner did not respond to requests for an interview with CandysDirt.com.  

Rob Shearer, president of the Kidd Springs Neighborhood Association, acknowledged that Chernock is legally operating his short-term rentals — although they were banned from residential neighborhoods last summer — due to an injunction approved by a district judge in December. The matter is set to go to trial in June. 

“In our opinion, it seems particularly problematic for a sitting CPC member to be asking for a loophole to an issue that is currently pending in litigation,” Shearer said. “The body where he sits is one of the bodies that passed the policy up to council and council approved it. That, on its face, just seems questionable from an ethics standpoint.” 

Additionally, District 1 already has a high percentage of Dallas’ short-term rentals, Shearer added. 

“In particular, Kidd Springs has a lot,” he said. “We think it’s been detrimental to our neighborhood, to our sense of community. When you have houses that turn into short-term rentals, you lose a little chunk of your block.” 

Shearer said neighbors were told Chernock’s rezoning requests would be heard by the City Plan Commission in May; it’s not on this week’s agenda. 

Christian Chernock’s Proposal For North Bishop And North Zang 

Zoning consultant Audra Buckley reviewed Chernock’s proposal at an April 22 Kidd Springs Neighborhood Association meeting. 

The eight-unit Bishop site has operated as a multi-lease property since it was constructed and has seen an 80 percent occupancy rate as a 14-day rental. 

“The applicant saw a need for short-term stays and by providing it, has contributed to the local economy by having the money stay in Bishop Arts rather than downtown or areas where hotels are plentiful,” Buckley said in her presentation. “Bishop Arts is a nationally-recognized area for tourism and there are no hotels in this area, so there is a need for this land use.”

Chernock wants to revise the definition of a boutique hotel so that guests may prepare food on-site and internal entry is not required. 

For the 40-unit Zang property, Chernock wants to change the definition of a residential hotel to allow for 43 percent, or 18, rental units. 

Shearer said his neighborhood association isn’t afraid of going up against Chernock and Buckley. 

“We’ve had pretty good luck arguing cases, especially those that we think set a precedent that isn’t good for homeowners or stability,” he said. “We are right next to Bishop Arts. The only thing that divides us from Bishop Arts is Davis Street. We really have to watch the edge of our neighborhood because often an uninformed developer or buyer will buy a house right on the edge and say, ‘I’m going to turn this into a restaurant.’ We say, ‘No, the restaurants start over there.’ We’re a residential neighborhood.”  

Ethics Expert Says City Code Clearly Addresses CPC Dilemma

Are rezoning requests treated differently when submitted by elected or appointed officials? It’s hard to say. 

“I would hope that they’ll listen to the feedback from the neighborhood and the response they get from the notifications they have to send out,” Shearer said. “Hopefully they’ll agree that it makes more sense to wait for the lawsuit to be settled than to create permanent spot zoning exceptions for particular properties.”

Haynes Boone attorney Timothy Powers chaired Dallas’ Ethics Advisory Commission and Ethics Advisory Task Force and is currently working on a city charter amendment proposal regarding the Inspector General. Therefore, he did not want to comment specifically on this matter but referred us to the Dallas Code of Ethics. 

“And frankly, I don’t think you will need my input because the ethics code is so clear on the issue you raised,” Powers told CandysDirt.com. 

From the code: “No city official or employee shall have any financial interest, direct or indirect, or engage in any business, transaction, or professional activity; or incur any obligation of any nature that is in conflict with the proper discharge of the city official’s or employee’s duties in the public interest.”

Powers confirmed that a city plan commissioner is, in fact, a city official. 

Shearer says it doesn’t get much clearer than that. 

“He’s kind of creating a specific use so that he can use his apartment buildings as short-term rentals,” he said. “From my perspective, the main reason you would do that is to maximize profit. The monthly rent you can charge is less than the daily rent you can charge. I think when we talk about the affordable housing crisis that Dallas is facing, you have to look at decisions like that, that landlords make to maximize every dollar possible at the expense of the community they’re operating in.” 

District 1 Councilman Chad West, who lives in Kidd Springs, said he’ll likely recuse himself from the discussion when the matter comes before the City Council. Chernock is expected to recuse himself when the matter goes before CPC.

Brent Rubin, City Plan Commission vice chair and a local attorney, attended last week’s Kidd Springs Neighborhood Association meeting and told CandysDirt.com on Monday he is still assessing the proposal.