Planning Director Says ForwardDallas Land Use Plan Won’t Be Ready For Council Review Until Fall
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In a new development that is surprising to no one, city officials said Thursday that the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan won’t go to City Council for approval until after the panel returns from a July recess.
City Plan Commissioners determined last week that they want to hold a day-long public workshop beginning at 9 a.m. Monday, June 17, to discuss proposed revisions to the plan before making a recommendation to Council.
That means the City Plan Commission will vote on the document at its regular meeting on June 20. The Dallas City Council originally expected to review the document and vote on it in June. Interim Planning and Urban Design Director Andrea Gilles said that’s not going to happen.
“It will just go in the fall,” she said. “It won’t be able to go to them until August at the earliest.”
The news of delayed adoption may be a relief to those who don’t like the plan as it stands and those who are concerned it’s getting too “watered-down” to be useful.
A public hearing on ForwardDallas is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. May 9, virtually and in person at Dallas City Hall.
Latest Discussion on ForwardDallas
During a May 2 CPC meeting, Chief Planner Lawrence Agu reviewed recent changes to the draft document.
Commissioner Tom Forsyth asked for clarification about language that suggests exploring an update of the Dallas development code to allow accessory dwelling units in residential districts.
“When I read this it sounds to me like we’re advocating for ADUs by right in single-family neighborhoods,” Forsyth said.
Agu explained that the “by right” language was updated by the Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee and calls for a public process to discuss ADUs after the plan is adopted.
Senior Planner Patrick Blaydes explained that ADUs are structures separate from a home with a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. If a structure has just two of those components, it can be built without any special permitting. When building a structure with all three components, approval from the Zoning Board of Adjustment is required.
“It’s a lengthy process; there are some fees involved,” Blaydes said. “Most folks choose to build a structure with just two of those and not go through the Board of Adjustment process.”
The land use plan calls for exploration of the process to review whether it is working as it should. It’s not a mandate to allow ADUs by right, Blaydes explained.
Any change to the ADU process would have to go through a full code amendment process, CPC Vice Chair Brent Rubin said.
Residential Districts And Planned Developments
One of the primary criticisms of the ForwardDallas draft plan is its lack of a single-family residential “placetype” that only includes single-family homes. The community residential placetype includes single-family homes but also allows for schools, parks, and religious centers.
Rubin suggested introducing multiple infill residential development districts rather than a blanket citywide solution. Commissioner Tip Housewright agreed.
“We’ve spent an enormous amount of time on this commission the last couple of years with applicants trying to do infill development, and our code does not make that easy at all,” Housewright said. “In my neighborhood, six or eight lots down from my house, there is a lot that has been vacant for over 40 years and will stay vacant for another 40 years if we don’t figure out some better way to allow for infill development. On that particular lot, I would be perfectly happy to see a duplex rather than a vacant lot in my neighborhood.”
Forsyth suggested a statement within the document that “we are not targeting single-family neighborhoods.”
“Single-family neighborhoods are the backbone of residential communities in Dallas,” he said. “I want to support this plan, and I want the community to support this plan … For me to vote for this plan, I would like to see you try to change some of these terms that really do target single-family living in the City of Dallas.”
Discussion at last week’s meeting also centered around Dallas’ use of Planned Development Districts.
“Right now if you’re going to go into a community and develop additional housing, you’re either going to develop a single-family house or a big apartment building,” Blaydes said. “There’s not a lot of missing middle. The intent is to say we need a zoning district or a couple of zoning districts where you could straight zone it and not create more work for [planning staff].”
Three Years Later And ForwardDallas is Still Incomplete
In a social media post in late April, Plan Commissioner Melissa Kingston said CPC has been pressured to vote on the plan so the City Council can have it before the July recess.
“In my personal view, staff’s self-created emergency isn’t my emergency, and we should take a sufficient amount of time to review the document, allow the public to review the document, and take public comment before we send it to Council,” she said. “That’s pretty difficult to do with missing sections this late in the game, and I will not vote to support an incomplete document. Nor will I support something that just gets dumped on CPC right before we are expected to vote when the public hasn’t had a fair opportunity to review it.
“I don’t know how substantive the missing parts are, but I do have a very healthy dose of skepticism surrounding those missing parts,” Kingston continued. “Here we are over three years down the road with multiple planners working essentially full time on this document, and it is still not complete or accurate. I find that incredible.”
