Updated Draft of ForwardDallas Released, Public Hearing Set For June 17

A new draft of the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan was released late Wednesday and officials will have less than two weeks to review it before a deep dive into language revisions and a public hearing on June 17. 

City planners assured commissioners Thursday morning that their feedback from a spirited discussion last month — which centered on the need for design standards and specified locations for multiplexes in the Community Residential “placetype” — is included in the updated draft. 

Opponents of the land use plan say it’s being used to force density into single-family neighborhoods. ForwardDallas calls for more than a dozen “placetypes,” or preferred future land use categories, which are referred to as “building blocks” in the 2006 iteration of the plan.

Those who say they want to protect their single-family neighborhoods have asked that multiplexes be removed as a primary use in the Community Residential placetype — or at least be designated for peripheral areas and have aesthetically pleasing and compatible design standards. 

So did everybody get what they wanted with the updated draft? That remains to be seen.

Read all 163 pages of the latest version of ForwardDallas here. Most of the updates are in pink text. 

Plan Commissioners Spar Over Multiplexes in ForwardDallas’ Community Residential Placetype

Single-Family Neighborhood Protection

Plan Commissioner Tom Forsyth, who has fought to remove multiplexes as a primary use in the Community Residential placetype, asked to postpone the June 17 meeting to allow more time to review the plan.  

CPC Chair Tony Shidid said the June 17 meeting has already been planned and advertised. 

“I don’t see us ending the process on the 17th,” Shidid said. “There’s too much to discuss. It’s going to be a long day I’m sure. There’s going to be lots of public speakers. We’re going to keep it moving as scheduled.” 

The CPC could make a recommendation on the plan to the Dallas City Council as early as June 20. ForwardDallas is expected to go before the City Council in the fall. 

ForwardDallas Updates 

On Thursday, Forsyth reminded planning staff that they agreed to language that would assure the public they are “not targeting single-family neighborhoods with increased density, that missing middle housing would not be placed in the middle of a single-family neighborhood but it would be placed along major transportation corridors.”

“Also there was a promise to protect historic districts, conservation districts, neighborhood stabilization overlay districts, and planned development districts,” Forsyth said. “I’m concerned that these important elements were not addressed by the staff.”

Chief Planner Lawrence Agu confirmed that multiplex design standards and location specificity, among other changes, were addressed in the updated plan. Commissioners received the draft at 11 p.m. on Wednesday and convened at 9 a.m. Thursday, saying they hadn’t had time to read it. 

The updated plan includes this language on the Community Residential placetype page:

“When development of different housing types is proposed, location should be an important consideration. Among other things, properties near transit stations and along corridors, transition areas between non-residential and existing residential areas, former civic/institutional properties, and possibly corner lots should be considered for adding these housing types. Existing housing stock should be retained whenever possible to minimize the displacement of existing residents, particularly in areas identified as high risk for displacement.” 

The Debate Over Density

While plan commissioners appear to agree that it doesn’t make sense to put multiplexes in the middle of single-family neighborhoods, options exist for greater density on corner lots and near transportation corridors. 

Plan Commissioner Christian Chernock has said that more homes are needed because Dallas is rapidly heading toward a “housing catastrophe.” 

“Why are we even proposing density in these areas? It’s to solve a crisis,” Chernock said during a CPC meeting last month. “The starting point is to get more housing in the market by loosening up zoning restrictions. This is just the most basic commonly understood starting point. To think that we are going to be backing up on something we started in 2006 is unconscionable. When you have a crisis in your home or your business or with one of your kids, it is all hands on deck, we are solving this. We just continue to bumble along, bogged down in wordsmithing, not even understanding that we have a massive problem in the city that we have to solve.” 

Submit feedback on the latest draft of the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan here.