Is ForwardDallas in the Home Stretch? Briefing Set Tuesday Before Economic Development Committee

Months ago, some City Hall spectators predicted that the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan would be kicked down the road indefinitely, delayed until after the May 2025 municipal elections. That’s still a possibility, but while the plan could be adopted as early as September, the final version may look drastically different than today’s draft.

The controversial ForwardDallas 2.0 plan, a roadmap for future development, has not been updated since 2006. An appointed Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee (CLUP) started a rewrite almost three years ago, and it was further sliced and diced by the City Plan Commission through an extensive public input process. 

City Council Reacts to Recommended Version of ForwardDallas Land Use Plan

The CPC approved the plan in a 10-4-1 vote on July 25. 

The Dallas City Council recessed during the month of July and got a first glance at the plan approved by CPC during an Aug. 5 meeting of the Council’s Economic Development Committee, which includes some but not all council members. 

At the time, elected officials said they’d received the draft at 8 p.m. the evening prior and weren’t able to fully digest it. The panel will meet again in a special-called session at 11 a.m. Tuesday to revisit ForwardDallas. 

“This is our city’s chance to plan for how we want to live, work, and play for decades into the future,” District 1 Councilman Chad West wrote in an Aug. 18 newsletter. “As of last week, rumors circulated at City Hall that a ‘soft majority’ wants to remove the housing component of the plan from FD 2.0, leaving us with the 2006 housing uses, and ‘address housing later after more community meetings.'”

They can expect a crowd on Tuesday.

Within moments of the Economic Development Committee agenda being posted, housing advocates were rallying the troops to show up in support of the plan as it stands. While some are concerned that ForwardDallas 2.0 suggests greater density in areas designated for single-family homes, the “pro-ForwardDallas” crowd points out that the plan doesn’t change the current rigorous zoning process and doesn’t threaten existing neighborhoods. 

Tuesday’s meeting might be the first time we get a clear picture from council members whether they have eight votes to pass it or if they want to amend it or take it back to the drawing board. 

“Unfortunately, there are some council members who are either entirely or partially opposed to ForwardDallas 2.0 due to the Housing Choice + Access theme,” advocacy group Dallas Housing Coalition wrote in a Wednesday email to supporters. “It’s imperative we let our elected officials know that additional safeguards were added at the City Plan Commission level, including language that emphasizes retaining our existing housing stock whenever possible, recommends the adoption of new design standards, discourages displacements, and provides locational guidance for where density may be most appropriate.” 

CPC Chair Tony Shidid weighed in on the plan in an Aug. 17 opinion column in The Dallas Morning News. 

“We’ve listened to residents, business owners, and community leaders to create a plan that balances growth with sustainability,” Shidid wrote. “While much of the spotlight has been on housing, the plan also tackles transit-oriented development, community and urban design, economic development, and revitalization, and breaks new ground in environmental justice.”

Shidid further points out that ForwardDallas 2.0 doesn’t change any zoning designations and it cannot create affordable housing.

“Creating below-market-rate housing requires either financial incentives or the exchange of entitlements, neither of which ForwardDallas is empowered to do,” he writes. “Instead, it aims to welcome the creation of more attainable housing by suggesting various housing types, where they make sense. Yes, Dallas faces an affordable housing crisis, but the reality is that we will not solve that crisis by developing multiplexes in the middle of single-family neighborhoods. Such an approach is simply not scalable.”

West has repeatedly emphasized a housing crisis in Dallas.

“We can’t let this tough decision fester on for years while housing prices continue to rise and more people get pushed out of Dallas,” he said.

There’s still strong opposition to ForwardDallas. 

Real estate broker, architect, interior designer, and urban planner Bob Ikel entered the conversation recently by sending an email to the Dallas mayor and each City Council member, asking them to take a step back. 

In a thoughtful letter to elected officials, Ikel suggests that ForwardDallas 2.0 will encounter challenges similar to other cities like Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Austin, and Los Angeles. 

Therefore, the following is recommended prior to adoption, according to Ikel’s letter:

• Remove the term “Comprehensive Land Use Plan” from the ForwardDallas document, as it lacks the rigorous guidance required for consistent and effective neighborhood-level zoning.
• Prioritize citizen input over the proposed planning theories in ForwardDallas.
• Conduct thorough neighborhood-by-neighborhood polling to gather Dallas residents’ feedback on ForwardDallas, with a focus on avoiding gentrification and destabilization in single-family neighborhoods.
• Implement a “constraints composite planning analysis” to evaluate Dallas’ 142 square miles of vacant land, exploring new zoning classifications to create affordable neighborhoods. Ensure these developments are well-connected to transit and essential services. Establish housing/land trust funds for affordable housing and provide tax relief for older homeowners.

“Let’s re-evaluate the use of Dallas’ vacant lands to avoid the issues faced by other cities that used the Housing Development Toolkit,” Ikel wrote. “We should aim to be generous and considerate, similar to the principle of leaving the ‘corners’ of our land for those in need.”