Are There 8 Votes to Push ForwardDallas to the Finish Line? Here’s What Your Council Member Has to Say

Elected and appointed officials have spent years working on ForwardDallas 2.0, an update of the city’s comprehensive land use plan. Residents in each of Dallas’ geographic districts have gotten savvy to the technical aspects of the document and lobbied for their causes at town halls and City Plan Commission meetings. Is the rubber about to meet the road or is it too soon to tell?

ForwardDallas was originally drafted in 2006 and hasn’t been updated since then. The City Plan Commission approved the updated plan in a 10-4-1 vote on July 25. 

Lip Service or Straight Talk? City Council Debates ForwardDallas With No Progress

The City Council’s Economic Development Committee meets at 1 p.m. Tuesday to determine whether it wants to pass the document on to the full council. Some have said an updated future land use plan is crucial as a tool to address the Dallas housing crisis. Others have suggested removing the “housing component,” arguing that it doesn’t offer enough assurance that single-family neighborhoods will be protected from incompatible development.  

Watch last week’s Economic Development Committee meeting or view the staff presentation. A memorandum filed Friday by the City Manager’s Office answers some frequently-asked questions and attempts to clear up misinformation that city planners say has plagued the project.

Mayor Eric Johnson has not commented publicly on ForwardDallas since the council returned from a July recess but he is widely considered to be a “no” vote against the plan as it stands today. 

The Dallas City Council has 14 district representatives and the mayor serves as the 15th vote, meaning eight votes are needed for a majority to either move the plan forward or kill it. The council also has the option of amending ForwardDallas 2.0 or approving the pieces on which they agree. Below is a sample of some of the comments Dallas City Council members have made about ForwardDallas 2.0. 

District 1 – North Oak Cliff

Councilman Chad West has been a vocal champion for ForwardDallas 2.0. The council member supports minimum lot size reduction and “gentle density” where appropriate, such as corner lots, existing mixed-use areas and transportation corridors. 

“It’s only guidance; it’s not zoning,” West said last week. “Duplexes, fourplexes, and townhomes will not be allowed by right in single-family neighborhoods. ForwardDallas 2.0 does not legally require the city to approve a zoning change for duplex, triplex, or townhomes.” 

West referenced a housing crisis at last week’s meeting and said if the city does not take courageous action it’s going to get worse. Maintaining the status quo and relatively low production of new housing will cause prices to skyrocket because of the simple rules of supply and demand, the council member said.

“Places like California made this decision back in the 1970s when faced with a similar dilemma, prioritizing single-family homes and controlling housing supply,” he said. “Today, a starter home in most LA neighborhoods is well over $1 million. I know that $300,000 and $400,000 homes are already unattainable for many of our residents; imagine $1 million.”

District 2 – Deep Ellum, Old East Dallas, the Medical District

Councilman Jesse Moreno hasn’t said much about the plan but his constituents speculate he’s a “no” vote. 

Moreno’s appointed plan commissioner, architect Joanna Hampton, voted against the plan in late July because the CPC had just made dozens of amendments that did not appear in the draft on which they were voting. 

“It gives me pause for us to be considering moving forward a document this important for our city … without having it in front of us and not allowing the public an opportunity to read the document that we are proposing to move forward,” Hampton said at the time. “I think we owe it to all the folks who have spent so much time with us, supporting it, concerned about it, to be able to have an informed conversation before we move it forward to council.” 

District 3 – Southwest Dallas

Councilman Zarin Gracey has not indicated publicly how he’ll vote on ForwardDallas. His appointed plan commissioner is Darrell Herbert, who voted in favor of the plan and commented at the July CPC meeting that  change is necessary to eliminate discriminatory policies of the past. 

“It is clear single-family-only zoning is a relic of discriminatory pasts, artificially inflating housing costs, fostering segregation, and limiting our communities’ potential for diversity and inclusivity,” Herbert said. “You restrict the homes or the ability for people to grow — children, people with disabilities, and especially low-income individuals, no matter their color.”

District 4 – South Oak Cliff

Councilwoman Carolyn King Arnold said last week that homeowners “want Dallas to stand behind the commitment to single families.” 

“Single-family property owners chose that location because they expected to have a space where they could make decisions about their family,” she said. “They want single families next to them … Long-term, what we’re simply asking for is protection.”  

Arnold’s appointed plan commissioner, Tom Forsyth, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the plan as it stands.

District 5 – Southeast Dallas 

Councilman Jaime Resendez has not indicated publicly how he’ll vote on ForwardDallas. His appointed plan commissioner is Tony Shidid, who chairs the CPC and voted for the plan. 

District 6 – West Dallas 

Councilman Omar Narvaez pointed out last week that the document won’t change zoning — an indicator that he supports it — and commented on the fear that ForwardDallas 2.0 will make it easier to build multiplexes in or near single-family neighborhoods. 

Narvaez asked Deputy Planning Director Andrea Gilles if there is any intent to rezone single-family neighborhoods. She said there is not. 

“I don’t know how we can make sure that’s added in somehow or some way,” Narvaez said. “That might give some comfort to some folks. I keep hearing, ‘We need it in writing.’”

Gilles said that is explicitly stated in the document. 

Narvaez also asked for a new objective to “prioritize the development of the single-family density bonus program to ensure that new missing middle housing units including townhomes, duplexes, triplexes, and accessory dwelling units in single-family neighborhoods are appropriately priced for low- and moderate-income families.” 

District 7 – South Dallas/Fair Park 

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua also acknowledged the “legit fear” of some residents and said he was looking for an opportunity to compromise. He stressed the need for updated design standards to ensure that newly constructed townhomes and mulitplexes will be attractive and compatible with the surrounding area. 

The councilman added that he supports the plan’s emphasis on environmental justice and is tired of the most-vulnerable residents in his district being held hostage to “some of the most affluent or privileged who are arguing a fight that keeps us from bringing in relief for the communities that have been, in my opinion, far more plagued by the systemic issues that we have with zoning in our city.” 

Bazaldua said the council needs to focus on the biggest concerns identified by residents. 

“At the same time it shouldn’t be at the expense of all of the other great work that this would accomplish for our city in moving us forward,” he said. “Anything that would keep us still or move backward, we didn’t do our job. I’m asking colleagues to look at the primary and secondary uses and let’s find a true compromise instead of us wanting to do a zero-sum approach to such an important document for our city.” 

District 8 – South Oak Cliff and Southern Dallas

Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins pressed Gilles last week on whether ForwardDallas 2.0 provides more guidance about single-family housing in particular neighborhoods.

ForwardDallas 2.0 includes locational guidance on priority areas, design guidance about different types of development, and it directs staff to prioritize that design guidance, she said. 

“It also has language about displacement and the creation of a displacement overlay, so … it doesn’t necessarily solve the issue but it does ask us to pause and think about the impact on existing residents in those areas,” Gilles said.

Atkins chairs the Eco Dev Committee and requested a fact sheet be distributed to eliminate the misinformation that has been circulated about the plan. 

District 9 – White Rock Lake and Far East Dallas

Councilwoman Paula Blackmon issued a letter to constituents on Wednesday that many took to mean she’s not in favor of the plan as it stands today. 

“We must consider how to separate the components that we all agree on to make our city a desirable place for everyone and table the items on which we don’t agree; continuing to gain your trust, knowledge, and understanding,” the letter states. 

District 10 – Lake Highlands

Councilwoman Kathy Stewart asked last week about duplexes, triplexes, and townhomes being designated as “secondary uses” in the community residential “placetype.” 

“In all of this, my biggest concern is neighborhood feedback,” Stewart said. 

The councilwoman said she understands that a rezoning still has to go through an extensive process but wanted to ensure that if a developer proposes townhomes in a single-family residential area, the neighbors’ input is heard early in the process. 

“That’s what I worry about … that my input as a homeowner [isn’t] important, that you’re going to check a box, you’re going to walk through a process, but I would feel like I had not been able to impact that,” she said. “That’s where the fear comes from. I know that has been used by people and inflamed, but the legitimate fear comes from that experience of city staff and zoning consultants checking the box and going to talk to the community but we really didn’t get a say.” 

District 11 – North Dallas 

Councilwoman Jaynie Schultz asked whether certain neighborhoods provided specific information that was incorporated into the plan.

“Obviously we’re all getting a ton of opposition but I haven’t seen anyone say, ‘You got my neighborhood wrong,’” Schultz said. “What I’ve heard is, ‘I want a single-family designation,’ but not that the map is wrong.” 

The councilwoman also inquired why there can’t be a “single-family only” designation. That’s zoning, Gilles explained. City staff has repeatedly said that ForwardDallas is a land use plan and it informs zoning but doesn’t regulate it. 

“A land use plan provides a range of options,” Gilles said.  “You hone in those options. You provide bumpers to those options, and then you provide context to those options through the recommended text.” 

A single-family-only designation would remove the option for schools, parks, and religious institutions, Schultz clarified. 

District 12 – Far North Dallas 

Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn has said several times she will not vote for the current version of the plan. She asked last week if the council could approve pieces of the plan rather than the whole thing as presented.

“If the plan comes to us as just one item, I’ll be voting no, and it will be about residential,” she said. “There, in my opinion, should be absolutely no secondary uses for our residential items. It is actually better to do nothing than to do harm, which is what I believe will happen.” 

Mendelsohn added that because the comprehensive land use plan informs zoning, the secondary uses must be removed. 

District 13 – Preston Hollow 

Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis has not said publicly how she’ll vote on ForwardDallas 2.0. During a December meeting at which council members discussed reducing minimum lot size requirements, Willis said there is a 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.” 

Willis’ appointed plan commissioner Larry Hall voted in favor of ForwardDallas and said the 2006 version of the plan contained similar language to the current draft as it relates to single-family neighborhoods. 

“In those 18 years, single-family neighborhoods did not disappear, nor were they seriously threatened,” Hall said. “Nothing’s going to happen to single-family neighborhoods with this document.”

District 14 – Downtown, Uptown, and portions of East Dallas

Councilman Paul Ridley introduced a three-page, single-spaced memorandum at last week’s Eco Dev meeting and some have speculated he may try to drag out the process until after the May council elections. Ridley said the document doesn’t do enough to preserve and protect single-family neighborhoods. The council member suggested removing directives for rezoning and directives to eliminate parking regulations. 

“That is the subject of separate discussions at [the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee],” he said. “We have yet to receive recommendations and I am not prepared to include those in ForwardDallas until we do get those recommendations and have a discussion at this body about them.”

Ridley also said ForwardDallas 2.0 places the burden of higher density on single-family neighborhoods and incentivizes removing much-needed naturally-occurring affordable housing. 

Stay tuned to CandysDirt.com for coverage of Tuesday’s Economic Development Committee meeting.