City Hall

City Hall Roundup: Dallas Council Set to Authorize $6.3 Million For Home Repairs in 3 TIF Districts

By April Towery / September 22, 2024 /

About $6.3 million could be added this fiscal year to a fund for home repairs in the Oak Cliff Gateway, Fort Worth Avenue, and Deep Ellum tax increment financing districts, pending a City Council vote on Wednesday.  North Oak Cliff Councilman Chad West has championed the City’s home repair program, which recently was streamlined to…

Mendelsohn: Lower Tax Rate is a Farce, Property Owners Will Be Writing Bigger Checks

By April Towery / September 19, 2024 /

Dallas property owners got a little relief Wednesday as the City Council approved the largest tax reduction in recent history along with a $4.97 billion city budget.  But Far North Dallas Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn wasn’t giving hugs or high-fives at the horseshoe. Shortly before the budget and tax rate were adopted, Mendelsohn introduced an amendment…

Who’s Afraid of ForwardDallas? These Residents Say You Should Be

By April Towery / September 17, 2024 /

Who’s afraid of a little ol’ land use plan? Well, for starters, a resident who has a five-story apartment building overlooking her backyard. An architect who thinks the plan should be scrapped and the process restarted from scratch. A Park and Recreation Board member who doesn’t want multiplexes in single-family neighborhoods. A woman who lives…

Resident Volunteers Wrote the ForwardDallas Housing Component, and No One Gives a CLUP

By April Towery / September 16, 2024 /

Occasionally when someone brings up the “socialist city planners” who secretly crafted Dallas’ comprehensive land use plan update over witch’s brew, I’m reminded of something Nathaniel Barrett told me in August 2023.  A 15-member panel of volunteers, the Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee (CLUP), actually had significant input in drafting the ForwardDallas 2.0 plan as…

Former Plan Commissioner Says ForwardDallas Focuses Too Much on Housing, Ignores Economic Development Opportunities

By April Towery / September 15, 2024 /

Jasmond Anderson, like many Dallas residents, has been closely following discussions about the city’s comprehensive land use plan. At one time in the not-so-distant past, he was seated at the horseshoe during those discussions.  Anderson, CEO of a design-build development company, was the District 4 plan commissioner when ForwardDallas 2.0 first came under review in…