In The Zone

Dallas City Council Will Tee Up Zoning Reform on Wednesday

By Charles Grand / August 19, 2025 /

Zoning is one of the most powerful tools a city can wield. It not only determines where buildings can go but also how neighborhoods grow and function — or don’t. No wonder folks in Dallas are engaging with the issue as the city embarks on a historic overhaul of its land use policies. The Dallas…

Hampton-Clarendon Rezoning Passes Ahead of New State Law

By Charles Grand / August 17, 2025 /

Another controversial rezoning request was approved by the Dallas City Council this week, marking another instance in which the drive to redevelop trumped neighborhood concerns at the horseshoe. However, officials mitigated the ordinance with additional stipulations, a move that will soon be outside their scope of power in a lot of cases when Senate Bill…

Dallas Takes Its First Swing at Zoning Reform in Almost 40 Years

By Charles Grand / June 27, 2025 /

City staff in Dallas have been making the rounds to give residents a sneak peak at what they’ve got cooking for zoning reform. As previously reported by CandysDirt.com, the city is embarking on a painstaking effort to simplify and modernize the portions of its voluminous development code that have to do with land use. The…

Dallas Could Curb Residents’ Ability to Delay Rezoning Hearings

By Charles Grand / June 24, 2025 /

The Dallas City Council is going to consider eliminating a mechanism residents currently have to automatically delay rezoning cases. In Dallas, any rezoning request triggers mandatory public notification of property owners within a range of 200 feet of the project to ensure community awareness and participation in the development process. That notification comes in the…

Masterplan Is Back in Dallas Cothrum’s Hands

By Charles Grand / June 16, 2025 /

The real estate consulting firm Masterplan has been a mainstay in Dallas for roughly two generations, and until about three years ago, it belonged to the well-known Cothrum family. Now, the brand is back in family hands. Masterplan ran the gamut when it came to local development consulting, offering services related to permit-expediting, zoning, entitlements,…