Cara Mendelsohn

Kirksey Architecture Hired to Revamp Former Hotel Miramar For Homeless Housing

By April Towery / February 23, 2024 /

In a move that some suggested was putting the cart before the horse, the City of Dallas hired an architect to design permanent supportive housing at the old Hotel Miramar — but an operator for the building has not yet been selected.  The Dallas City Council approved a $536,186 contract with Kirksey Architecture on Feb.…

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ForwardDallas Isn’t Going to Make Everyone Happy, But Will it Address The City’s Messy Land Use History?

By April Towery / February 12, 2024 /

We get it. The ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan only informs zoning; it doesn’t assign it or regulate it. It’s not necessarily about housing, affordable or otherwise. It’s simply a guiding vision document that creates “placetypes” based on what kind of development should generally occur within the city limits.  So why is everybody so mad…

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Should Dallas Look at Land in Taxable Value Per Acre? Asheville Planner Wants City to Shift Perspective on Density

By April Towery / February 6, 2024 /

Experts weighed in recently on introducing higher-density development in single-family neighborhoods and talked about how the city can be more effective in planning for the future as the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan inches closer to a July adoption date.  MetroTex Association of Realtors requested a presentation on the “Economics of Land Use” from Joe…

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Parks Bond Funds Increase as Council Members Pledge Millions in ‘Discretionary Funds’ 

By April Towery / February 5, 2024 /
(Photo: Mimi Perez for CandyDirt.com)

The 2024 bond propositions that will appear on a May 4 ballot didn’t shake out favorably for every advocacy group, but a $75 million pot of “discretionary funds” — $5 million for the mayor and each council member to allocate as they wish — means the numbers informally approved at Wednesday’s council meeting can still…

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Fear-Mongering And Ulterior Motives: Who’s Getting Played in Debate Over Minimum Lot Size Reduction? 

By April Towery / February 5, 2024 /

We can tell you what was said during a Dallas City Council discussion last week on expanding housing development options and reducing minimum lot size requirements. We’ve pulled some great quotes from the two-hour briefing and heard what residents on both sides have to say.  But you still might walk away wondering what’s really going…

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