ForwardDallas Land Use Plan Moves Ahead. Some Complain It Takes A Step Backward

A controversial long-range land use plan that would determine how and where the city grows has cleared a major hurdle. But some Dallasites plan to continue agitating for substantial changes, arguing the document could put an end to neighborhoods being zoned single-family.

The Dallas Plan Committee passed ForwardDallas 2.0 by a 10-4 vote Thursday night, meaning it will now advance to the full city council.

The city’s long-term land use plan has not been updated since 2006, and the revamp is intended to foster sensible growth, prioritize areas that have historically borne the brunt of environmental burdens and benefit both new and current residents, according to an informational website on the plan.

Critics of the plan say it would make it too easy to put multifamily homes like duplexes and triplexes in or near single-family neighborhoods.

The document hits the council amid an affordable housing shortage. A June 2023 buildingcommunityWORKSHOP report concluded the city needs about 33,600 affordable rental homes for lower-income residents, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The vote to move the plan forward came after hours of debate and public input at a Thursday night city planning comission meeting, where some commissioners pushed back on the idea it was tantamount to a zoning document.

Land use plans set guidelines and a framework for how public and private land should be used, but individual zoning decisions must still go through city staff review, the CPC and the city council. Though the plan does endorse more higher-density housing, including two-, three- and four-family residences, projects would still need to go through a rezoning process that would include evaluation of whether they fit the neighborhood.

Dallas Planning and Development Deputy Director Andrea Gilles told television station NBC 5 that the document represents a rethink of how the city approaches housing, but added that “the city fully cherishes and supports and wants to preserve those stable, single-family neighborhoods.”

Even so, District 4 CPC member Tom Forsyth estimated 90% of those living in single-family homes feel the plan targets their neighborhoods. Forsyth said it was a risky mistake to advance it before resident concerns were fully addressed.

“You are enabling the very strong opposition to this plan to continue and to bring that opposition in front of the council,” Forsyth said, as reported by the station. “I will be speaking against this plan when it’s brought before council.”

Others on the commission said the time is now to turn the work over to the full council. 

“It is clear single-family-only zoning is a relic of a discriminatory past, artificially inflating housing costs, fostering segregation and limiting our community’s potential for diversity and inclusivity,” District 3 CPC member Darrell Herbert said, according to NBC 5.