Dallas City Council voted to approve the controversial ForwardDallas 2.0 land use plan last night following months of debate.
The plan was approved after an 11-4 vote, with District 10 Councilmember Kathy Stewart voting to approve. The vote took place after several hours of community input — over 50 people spoke both for and against — and council debate. Two amendments, one put forward by D12 CM Cara Mendelsohn and the other by D14 CM Paul Ridley, were voted down before the plan was approved. Both amendments dealt with townhomes and duplexes in single-family neighborhoods.
Background
First put forward in 2023 after several years of development, ForwardDallas 2.0 is a long-term comprehensive land use plan which “establishes guidelines for how public and private land should be used and what the city should look like,” as its text reads. The plan is not a zoning ordinance, and does not set concrete zoning requirements going forward. However, it is intended to guide zoning decisions on new development going forward.
ForwardDallas 2.0 is an update to the original ForwardDallas plan, approved in 2006.
One of the plan’s major objectives — and sticking points — is encouraging growth through increasing housing density in certain areas of the city. Affordable housing and home ownership were both listed priorities.
The plan seeks to achieve growth through five overarching themes: Environmental Justice plus Sustainability, Transit-Oriented Development plus Connectivity, Housing Choice plus Access, Economic Development plus Revitalization and Community plus Urban Design.
The controversy
ForwarDallas 2.0 organizes Dallas’ neighborhoods into placetypes based on existing zoning and development. Single-family neighborhoods, parks and schools largely fall under the “Community Residential” placetype. Placetypes identify primary uses — such as detached single-family homes in “Community Residential” — as playing a “pivotal role in characterizing a placetype.”
The plan includes attached single family residences, like duplexes and townhomes, as primary uses in the “Community Residential” placetype. This has caused a great deal of controversy, with some residents claiming that the document lacks protections for single-family neighborhoods. Concerns have included the hypothetical building of large, “incompatible” housing developments which tower over existing single-family homes.
Another point of contention comes from the “Community Residential” placetype’s listed secondary uses, which include multiplexes — multifamily developments with less than eight attached dwellings — apartments, and mixed-use developments.
The Council’s Economic Development Committee and the wider City Council amended the original draft to reflect public outcry. The language defining secondary uses was amended to include “requires justification, higher scrutiny, and adherence with the locational strategy.” Triplexes were also originally listed under the single-family attached use in the original draft, but have since been removed.
“I do support the ForwardDallas Plan as it stands now with the amendments that come from the Economic Development Committee as well as the amendments that were put forward today,” said D10 Councilmember Kathy Stewart before voting to approve the plan.
The revisions also clarified that the development of multiplexes should be prioritized along major thoroughfares, not in existing single-family neighborhoods.
In Lake Highlands
Most of Lake Highlands will now fall under the “Community Residential” placetype. However, areas in the neighborhood have been classified under placetypes like “City Residential”, “Community Mixed-Use” and “Neighborhood Mixed-Use”. The placetypes are defined as:
- City Residential (CU): primarily consist of high and mid-rise multifamily development, complemented by townhomes and duplex housing. Has the most variety of housing types among the residential placetypes. (Large parts of the Skillman-Abrams corridor)
- Neighborhood Mixed-Use (NM): incorporates local-serving retail, services and dining options. A mix of low and medium-density residential. (Walnut Hill-Audelia)
- Community Mixed Use (CM): areas located at major intersections and along key corridors. They serve multiple surrounding neighborhoods and attract retailers and services that require a larger market area. (Northwest Hwy and Ferndale/Easton)
A detailed map of the placetypes can be found here.
The plan will be implemented over the coming months, and will be reviewed every five years.
