As the City Plan Commission continues its work amending the proposed land-use plan ForwardDallas ahead of an expected City Council vote sometime this year, commissioners addressed on Monday what some residents viewed as a significant concern with the plan.
The commission decided ForwardDallas will not consider multiplex use as “primary use” in single-family neighborhoods. The City Plan Commission voted unanimously Monday to amend the plan to characterize multiplex use as secondary use in two placetypes, or larger scale visions for community spaces — “Community Residential” and “Small-Town Residential” — referred to in ForwardDallas. Both of these placetypes include single-family residential neighborhoods.
The ForwardDallas working draft describes primary use as a “more prominent and prevalent land use.” Alternatively, secondary use is a “less prevalent use that may serve to support or compliment the primary land use in a placetype.”
Monday’s public meeting was meant to address community concerns related to the latest version of the city’s proposed ForwardDallas plan, which was released earlier this month. The plan, which requires City Council approval, comes as Dallas looks to set new guidelines for how public and private lands are used and developed. It will be the city’s first comprehensive land use plan since the launch of ForwardDallas in 2006.
Since the latest draft was released, some Dallas residents have voiced frustration with the initial characterization of multiplexes. Those who spoke during public comment at Monday’s meeting said considering multiplexes as primary use in some placetypes could disrupt single-family neighborhoods.
“I do think there is one thing that the plan is getting wrong from an equity standpoint, which is putting expensive, ugly multiplexes in single-family neighborhoods that currently have properties valued between $100,000 or $300,000,” resident Christine Hopkins said during public comment.
Recommendations made through the ForwardDallas plan will be nonbinding. The working draft states the plan “informs decisions about zoning and development, but does not constitute zoning nor change zoning.”
While commissioners at the meeting expressed sympathy with residents who asked for the multiplex characterization to be changed, some wanted to clarify the bounds of the ForwardDallas plan.
“We’ve heard concerns that because multiplex is a primary use in these two placetypes, anyone can come in and knock down a single-family home and build up to a nine-plex on any lot,” Brent Rubin, City Plan Commission vice chair and commissioner, said during the meeting. “That is not the intent here.”
Tony Shidid, chair and commissioner, said adjusting the multiplex use to secondary use in the two placetypes reflected the “current realities on the ground.” He added that developing multiplexes in single-family neighborhoods is “not a goal for the current proposal.”
On Wednesday, Rubin told The Dallas Morning News he hopes the commissioners were able to address community concerns related to multiplexes. But, he said, creating multiplexes in some parts of the city shouldn’t be ruled out.
“I think multiplexes and other housing types that we don’t see a ton of right now could really play an important role in meeting our housing needs in the future,” he said. “We certainly have to have a discussion about what role they play going forward.”
Commissioners will gather again July 11 to vote on further amendments to the ForwardDallas plan.
