Major overhauls of the city’s zoning code and comprehensive land use plan are underway as Dallas officials prepare for the population to grow by 300,000 people in the next two decades. City leaders are also working with consultants to delve into a historic preservation plan — and they say community input is vital.
Public meetings on the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use continue through May 24, offering an opportunity for residents to weigh in on what they want their neighborhoods and the City of Dallas to look like.
Improving Community Engagement
Additionally, community leaders gathered Tuesday morning to talk about the future of historic preservation in Dallas — again focusing on the need for community engagement.
City officials have acknowledged that they’ve struggled with gathering public feedback, particularly on Dallas Housing Policy 2033, adopted earlier this month. Less than 1 percent of the public was engaged during the process.
“You can take a horse to water but you can’t make him drink,” District 3 Councilman Casey Thomas said during the April 12 discussion on housing policy. “We can fill up this chamber with a variety of topics but we can discuss other things and no one shows up.”
At a housing equity meeting attended by a daltxrealestate.com reporter in October, there were more deli sandwiches than people — and the majority of the dozen or so attendees were city staff members and consultants, most of whom live outside the city limits.
While some council members have been critical of the lack of engagement, others have defended their methods, which include holding meetings at different times of day and on weekends, offering information in Spanish, and hosting pop-up booths at already-scheduled events.
Public Workshops on ForwardDallas
Urban planners, housing experts, and other Dallas officials are about halfway into a series of virtual “lunch and learn” workshops on everything from missing-middle housing to environmental justice and transit-oriented development. About 20 people have attended the ones we’ve sat in on, held from noon to 1 p.m. with a brief presentation, a Q&A session, and a plug to participate in ForwardDallas, the rewrite of the city’s comprehensive land use plan.
City planners recently announced that a ForwardDallas “place type map” is ready for review and comment. A public meeting to gather input is set for 6 p.m. Thursday at the South Dallas Culture Center.
There’s also the matter of zoning, which we expect we’ll be hearing a lot more about in the coming months. Dallas has a history of exclusionary zoning and a disproportionate number of planned developments (PDs) that require a cumbersome process for new development.
Public Engagement For Historic Preservation
A “Coffee and Conversation” workshop Tuesday morning, hosted by the American Institute of Architects Dallas, focused on the city’s historic preservation policy and featured Director of Planning and Urban Design Julia Ryan.
The city is already working with HR&A Advisors and will soon solicit bids for a consultant to prepare a historic preservation plan, Ryan said.
“Think of this as the beginning step of community engagement — what do you want to see, what’s working, what’s not working, where do we want to go, how do we see historic preservation in the City of Dallas,” Ryan said. “We’ll be doing a lot of engagement. HR&A is starting to plan a lot of that. Start keeping an eye on our website for updates and other things that come out of that effort.”
HR&A analyst Kas Tebbetts said there’s a hunger among residents for a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process.
“People have a lot to say and need a platform to say it,” she said. “We needed an opportunity to build consensus to dream about what preservation could be as a community and generate some energy moving forward.”
An open house is planned for late May to kick off the engagement process on the historic preservation plan, Tebbetts said, followed by visioning workshops in neighborhoods and historic districts.
Meeting attendees were invited to join a contact list for community visioning sessions by emailing [email protected].
