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Dallas committee debates fourplex zoning change
Dallas city councilmembers discussed a hot button topic on Tuesday: should tri-plexes and four-plexes be allowed in single-family neighborhoods?
DALLAS - Dallas city councilmembers discussed a hot-button topic on Tuesday: should triplexes and fourplexes be allowed in single-family neighborhoods?
"This is a conversation in every city nationally," said Andrea Gilles, the city's director of planning and urban design. "If the City of Dallas won't have that conversation, it is going to be problematic."
Many of the council members who attended the specially-called committee meeting expressed concerns about the idea of changing city zoning.
Dallas City Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn argued the concept would end single-family zoning as residents know it.
"Where is the equity for people who prefer single-family neighborhoods?" she asked staff. "You are saying a person could no longer purchase a home in a single-family neighborhood and count on it remaining single-family because any neighbor could make it into a fourplex by right. You are actually destroying that option for people."
Mayor Pro Tem Tennel Atkins said his residents are also against the idea.
"Is this about affordable houses?" Atkins asked staff members.
[STAFF: "This is not about affordable housing, this is about housing options."]
"Let's get it straight, this is not about affordable housing," said Atkins.
Dallas City Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis said she's received emails from people all over the city concerned about the potential change.
"If this is a direction seeking exercise, we need to regroup, we need to respect our neighborhoods," she said.
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Councilwoman Carolyn King-Arnold says southern Dallas residents also want single-family neighborhoods.
"They don't want triplexes and duplexes. They want a home where children can grow up and play in the backyard," she said.
Dallas City Councilman Adam Bazaldua is one of the five council members who signed a memo requesting the briefing, but he is the only one of them who could attend Tuesday's meeting.
"I feel like a big bad guy. I grew up in a duplex, I had a normal childhood and played in a yard next to single-family resident, and I have a mom who grew up in an apartment and I think she's done just fine," he said. "The NIMBY tone of this meeting is through the roof."
The next step is for the potential zoning changes to be briefed to the full City Council.
No date for that briefing has been set.