The following comes from guest blogger Scott Hounsel, one of my colleagues in the T&K real estate group. For more information, please contact Scott at 214.969.1281 or scott.hounsel@tklaw.com.
On February 25, 2009, the Dallas City Council approved an amendment to the Dallas Development Code (Chapter 51A) to permit “Form-Based Zoning” as an alternative to the traditional zoning (which is “use-based”) currently in place. The new amendment added Article XIII to the Code without replacing the existing standards. As the term “Form-Based Zoning” is not particularly insightful to what changes have been made, I thought I would share a general summary of the amendments.
By emphasizing building form over building use, the goal of Article XIII is to create an easier path for developers to get City zoning approval for mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly developments of any size. Before, there was no baseline of requirements for what a mixed-use development would or could be in the City. Developers who wanted to do a sophisticated mixed-use project had to apply for the creation of a new Planned Development district (a “PD”), which involved a lot of heavy negotiating by consultants, staff, and the City Council.
For now, no property in Dallas has been rezoned; the amendments have created a “tool kit” that owners can apply for. If the tool kit works for the particular site, a zoning change would still be requested, but (in theory) this type of zoning change would not be contentious since the developer would be asking for the baseline tools instead of particular changes that would trigger greater scrutiny. In the future, the City may work with neighborhoods in formulating area plans that may then implement form-based zoning, but only by adopting zoning amendment(s) for the neighborhood through standard channels.
New Article XIII created three new zoning districts: (1) walkable mixed use (WMU), (2) walkable residential (WR), and (3) residential transition (RTN). The first two have variations in permitted building heights. On top of those three, there are overlay zoning districts for shopfronts, height variations, and parking management. There are only ten types of permitted uses, not all of which are available in each district. For example, a single family house (that is not a townhouse) is a permitted use ONLY in a residential transition district; apartments are permitted in WMU and WR. The ten types of uses are: mixed use shopfront, single-story shopfront, general commercial, apartment, townhouse stacked, townhouse, manor house, single-family house, civic, and open space.
Based on my discussions with some of the zoning consultants who assisted the City staff in writing Article XIII, it appears that Form-Based Zoning has not been well received, so inertia may be the biggest hurdle before widespread use. I have also heard the some attorneys told the City that they are advising their clients against using the new amendment.
The text of Article XIII (which has many illustrations of the new concepts) can be found via the following link: http://www.forwarddallas.org/news/item.php?id=82
