Dallas’ Economic Development Committee was briefed on Monday about the current version of ForwardDallas, the City’s comprehensive land use plan.
The City Planning Commission (CPC) wrapped up months of edits on the document at a days-long meeting in late July, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. ForwardDallas then moved on to the next stage of edits that will be undertaken by Dallas City Council members serving on the Economic Development Committee.
Emily Liu, director of the City’s Planning and Development Department, and Andrea R. Gilles, deputy director of Planning and Development, provided the committee members with a 26-page presentation detailing ForwardDallas and the adjustments the CPC made.
“I think there is a lot of concern that we’re deviating from the 2006 plan, but ForwardDallas 2.0 just takes what was called ‘building blocks’ and provides more nuance and specificity than what the building blocks did in 2006,” said Gilles.
Gilles walked the committee through key changes to the plan that the CPC recommended.
One recommendation was to prohibit new construction of above-ground parking in Downtown Dallas to create a more walkable environment. Additionally, the CPC worked to mitigate displacement concerns among residents by placing an emphasis on retaining existing housing whenever possible before building more housing complexes.
“It was not intended to go in and demo structures that are there. The priority is to retain those structures whenever possible,” said Gilles.
The CPC also emphasized the importance of “environmental justice” in their editing of ForwardDallas. The new edition of the plan included an environmental justice review tool and citywide environmental justice goals.
“A big thing that ForwardDallas recommends is to be very specific about design standards and update the development code to implement those design standards,” Gilles told the committee.
Committee members had a chance to offer brief comments on the presentation during Monday’s meeting.
“Thank you for this. This has not been an easy process,” said Council Member Omar Narvaez (District 6). “We need new neighbors.”
Narvaez emphasized the importance of making sure the ForwardDallas plan does not leave room for “gentrification” to occur.
Many committee members expressed frustration that they did not receive the emailed ForwardDallas document until the evening before the meeting.
“I didn’t receive this until 8 p.m. last night on a Sunday night,” said Council Member Paul Ridley (District 14).
Committee members agreed that there is a slew of alleged “misinformation” surrounding the plan in the public domain and agreed to create a portion of the document to clarify it.
Each committee member will have a one-on-one meeting with the Planning and Development team to discuss their individual questions before the Economic Development Committee committee reconvenes for a special called meeting.