UPDATE: Dallas City Council Spells Out Changes for Comprehensive Plan Draft

As a result, a five-member ad hoc committee will review the draft in depth and offer additional input as the Forward Dallas team parades the 450-page "vision" before the public in the coming weeks. The new goal is to take action on the plan before council recesses at the end of June. "We'll just cross our fingers that we'll get this done sometime between April and the end of June," Theresa O'Donnell, the city's development services' director said after nearly fours hours of detailing the plan to council.

Despite more than 100 meetings for input and explanation, proponents still are battling to overcome some misconceptions about the plan. "This does not affect your zoning. It's important to get that out front," stresses John Fregonese, a renowned urban planner from Portland, OR, who's invested 18 months into framing the plan. "This doesn't make any specific changes to a specific area, but it provides you with the tools to make changes."

Fregonese, who fashioned Denver's comprehensive plan update, tells GlobeSt.com, that the difference between the two cities is urban redevelopment. "Dallas doesn't have as much as Denver," he says. The Mile High City is actively identifying new areas to develop while forging ahead with infill sites like LoDo--and now putting Fregonese Calthrope Associates at the helm of a zoning revamp.

Fregonese, earning $1.4 million for the Dallas job, is best known for his work in Portland, but has framed plans for scores of cities, including Seattle, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Austin. "The key for an older central city in a growing region is to find its niche," Fregonese says. "You can't out-suburb the suburbs."

Fregonese believes Dallas has "gotten it right" when it comes to mapping out area plans for large-scale developments like the Trinity River Corridor. But the comprehensive plan, if it passes council muster, will set up "whole areas that are ready to go according to the vision, whether it's $40 million or $2 million," he explains. "There's more room in this plan for the small investor to be successful."

Comprehensive plans, though commonplace in most metros, aren't familiar planning tools found in Texas. "I think it's going to be well received, but I know it's going to cause a lot of concern because Dallas hasn't had a comprehensive plan," Fregonese says.

Council concerns focused on a multifamily development prediction that another 86,000 units will be built in the next 20 years. Though council didn't realize it, the projection translates into a slowdown since developers historically push out 10,000 units annually across the metroplex, which has a steadily rising inventory exceeding 220,000 but a steadily declining land base for single-family housing.

Fregonese, like the elected officials, believes it's imperative to level the playing field between the number of rental units and single-family structures. Apartment units make up 57% of the housing base so the comprehensive plan supports development of alternative "home-ownership" product, basically condos and townhouses. The plan sets out a goal to shift the balance to 50-30% by 2030, which some council members felt wasn't a deep enough cut.

Chief on the list of "hot button" issues, though, is South Dallas. Two council members said they had to go to Houston and San Diego for developers because the city's own wouldn't go into its backyard. "It has hindered development in the southern sector not to have a comprehensive plan," O'Donnell says.

Dallas' development has always pushed north, making today's projects easier to build and practically guaranteed for success. "They aren't willing to take the risk in the southern sector," O'Donnell says.

South Dallas' risk factor could change if two pet projects-- the University of North Texas campus and a Dallas Area Rapid Transit light-rail station at Westmoreland Avenue--can get rolling. "We know UNT is a home run. The Westmoreland Station is a home run," O'Donnell says. "If we can hit a couple home runs with these guaranteed projects, then we can go back to the development community and say 'come with us.' That's our strategy. This is a pro-business plan."