Why say “NO” to the NATINSKY PROPOSAL

The Natinsky Proposal will Devastate Dallas’ Neighborhoods

• No Critical Mass

• No Residential Proximity slope required

• No ½-block Residential Transition Neighborhood required

• Can be located on scattered small sites throughout city

• Huge parking reductions not suitable for scattered sites

• City Council cannot control parking reductions

If the Natinsky Proposal is adopted, we waste our time at endless zoning meetings for the rest of our lives.

BACKGROUND

Current mixed use zoning districts do not result in sufficient predictability and walkability in the developments permitted within them.

forwardDallas! recommended the establishment of new form-based zoning districts to encourage walkable mixed use development as a high priority for implementation of the future vision.

On February 26, 2007, the City Council Quality of Life Committee established an Advisory Committee to serve as a sounding board and to provide policy guidance for development of an enabling ordinance for form districts. This committee met 15 times between April 2007 and March 2008 and made a recommendation for City Plan Commission consideration.

Two rounds of community stakeholder meetings were held in September 2007 and December 2007.

On May 8, 2008, the City Plan Commission established an Ad Hoc Committee to review the Advisory Committee recommendations in relation to alternative staff/consultant recommendations. The Ad Hoc Committee met three times in May 2008 and made a recommendation for City Plan Commission consideration.

On June 5, 2008 City Plan Commission acted to adopt an ordinance establishing Form Districts based on the City Plan Commission Ad Hoc Committee recommendations.

A Council Study Group was established and met six times between July 14, 2008 and October 14, 2008 to hear comments from community stakeholders and review staff recommended alternative recommendations.

PROPOSAL

The proposal establishes a new Article XIII in Chapter 51(A) of the Dallas Code to enable form district zoning that encourages walkable mixed use development. Form district zoning puts less emphasis on the regulation of land uses and greater emphasis on the placement of buildings and parking on sites, reduced parking, streetscape and pedestrian friendly minor street standards.

The attached ordinance reflects the CPC recommendation. Staff/consultant alternative recommendations are summarized below:

Do not permit drive-through facilities.

Require a minimum ground floor elevation of 30 inches for residential developments adjacent to the sidewalk to ensure privacy.

Require regulating plans to establish specific rather than general boundaries for overlay districts.

Allow a 2% parking reduction for developments on sites between ¼ mile and ½ mile walking distance of a rail transit station.

Establish 100 feet as the maximum depth for a required RTN buffer adjacent to single family zoning.

Make open space provisions mandatory instead of optionally applied through an open space overlay. Require minimum open space of 4% of net site area, or based on a computation tied to residential density, whichever is greater. Do not allow landscaped medians to be counted as open space.

Delete transitional use provisions.

Allow Height Map Overlays to be used as an alternative to the Residential Proximity Slope to ensure appropriate height transitions to single family neighborhoods.

Clarify that Height Map Overlays may be used to establish view corridors.

Strike the "critical mass" limitations on the applicability of the WR and WMU districts.