Dallas City officials say an updated Forward Dallas plan could be reviewed by the city’s land use plan committee as soon as the end of the week. That’s according to a briefing given by planning staff during Monday’s Economic Development Committee meeting.
City officials, residents and environmental activists say the Forward Dallas plan could be the first step in remedying decades of environmental injustice. That includes zoning ordinances and updates that could make it difficult for heavy industry to move near communities.
Forward Dallas was first launched almost two decades ago, but current efforts to update the city’s zoning and land use policies have been on-going for nearly two and a half years.
“Largely it was very important to have this amount of process to date, because we really needed to get the community up to speed, we needed community buy in,” Planning and Urban Design Interim Director Andrea Gillies said during the meeting. “I think we have a lot of that. There are still discussion to be had.”
Gilles says the department has hosted over 200 in person events around Forward Dallas. They also created a way for residents to give comments about the plan online.
The plan’s main themes include economic development, housing accessibility and public transit — plus environmental justice.
“Environmental justice has been one of the top themes and subjects that have been discussed,” Gilles said. “What are we doing to do about these issues that we have in some of our communities.”
Gilles explained the plan will define certain future area types — or “placetypes.” Those include residential areas, mixed use areas, industrial and commercially zoned hubs.
“We have had a ton of discussion about our industrial placetypes and our industrial land uses. And how we from an environmental justice perspective, address adjacency issues, how we address transitioning areas…and how do we make sure we are addressing the surrounding areas,” Gilles said.
City staff is planning on inserting a new land use category that will address “large scale warehouses.” In addition, Gilles said another not every industrial zoning circumstance is a non-conforming use case and that another proposed category would focus on those smaller mixed uses.
“You can co-exist with smaller scale internalized industrial uses,” Gilles said. “So how do we think about that and where does that get accommodated in the city?”
Across the city there are many examples of the remnants of environmental racism. The historic Freedman’s Town of Joppa in southern Dallas, is actively fighting for the deindustrialization of their community.
Joppa is almost surrounded by industry — from a shingle factor sitting at one of the only entrances to the area, to a railyard running nearly an entire side of the community. Earlier this year, Joppa residents and environmental advocates saw the closure of a decades-old asphalt plant they say was polluting their air. The closure came after residents campaigned City Hall for help.
In West Dallas, a predominately Latino community is fighting for the closure of yet another decades-old heavy industrial facility. Residents and activists are saying the 80-year-old GAF shingle factor is actively polluting their air — and Dallas elected officials are not doing anything to help.
City officials say the Forward Dallas plan has the potential to help fix some of these issues.
Gilles told council members now that a draft plan has been released, the department was able to get more community input before an updated plan goes to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee — which could happen as soon as December 8.
From there full city council could be briefed on the plan in Spring 2024 with a possible review and public hearings starting later that year.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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