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A Dallas code amendment that would eliminate minimum parking requirements for new developments and improve walkability and bicycle safety will be presented to the City Planning Commission this summer, city planners said Tuesday.
The code changes also create a transportation demand management plan for qualified project developers to “fully consider their impact on the transportation system.”
Architects Ryan Behring and Tipton Housewright of the Dallas Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee spoke to planner Michael Wade during an American Institute of Architects panel discussion on Tuesday ) and questions from Sarah May.
“Too many parking spaces is just bad urban design,” Houseright said. “It’s bad land use. It affects our tax base. It affects the quality of our environment.”
Dallas policymakers have been discussing this issue since 2019, and the basic principles of the current code have been established since the 1960s. Housewright said the current one-size-fits-all approach requires developers to have “significant capital” to assemble several acres of land, which is particularly challenging for infill development.
“These big, heavy projects around the city are being developed with a single culture, and the smaller projects don’t have the interesting scale because you can’t solve the parking problem,” he said.
ZOAC voted in January to recommend eliminating parking requirements for new developments. After the City Planning Commission takes up the matter in June, it will be presented to the Dallas City Council.
Dallas Development Code Changes
Bellin pointed out that North Texas’ population is growing rapidly, but Dallas is not.
“Good urban places are flexible and adaptable,” he said. “When you have a rule that applies equally to our vastly different communities … it doesn’t allow those places to adapt and change the way Dallas has. I think we’re trying to meet Dallas.”
Eliminating parking minimums doesn’t mean existing parking spaces will be wiped out; it simply gives developers the option to determine how much space is needed for new projects rather than adhering to outdated code that dictates a certain number of square feet or bedrooms anywhere in the city.
“This ordinance has no cap,” Houseright said. “Lenders are going to require commercial developers to provide parking. If someone is building space and leasing it to tenants, the tenants are going to ask about parking. There’s all kinds of self-interest and self-regulation going on here.”
The main concern of those opposed to the code change is parking spillover into the neighborhood. Planned developments such as PD 193 at Oak Lawn already specify their own parking requirements and will not be affected by the code change.
How parking reform connects to ForwardDallas
Can we talk about anything these days without turning the conversation to ForwardDallas? Does not look like.
Public affairs consultant Katie O’Brien, who moderated the AIA panel’s discussion Tuesday, asked if the parking requirements had any connection to the city’s ForwardDallas Comprehensive Land Use Plan.
The short answer, panelists said, is there is no connection.
Wade said current parking requirements could inhibit what some city leaders hope to achieve through land use plans: greater flexibility in density, mixed uses and development standards.
May clarified that ForwardDallas is not a zoning document (a point planners have made repeatedly) and that it does not create regulations.
“The city is putting in the work, putting in the engagement, engaging communities that haven’t been involved before, especially in our area of South Dallas … to determine what they want to see in their towns,” May said. “This is the city. of the master plan so that when the zoning changes come before the CPC and council, they can say, ‘Does it fit within the plan?’ It’s really just an agreed upon plan. That’s the direction we want to go.”
May added that parking is a regulatory enforcement tool that is conceptually separate from land use plans.
“It’s like comparing your budget to your water bill,” she said. “Hopefully your water bill fits your budget, but they are very separate documents and are both very important things that we have to consider.”
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