Dallas City Council Approves Elm Thicket-Northpark Zoning Change Limiting Size of New Homes

After three hours of public comments and discussion Wednesday, Dallas City Council members approved new zoning restrictions for the Elm Thicket-Northpark neighborhood. The changes prevent new homes from exceeding 25 feet in height and 40% of lot coverage.

Some say the new restrictions will protect legacy residents from displacement in this historically Black neighborhood, while others see them as impinging on their property rights.

Property taxes and home prices have shot up in the area in recent years, pricing legacy residents out of the neighborhood. About six years ago, Elm Thicket-Northpark, a former Freedman community, was chosen as part of the city’s Neighborhood Plus program in an attempt to help prevent such displacement. This led to the changes City Council approved Wednesday.

Some of the opposition asked the council to postpone its vote on the changes. But ahead of the meeting, Jesse Moreno, the council member for this part of town, told the Observer by text that he had no intention of doing that.

“It’s time to make a decision,” Moreno said. “This case has been worked on and postponed for over half a decade. Both staff and the City Planning Commission have given their input and recommendations and it’s time to vote.”

While the City Council ultimately approved the new zoning, some members, such as District 11’s Jaynie Schultz, said the time it took to get to the horseshoe may have diminished the returns.

“Six years ago, before many of the people asking for the delay owned their homes, the city began to work to hear from neighborhoods through a formal process called Neighborhood Plus,” Schultz said. “Reading what they asked for in 2016, the first priority was managing neighborhood change. The city had not the resources to expeditiously move the neighborhood plan into reality.”

Schultz said she didn’t think the zoning was perfect, but that it was nonetheless time to take a vote. “I’m not supporting this overlay because of a belief in the perfection of this zoning,” she explained. “The compromises included actually dilute some of the 2016 protections that were asked for by the neighborhood back then and the city couldn’t address. That’s why we must vote now to preserve the remnants of the original homeowners who are fighting for their identity and their history.”

Originally, the new zoning called for lot coverage to be capped at 35%, bigger than most of the original homes in the neighborhood, which often cover 30% or less. But, prompting the vote, Moreno threw the opposition a bone, increasing the maximum coverage to 40%.

None of the new zoning is retroactive, meaning homes like the widely reported, luxurious $4 million mansion that sits in the neighborhood (otherwise known as the Tron house because it was inspired in part by the movie Tron: Legacy) can stay put without being considered a nonconforming use.