Which is to say, if you have no memory of where the council left things off back in June, that’s okay. We’re here for you.
A few things were done right before Marilla Street went on vacation: the council overwhelmingly approved an overhaul of the city parking code and adopted a long-awaited update to the city’s bike plan.
Even still, the council broke for the summer with a few significant issues still unaddressed or unfinished, and facing those agenda items will likely be a priority in the coming weeks as City Hall gets back into the groove of things. We’re on the lookout for committee appointments, which are made at the start of each council session by Mayor Eric Johnson. So far, the only appointments have been to the Ad Hoc Committee on Legislative Affairs, of which council member Cara Mendelsohn was named chair.
Hopefully, the remaining committee appointments will be coming soon because the FIFA World Cup isn’t getting any further away, and the budget deficit isn’t going to remedy itself. City Council, you’ve got your work cut out for you.
Budget Season
City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert started her week by meeting one-on-one with the fifteen council members to discuss plans for the city's next fiscal year’s budget, which goes into effect Oct. 1. Before breaking for July, Tolbert warned the council that a “painful summer” was ahead due to a projected $7 million revenue shortfall. City staff says that the budget gap comes, in part, thanks to dips in property tax revenue. No city department is expected to be safe from budget cuts.
According to a timeline filed by Tolbert, a first look at the 2026 funding plan should be online this Friday. Next Tuesday, a budget briefing workshop will be the council’s first opportunity to discuss the budget as a whole body. By the end of this month, your council member should have hosted a budget town hall meeting to solicit community feedback, so if budget line item amendments are your thing, be on the lookout for dates.
Any changes to the presented budget must be made by Aug. 29, and voting will take place in September.
DPD’s Immigration Enforcement
Immigrant rights’ advocates and police watchdogs had a major concern put on hold over the last few weeks, after a meeting between the new Dallas police Chief Daniel Comeaux and the Dallas Community Police Oversight Board was cut short by city attorneys in June.The Board hoped to ask Comeaux to clarify his stance on the Dallas Police Department’s role in working with federal immigration officials, a stance that, in cases like some media interviews and the committee meeting, Comeaux has been blocked from sharing publicly. In other instances, like an interview with FOX News, Comeaux appeared to state that migrants are “not welcome” in Dallas, but the chief has since said that comment was taken out of context.
Oversight board members said they felt they were “set up to fail” by city attorneys who blocked Comeaux from addressing immigration concerns, but since that meeting, the issue hasn’t died quietly. On the council’s first day back, a dozen Dallasites spoke during the open microphone portion of the meeting. They asked councilmembers to approve a resolution that would call for transparency from the police department regarding their interactions with immigration officials.
“The approach that ICE has adopted is the antithesis of community policing,” said Dallasite Karen Muncy. “Please make a public commitment that DPD will not assist ICE in immigration enforcement activities, that it will not honor voluntary ICE detainer requests, that it will not share non-public information with ICE unless required by law. Please assure all of us that DPD is not an appendage of federal immigration enforcement.”
The urging came just hours after the Keller City Council unanimously approved a contract with the immigration enforcement agency.
DEI Programming
President Donald Trump put city officials across the country on notice earlier this year, warning that using public funds for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives would risk future funding. Tuesday night, Fort Worth became the first North Texas city to do away with its DEI-related programming to comply. Dallas may be next on the list.Before the break, the council approved the pause of any programs that could be aligned with DEI or designed to promote the advancement of a particular identity group to avoid noncompliance. Since then, staff have worked to identify which programs will be affected and what changes need to be made to things like the wording of grant funding applications.
One of the more impressive feats at Wednesday’s council meeting, when an update on this effort was given, was the number of ways council members and city staff alike managed to reference “federal mandates” without using the DEI words.
The end of the DEI era means that Dallas’ racial equity plan will end, or at the very least, be watered down into a Community Opportunity Assessment that staff said will guide future programs. Other initiatives, like the city’s commitment to contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses, will also be kaput.
A timeline presented by staff said the changes to city policy will be finalized by mid-September and voted on by the end of that month, before going into effect Oct. 1.
Zoning Reform
If you’re thinking, “Zoning reform? Didn’t we just get done with ForwardDallas?” We’ll point you towards the city’s favorite refrain: ForwardDallas was a development guidance document, not a zoning ordinance.This swing at reform, though, should result in an actual change to Dallas’ development code. City staff are attempting to simplify the rules that govern why Dallas looks the way it does, while also bringing other guidelines into the modern day. After all, it’s been 40 years since the last time Dallas thought a deep dive into zoning was a good idea. Based on the response Marilla Street has gotten to endeavors like ForwardDallas, it’ll probably be another 40 years before they decide to open this can of worms again.
Before the council disbanded in July, a series of community engagement meetings were held across Dallas on the planned reforms, which gave us a first look at some of what could be tweaked in Dallas’ code. One of the biggest changes will be identifying residential districts that are prime locations for the development of more diverse housing types, such as duplexes, triplexes, and quadraplexes.
City staff also lays out a desire to promote mixed-use districts and walkability in an executive summary of the reform’s first draft. Those have been some of the horseshoe’s favorite words over the last few years.
With community input received, city planners will spend the next few months on rewrites. And even though this was one of the biggest issues left on the table prior to summer vacation, it’ll likely be a long while still before the City Council gets its hands on the plan. The Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee and City Plan Commission will get the first stabs, and who knows how long they’ll take to finally say they approve.
Short Term Rentals
The agenda item that will not die: vacation rentals in Dallas.Earlier this week, we published a write-up on the latest development in Dallas’ fight against vacation rentals. For the second time this year, a Texas court has told the city it doesn’t have much to stand on when it comes to the attempt to oust Airbnbs and VRBOs. With the ban not yet in effect, there’s a chance that even if a court sides with the City of Dallas and overturns the current injunction on the ordinance, the rental shut downs would come at the same time as international visitors are beginning to make travel plans for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. That timing seems, in our opinion, less than ideal.
Legally speaking, the ball is back in Dallas’ court. Will they appeal this ruling to the state Supreme Court? Or will the city cut its losses and go back to the drawing board, working with short-term rental operators on an ordinance that works for both sides?
We likely won’t get an answer to that question anytime soon. While STRs were on Wednesday’s council agenda, the discussion was held in a closed session with staff attorneys.
