Couple of days ago, an old Friend of Unfair Park wondered, simply, whatever became of forwardDallas!, anyway? Which led me, earlier this a.m., to this sexy agenda item from yesterday's meeting of the city council's Transportation and Environment Committee: forwardDallas! Code Amendments: Form District Zoning -- New Zoning Districts to Encourage Transit Oriented Development, which has been sitting on my hard drive for the past few hours. What's it say? Dallas need to be more walkable, d'uh. How so? Using "form-based zoning" that's "intended to create opportunities for developers to build the community's vision," whatever that is.
Had intended to make some calls to see what had become of the code amendment meeting, but got sidetracked by other UP bidness. Turns out, reports Rudy Bush on The Dallas Morning News' City Hall Blog, nothing happened yesterday, because folks charged with hashing out the details of the plan that calls for three types of zoning -- Walkable Mixed Use, Walkable Residential and Residential Transition -- couldn't agree on nothin' 'bout 'nothin'. There's a rather sizable impasse over the size of the districts: Folks like city plan commissioner Neil Emmons and preservationist Virgina McAlester wanna keep the respective districts 40 acres or more, to which city staffers say both "pish" and "posh." Also, do read page 41 of the city document. The one headlined "Desired Character." Notice anything ... unfortunate? --Robert Wilonsky
