ForwardDallas Explained: How the Land Use Plan Can (and Cannot) Change the City

As community members voice mixed approval in city meetings, the City of Dallas’ updated land use plan holds its commission vote today. But what are ForwardDallas’ primary aims? And does the plan have the potential to affect equity, environmentalism, and affordability in the city? ForwardDallas will advance subject to commission vote today at Dallas City Hall. Following this, the land use plan (updated from the 2006 version) will be submitted to Dallas City Council for final approval.& In what has been three years in the making, ForwardDallas outlines equity, environmental justice, and affordability for both renters and homebuyers as major themes. However, as the land use plan has no regulatory function, its proposal lays at the behest of Dallas’ existing framework.& Zoning is a crucial and often overlooked apparatus of city planning. And as Dallas has historically contended with issues such as environmental racism, food insecurity, and inadequate housing, zoning has enabled inequity to be compounded into the city’s general way of life. So, naturally, a new land use plan seems like the solution. But the effectiveness of many aspects of the plan is at the consequence of, if not the city government, housing developers and longtime industrial manufacturers. As...