As Dallas works to overhaul its urban planning rules for the first time in decades, hundreds of housing advocates, developers and curious residents gathered at the Life In Deep Ellum cultural center Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
They were there to learn more about how the city\u2019s neighborhoods\u00a0\u2014 especially those marred by past policy decisions\u00a0\u2014 became what they are today, and how the city\u2019s housing decisions could change them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving access to history and historical narratives can help them actually do their work,\u201d said historian Jerry L. Hawkins, who moderated the conversation.<\/p>\n
The event was put on by the Dallas Housing Coalition, a large group of nonprofits advocating for affordable and attainable housing. Organizers premiered a documentary trailer and announced the group\u2019s new zoning reform<\/a> campaign. Visitors perused a timeline of the city\u2019s housing and zoning history that lined the room and flipped through Hawkins\u2019 new zine, the \u201cPeople\u2019s Guide to Dallas’ Housing History.\u201d<\/p>\n Related: Vacant lots in southern Dallas could help ease region\u2019s housing crisis<\/a><\/p>\n The booklet describes Dallas\u2019 history of gentrification, segregation, redlining, destructive highways, and other policy choices impacting freedman\u2019s towns, cultural enclaves like Little Mexico<\/a> and areas south of Interstate 30, which are predominantly Black and Hispanic.<\/p>\n The conversation comes as Dallas County has seen its population decline<\/a> despite North Texas\u2019 rapid growth, much of it to the north.<\/a> At the same time, the city is going through zoning reform for the first time in decades amid a housing affordability crunch, updating outdated rules that shape the city with hopes of generating growth.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that before we can change our future, create a more equitable one, we have to understand our past,\u201d Bryan Tony, the coalition\u2019s executive director, said of the exhibit.<\/p>\n Across Dallas, reform and zoning changes come after the City Council\u2019s passage of ForwardDallas 2.0 in 2024<\/a>, a long-term vision for Dallas\u2019 land use over the coming decades that involved months of debate between single-family homeowners and housing advocates.<\/p>\n The Dallas Housing Coalition says the city needs to allow for thousands more homes \u2014 and a variety of housing types such as apartments or duplexes \u2014 to better serve residents. It\u2019s hoping to get residents involved in the zoning process.<\/p>\n In South Dallas, where advocates are aiming to manage needed growth, more than 3,300 acres were rezoned<\/a> to include design standards and map out where development fits.<\/p>\n Around Joppa in southeast Dallas<\/a>, where past decisions have resulted in residents living alongside industrial facilities, community meetings are underway to consider what those sites become when a company leaves.<\/p>\n In West Dallas, residents along Singleton Boulevard are going through the rezoning process after having long pushed to reduce industrial sites<\/a> in their neighborhood.<\/p>\n Laura Beshara, a longtime civil rights attorney who has taken on a number of housing policy issues<\/a>, said current concerns are a \u201crelic of official segregation\u201d that must change.<\/p>\n \u201cZoning is critical because it decides how protected your home is from adverse influences such as heavy industry,\u201d Beshara said during a panel Thursday, adding that residential zoning comes with protections that can impact health and determine how much equity homeowners have.<\/p>\n Roshunda Campbell, who lives in Oak Cliff, was one of the visitors exploring the exhibit showing Dallas\u2019 housing history. At 58, Campbell said she\u2019s learning stories her parents didn\u2019t teach her. Her daughter, who writes about Black history, brought her to the gathering. <\/p>\n Campbell noted the Tenth Street Historic District, where Interstate 35E sliced through the heart of a freedman\u2019s town in the \u201850s. This once-bustling neighborhood has seen its historic structures shrink as the city works to make housing and infrastructure repairs<\/a>. Nearby, the new multimillion-dollar Halperin Park stretches across the highway as a means to mend past harms and bridge communities, but some neighbors have concerns about gentrification<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hopeful that we bring more affordable housing, for us, but for the next generation,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cIt\u2019s very important to know our rich history because when you know the history, you don\u2019t repeat it.\u201d<\/p>\n This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Dallas works to overhaul its urban planning rules for the first time in decades, hundreds of housing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5902,84803,102,104,103,3222,5692,93339,100434,95705,98930],"class_list":["post-385398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-city-of-dallas","tag-city-planning","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-housing","tag-local-government","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-infrastructure","tag-tp-southern-dallas","tag-tp-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}