Morning Edition, August 25, 2005 · Around the country, buyers are scooping up real estate, knocking down old houses, and building grand new mansions. It's a trend that's finally coming to Cape Cod, birthplace of the original summer cottage. Some residents worry the demolitions are slowly erasing the cape's traditional character. From member station WBUR, Monica Brady-Myerov reports.
A Lakewood resident alleges that a man wearing a shirt bearing the logo of an area builder trespassed on her property, took her "noMcMansions.org" yard sign, and placed it in his truck. When a passerby intervened to request the sign back, the man allegedly threatened her and challenged her to call the police.
What to do: Display your yard sign proudly, but if you see a "goon" trespassing on your property to steal it, remember it's free speech to you, but to him its a threat to his money supply. Don't confront him -- report the theft to the police.
A zoning overlay is simply a temporary legal tool, which individual neighborhoods within Dallas can choose, or not choose, to self-determine their own basic standards for new construction, while more comprehensive zoning guidelines are reviewed.
The Stabilization Overlay and Zoning Tool, which have passed the Dallas Plan Commission (August 11) and will later be considered by the City Council are a somewhat unprecedented move. Typically, individual neighborhoods can regulate control building practices and style through deed restrictions and/or a "conservation district" plan. But for many neighborhoods of Dallas, the existing deed restrictions have expired, so any incoming builder has no restrictions on the size or layout of new houses. Passing a Conservation District or changing zoning are complex processes that take time (2+ years).
We support the Zoning Overlay and will attempt to demystify this simple (yet controversial?) tool.
Market forces have fueled the acceleration of new construction. New construction is a positive sign for the economy, but there are other factors creating the boom. Interest rates hit an all time low. This is a great thing for many people buying their first home, or upgrading to a house for improved location, space or ameneties. At the same time, we've seen volatility in other types of investments such as the stock market, so both individuals and institutions are investing in real estate, as it appears to be the only solid investment with guaranteed rates of return. These forces are causing the real estate "bubble" phenomenon in established urban neighborhoods: the more investment in property and new construction, the higher the prices go, and so on, and there is an incentive to build bigger houses and destabilize some city neighborhoods.
EVERY ONE OF US agrees on one thing: We wish there didn't need to be a Zoning Overlay.
Developers and sellers of new houses are doing a booming business, and this well-financed industry certainly doesn't want an overlay. They are applying pressure at the state level (Austin), as well as locally, to stop neighborhoods from regulating or self-determining new construction standards. There are responsible developers and realtors building and selling compatible houses, but there are extreme exceptions that require some form of control.
Residents of existing or established neighborhoods wish there were no need for a Zoning Overlay. They wish many developers had shown a tiny bit of restraint and consideration both in their building practices and in the tremendous size of the houses they build. Unfortunately, it appears that the supersize building trend is accelerating in many neighborhoods. Something must be done, as the builders have shown no desire to responsibly self-regulate their practices.
Given all of the messages flying around on this issue in the media and in advertising venues, it is important that each of us understand specifically what a zoning overlay would affect, in order to make a more informed decision about the future of our neighborhoods.
A zoning overlay is not a blanket city-wide restriction on big houses. It is a tool for individual neighborhoods to determine their own standards for new houses. You will have neighborhoods that prefer to allow McMansions of any size -- how the Overlay will affect zoning depends entirely upon the will of the people in your specific area.
A zoning overlay does not automatically prevent teardowns and new construction. Houses can and will still be torn down, and new ones can be built in their place. The new houses can be bigger than neighboring houses and more costly, however there is a temporary maximum limit on certain dimensions imposed. For some older or more historic neighborhoods, the individual area can use the tool to help keep new houses within reason.
A zoning overlay does not prevent you from upgrading and renovating your house! Imposing some limits on new construction encourages reinvestment, renovation and add-ons to existing houses, rather than teardowns.
A zoning overlay does not erode the value of your home. In reality, it protects the significant investments you (and your neighbors) have made in your homes, beyond the mere value of the land it sits on. An experienced appraiser will tell you that neighborhoods with stable development plans see far more reinvestment in the original structures.
A zoning overlay may not reduce your property taxes. The lack of restrictions has caused land values to increase far more than house values in some areas, so an overlay may limit the acceleration of land taxes somewhat, while house taxable value may appreciate. In general taxable values will still increase in urban areas.
A zoning overlay will not "discriminate" against current McMansion owners. It does not take away your existing property rights, whatever type of home you live in. Nor is it designed to somehow create a "block war" among neighbors. It does give us a way to decide on the future of a neighborhood together. Without an overlay, we don't have a democratic way to self-determine the character of our neighborhoods.
A zoning overlay will not make it impossible to build higher-priced homes. We would all like to see new houses that are not just bigger - but better. With unregulated construction and a housing boom, you have thousands of crews building as fast as possible, and often the quality of these new homes suffers. We believe that a new house can achieve higher value to customers, and positively lift the value of surrounding neighborhood, by including better features, materials, energy performance and ameneties besides just tons of square feet.
Who should decide? The residents, or the developers? It is important not to get sidetracked and fall into the builder/realtor trap of debating the "economic impact" of overlays, or whether cheaper old homes should or should not be torn down to make way for expensive new homes.
The time and place for that debate is among neighbors when they decide whether they want an overlay or not, and they are best suited to have that debate as they have the keenest eye on the desires and values of their own neighborhoods. If a builder or realtor lives in my neighborhood and wants to vote against an overlay if my neighbors propose one, that's fine. But if that builder or realtor does not live in my neighborhood, then they should butt out of our business and keep their economic impact analysis to themselves.
We should focus on the fact that approval of the Overlay ordinance does not impose an overlay on anyone. It just makes it an option available to neighborhoods, if they want it.
Wear it at the Council Meetings! Make a statement loud and clear on your person, your car, and even your yard. The NoMcMansions.org gear has one purpose: to help you strike up a conversation about the reality of responsible development.
Soon we will have an online store as well as outlets to purchase NoMcMansions gear for your personal or community group use. For now, you can email us to order them. Any and all proceeds will go toward the continuation of this campaign until we achieve a successful zoning overlay, at which time it will be donated to a charitable community cause.
BUSINESS SPONSOR: If you are a retailer or business owner and would like to help distribute NoMcMansions merchandise, we can promote you publicly or privately, and we will send you PLENTY of appreciative residents and good karma for your support. For details contact webmaster@noMcMansions.org .
The noMcMansions tee: $10 These 100% heavyweight cotton tees will be perfect for attending community events, block parties and teardowns.
The NoMcMansions bumper sticker: $1 Honk if you love your house
The NoMcMansions yard sign $5 - NOW HERE.... Put them in your yard EVERY DAY. Show your support with these high-quality yard signs -- they're practically indestructible!
All phone numbers/addresses of council, put on your fridge!
OK, make a call a day and let your council person know where you stand on this issue. "Dear Councilmember _______, I am calling to support the Stabilization Overlay zoning document as approved by ZOAC. We need the ability to choose, or not choose, height, size and setback requirements with a majority vote, in order to preserve the value and continuity of our neighborhoods. Please let us know if you support the Overlay document as a tool for self-governing a basic level of zoning."
Here's the contact info-- To write to any member, send your letter to:
City of Dallas
1500 Marilla St., Room 5EN
Dallas, Texas 75201-6390
To call or send a fax to any member:
Mayor: Laura Miller, (214) 670-4054 or fax (214) 670-0646
District 1: Elba Garcia, (214) 670-4052 or fax (214) 670-3409
District 2: Pauline Medrano, (214) 670-4048 or fax (214) 670-5115
District 3: Ed Oakley, (214) 670-0776 or fax (214) 670-5115
District 4: Maxine Thornton-Reese, (214) 670-0781 or fax (214) 670-5117
District 5: Don Hill, (214) 670-0777 or fax (214) 670-3409
District 6: Steve Salazar, (214) 670-4199 or fax (214) 670-5115
District 7: Leo Chaney Jr., (214) 670-4689 or fax (214) 670-5117
District 8: James Fantroy, (214) 670-4066 or fax (214) 670- 5117
District 9: Gary Griffith, (214) 670-4069 or fax (214) 670-5115
District 10: Bill Blaydes, (214) 670-4068 or fax (214) 670-5115
District 11: Linda Koop, (214) 670-7817 or fax (214) 670-5117
District 12: Ron Natinsky, (214) 670-4067 or fax (214) 670-5115
District 13: Mitchell Rasansky, (214) 670-3816 or fax (214) 670-5117
District 14: Angela Hunt, (214) 670-5415 or fax (214) 670-5117
Please request support for the ORIGINAL ordinance in your letters to the Council
In the last minutes of the City Plan Commission meeting on Thursday night, the Commission recommended modifying the Neighborhood Stabilization Overlay tool in a way that would make it much less effective. The Commission recommended removing the option to limit building height, number of stories, and floor-area ratio. It also suggested raising the required percentage of supporting homeowners from "50% plus 1 person" to 75%, plus another check for 75% once the neighborhood decides on its overlay criteria.
The first three changes would make the tool much less effective in regulating the size of new construction. Setbacks and garage placement would be the main criteria left for neighborhoods to decide. What's worse, the percentage requirement would make it likely that no neighborhood would ever get one of these things passed.
Unfortunately, and unbelievably, there was no coverage of these last-minute changes in the media.
So, if you write a letter in support to the Mayor and City Council, please request support for the original version of the ordinance that was submitted by the Single Family Task Force to the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Council.
Area realtors and builders have hired professional consultants to start a misinformation campaign that apparently will include radio ads. Please be aware that these people have only their own financial self-interest at heart, which makes anything that they say about the overlay suspect. They may say and do anything to ensure that this overlay tool does not get approved.
Overlay supporter Ken Lampton, also a real estate agent, had a good point when he called the overlay tool a "sheep in wolf's clothing," adding, "It just ain't that powerful, folks." He suggests that the building industry is strongly overreacting to a tool that functions as a "Conservation District lite" for those neighborhoods that choose to pursue it. The tool will not prevent building new homes, it will only help to ensure that new homes fit better into their respective neighborhoods. The fact that this group of realtors and builders wants to deny neighborhoods this tool does not reflect well on them personally or professionally.
In short, don't believe their scare tactics. An overlay district is an _optional_ tool for neighborhoods that are interested in it. If your neighborhood is not interested, just don't apply for one! But there is no reason to keep this tool out of the hands of neighborhoods that do want it.
Overlay Passed Plan Commission - Needs Support Now
Thanks primarily to a good background of evidence that dates back to early in the Task Force process last year, and very compelling arguments on the part of the pro-overlay attendees, the Stabilization Overlay passed the Plan Commission last night.
Next, it will be voted on by the City Council. If it passes, Dallas neighborhoods will have the option of choosing, or not choosing, a basic stabilization overlay and zoning guidelines.
However, to counter well-funded opposition, a much greater level of support was and is still needed from individuals like you, or we will see unregulated construction destroy every neighborhood not now covered by a Conservation/Historic District and ruin current residents' investments in their homes.
** To help you start, we have a message here soon that says exactly what to say, and we need your support. "Dear Councilmember _______, I am calling to support the Stabilization Overlay zoning document as approved by ZOAC. We need the ability to choose, or not choose, height, size and setback requirements with a majority vote, in order to preserve the value and continuity of our neighborhoods. Please let us know if you support the Overlay document as a tool for self-governing a basic level of zoning."
The fact is, commercial interests are actively courting every council member, and calling every day. We need more letters and more calls from private citizens, from Dallas voters, if this measure is to pass Council and be significant in any way.
The entire "Metro-Tex Realtors Association" came out in large numbers with their no-overlay stickers as well, to explain how they represent the builder, and not the resident. Apparently, having citizens decide their own zoning matters is "unconstitutional" and they threatened lawsuits, economic ruin and total chaos if residents had such rights.
In a unique example of public speaking, organizing realtor Diane B. complimented the Plan Commission for being of diverse racial origin. When asked if she supported Conservation Districts, she spoke at length about how she likes trees. "I'm not a lawyer, but I have 4 sons who are," she said. "And they tell me not to be a lawyer."
To all the realtors out there who might still have a conscience As you listened to private citizens simply trying to defend their basic right to have some zoning self-regulation, did you perhaps feel a little guilty about your position? These are the same neighbors you helped buy and sell houses in Dallas a few years ago, and now you stand against them. Or do you think you can't make money without disrupting perfectly stable neighborhoods that would have grown in value if they were renovated instead of destroyed?
REALTORS who pledge to be considerate of existing neighborhoods get our endorsement and we'll recommend listing with them.
He approved the gun, but not the bullets Plan Commission chair Bruce Wilke, whose current residence value was recently protected by a Conservation District, made a move at the end of the meeting while passing the overlay to geld the document for other residents. Wilke recommended that number of stories, maximum height and floor area ratio (FAR) be dropped from the available controls and 75% signatures must be achieved. An overlay document without height or size restrictions would be totally useless. Don't worry too much, this is what Dallas is like. Fortunately, the document has PASSED, and the Plan Commission's recommendations are just that: recommendations. We can continue to show and promote our support for the original Stabilization Overlay document in order to get it through City Council.
If you've waited to act, to call your representatives, to tell your neighbors to support a basic level of sanity in residential zoning, the time to start is now. Seriously WE NEED YOUR CALLS and LETTERS.
Update: The hearing on the Stabilization Overlay Tool might not come up until 5 p.m. at today's meeting, as it is near the end of the agenda.
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Just wanted to publish details about the City Plan Commission's public hearing on the Stabilization Overlay:
Date: August 11, 2005 Time: 1:30 p.m. Place: City Council Chambers, 1500 Marilla Dr., 6th floor (public entrance)
Meet us beforehand starting at 1pm. Bear in mind that the Zoning Overlay part of the hearing will happen toward the end of the session, you do not have to wait in the chambers the entire time.
Use this Letter for your Commissioner/Councilmember
Below is a letter you can copy, "fill in" your name and address to your Dallas City Plan Commissioner. Print and mail or fax one in! Email doesn't count! In the future we will be arranging group dropoffs for mail to save a few cents on postage (and increase our "thud" factor).
----------------------- LETTER TO DALLAS PLAN COMMISSION ________________
City Plan Commissioner______X DallasCity Hall 1500 Marilla St Dallas, TX75201
August 9, 2005
RE: Passing the Stabilization Overlay
Dear Commisioner:
I am writing to express my support for the Zoning Overlay tool currently under consideration by the City Plan Commission of Dallas.
Like many other residents of established neighborhoods, we are extremely concerned that the trend toward teardowns and rapid, oversized construction is being driven by short-term profits for a few development and realty firms that have no long-term interest in the preservation or economic health of neighborhoods with existing residents.
Homes could still be responsibly bought, sold and built with an overlay. The idea that realtors and builders cannot make money without cannibalizing perfectly solid neighborhoods is preposterous. The only realtors and builders this will impact are speculators looking for a quick buck by buying houses at rock-bottom lot values to flip as oversized, hastily erected “McMansions” with no regard for neighbors. We do not believe the Overlay infringes on our property rights or ability to renovate, in fact it encourages continued improvement.
This new tool is crucial for protecting our property value and the significant investments we have made in our homes beyond the mere land value. Uncontrolled development within established neighborhoods creates extreme inconsistencies in property values, where steady appreciation was once the norm. We need the right to locally determine some reasonable limits (or locally set no limits) on the overall size of new houses, especially when they are being placed next door to solid houses that have lasting value.
When the economic “bubble” of rising housing prices, speculative rapid development, and poorly qualified loans at record low interest rates bursts, it will leave many vacant and poorly constructed large houses, and devalued neighboring properties in its wake if this process is not managed properly.
To generate long-term growth in property values and economic health, new construction must be conducted in a manner that does not disrupt and push out homeowners that have been solid Dallas citizens, businesspeople and taxpayers for decades. We know the Overlay tool is an unprecedented measure, but it is one we need now, as teardowns are accelerating, our zoning has expired, and Conservation Districts take time and may not be practical for every area.
Since we see no effort on the part of certain aggressive development firms and realtors to take into account the neighborhoods they are working within, we are asking you to please pass the Strategic Overlay tool, so the existing homeowners can have some means of determining their own future before it is too late.
Thank you for your consideration,
YOUR NAME HERE, SIGN ABOVE 123 YOUR ADDRESS HERE Dallas, TX 7XXXX [Contact: optional]
Those of us who just got back from the National Night Out meetings are glad to see that so many others feel the same way. Thanks for investing in the future of your neighborhoods and let's stay with the plan together! For those who signed up/bought t-shirts, you'll hear from us again soon.
An online publication of the Dallas Citizens for Responsible Development, a community group concerned with the razing and replacement of our neighborhood with oversized no-lot houses.
Email Webmaster@NoMcMansions.org to sign up for future updates, request upcoming T-shirt, yard sign and sticker info. Please provide address, email and (optional) phone so we can contact you if needed.
