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Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to reflect the correct spelling for Perla Tavera.
City councilmembers discussed the future of multi-family housing and residential properties owned by the city during the Feb. 18 study session.
An update and discussion about the 11,660 multi-family units already built in the city, 852 units under construction and 4,212 units pending was requested by Councilmember Tina Bennett-Burton, who asked, “When do you know enough is enough on multi-family?”
As she pointed out from Director of Economic Development, Tourism and Planning Perla Tavera’s presentation, more than 2,400 units have an estimated build-out time from of 12-15 years.
Tavera’s presentation did not include the information for Brickyard Phase 8, which council approved the zoning amendment for during the Feb. 18 city council meeting, which adds 472 more units to the west side of Farmers Branch.
Tavera said that once a site plan has been approved, developers have two years to apply for building permits or an extension or the application expires. She said two developers have applied and/or requested an extension.
Councilmember David Reid, who is a real estate consultant with the Bryan Davis Group of Keller Williams, said he sees high occupancy rates for the multi-family developments that have been built and that there is need for more housing. “We’re no longer rural…We’re moving from suburban almost to urban… it’s a tough pill for many to swallow,” he said. “It’s just a need with so many people moving into Texas. DFW is one of the fastest growing places in the country. We have to accommodate that somehow.”
He agreed that it’s difficult to plan for 12-15 years out but cited the Billingsley Co.’s phased growth at The Brickyard on the west side of the city. “I think they are doing it properly so it grows with the community instead of it going up all at once,” he said.
He agreed with Councilmember Omar Roman that parking is a problem.
Bennett-Burton and Councilmember Roger Neal cited a Feb. 14 article by the Dallas Morning News about the difference in costs between renting an apartment vs. renting a home.
Bennett-Burton said that residents say they want more retail, including a grocery store, but that she’s been told the city needs more population density before those will increase.
Neal said he read the same article and cited many aspects of it in the meeting.
He said he thinks it will take more than just density for residents to get what they want in the city, which he said includes more restaurants. He said he’s heard many people want more restaurants like in Addison.
He compared individual and household income between residents of Farmers Branch and Addison. He didn’t provide a source, but said the media per capita income in Farmers Branch is $45,000 per person vs. $63,000 per person in Addison. However, household income is $88,000 per household in Farmers Branch vs. $83,000 per household in Addison.
“I think that’s something retailers are considering and factoring in,” he said.
Reid said that retail needs to be financially viable, and that’s where multi-family housing comes into play. He said multi-family development provides the greatest return on investment per square foot of any property, even compared to retail.
“From a city perspective, we have to weigh the pros and cons, but nothing produces more income for the city than multi-family homes, as well, from a property-tax perspective,” he said.
Tavera said she didn’t know if past economic development incentives were providing the city with return on investment but would look into it for Bennett-Burton. “I can tell you that multi-family incentives have a much longer return on investment,” she said.
Mayor Terry Lynne said he didn’t think developers would be building if they didn’t think they could make money, but that the council should work educate themselves more on the issue and be aware of other housing options as well.
City Councilmembers Reid and Bennett-Burton also requested an update on the Neighborhood Renaissance Program, which started in the 1990s and rebooted in 2009 and 2014, before Valwood Park was targeted for the program in 2019.
Tavera said even after selling five lots to Builders of Hope Community Development Corp. in 2023 and setting aside 10 lots for the Dallas County Replacement Housing program, the city still owns 20 residential lots, and that she needed council direction on what to do with them.
Five of the lots are in District 2, which is represented by Bennett-Burton. Fifteen are in District 1, represented by Councilmember Omar Roman.
One main question council had was how long it would take Builders of Hope to build 20 homes.
The five homes that Builders of Hope has been working on since purchasing the lots from the city in 2023 took four and a half to five months to build, said Chris Lewis, chief of real estate development for Builders of Hope.
Builders of Hope President and CEO James Armstrong said the organization built 20 homes in Dallas a year and said the same can be done in Farmers Branch. He said the process in Farmers Branch was held up because “Six months was spent in design here at City Hall.”
Bennett-Burton asked for Roman’s opinion on the project. “We wanted to see how the project went. I remember the words distinctly,” Bennett-Burton said.
“I think they’ve proven themselves to be great advocates for the community, for exactly for what we’re trying to achieve in that community… I think there are more conversations to come with residents, but I think they’re great partners and I think we should continue down the path of working with them,” Roman said. He said the city could shorten the process by selling all the lots to Builders of Hope at once to reduce the bottleneck of the city council process.
Neal said he’s had difficulty explaining to residents that their tax dollars bought these lots and they are being sold below market price. “How do we know that this project here is invigorating the redevelopment that we’ve so desired here?” he asked.
He said he appreciated that Builders of Hope homes have two-car garages and large driveways to reduce street-parking issues.
Roman said that the city put a test lot on the market with deed restrictions and found no buyers. “For us to recoup our full market value, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” he said. “Do I think the city should have been involved in buying properties and playing the real estate dealer? No. But it was a problem that was created, according to your [Tavera’s] presentation, back in the 2000s. Here we are left in a situation where it’s going to have a really deep and significant impact on the people if it continues in the way that it originally did.”
When asked, Armstrong said that people in neighborhoods in West Dallas who were not part of the Builders of Hope program did fix up their properties – remodeling, painting, even mowing yards more often, which Tavera said she also found in the Valwood Park area when she knocked on doors for the Dallas County Replacement Home Program.
“What we’ve seen is the re-imaging of how people treat homes. When you see other investments come into the neighborhood, you see that your home is also your investment,” Armstrong said.
He also said that a different perspective of investment into a community is to look at how it allows people who work in Farmers Branch to live in Farmers Branch. “People who live where they work create a better environment. More than just dollars and cents. It really does pay off in the long run,” he said.
Neal asked to see numbers, including the cost of the properties, the amount Builders of Hope would pay and return on investment before anything is done with the properties.
