The authorized hearing process to rezone communities dealing with zoning and land use issues used to be a first come first serve process. However, after Floral Farms’ authorized hearing had been initiated in 2019, the process changed. It became a ranked system to score neighborhoods based on a set of priorities. One of them was whether there was an adopted land use plan for the area in question. Because Floral Farms was within the Trinity River Corridor Plan boundaries, it was prioritized higher on the list. The first meeting was hosted in September 2022.
However, the Coalition is advocating for prioritization based on public health, environmental justice and racial equity, not just economic development and existing land use policy. We have been informed by staff that the new update to the ranking system will be released in January 2023 and will account for environmental justice and racial equity. This bodes well for the recently initiated Singleton Corridor authorized hearing in West Dallas.
Coalition for Neighborhood Self-Determination 