The fight took them to the city plan commission, city council and eventually a Dallas County courtroom. <\/p>\n
In late August, the white hot zoning war ended abruptly. And the final shot was fired not in North Texas \u2014 but from the halls of the Texas Capitol.<\/p>\n
Bach and company voluntarily gave up their legal battle, citing a recently passed law intended to help address Texas\u2019 housing shortage.<\/p>\n
D-FW Real Estate News<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n SB 840<\/a>, law of the land since Sept. 1, allows apartments and mixed-use residential in all zoning districts that allow office, commercial, retail or warehouse uses without a need for rezoning or special permits. <\/p>\n Huge swaths of land are affected by the state law, meaning aging office towers and retail strips may give way to multifamily towers.<\/p>\n \u201cSB 840 is just kind of a sweeping sledgehammer approach to dealing with a problem that it frankly doesn\u2019t solve,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t provide affordable housing \u2014 maybe a small part. It\u2019s just a developer\u2019s dream for them to go in and not have to deal with local governments.\u201d<\/p>\n The legislation applies only to the biggest cities in Texas\u2019 largest counties, but more than half of the affected municipalities fall within the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.<\/p>\n The Dallas Morning News spoke with residents, developers, financing experts, land use attorneys and others about the new law and how it might change North Texas.<\/p>\n Housing advocates argue cities must promote the creation of apartments for low-income residents where the housing shortage is felt most acutely.<\/p>\n In the short term, interest rates and other market forces make building apartments more difficult.<\/p>\n In the long term, the cranes may rise. Dallas has welcomed the new law, providing guidance to landowners for future projects.<\/p>\n Several outlying suburbs, however, have changed building codes, effectively making development more difficult in commercial areas. <\/p>\n The response could put them on a crash course with state leaders in Austin.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Bach\u2019s backyard \u2014 pockets of northern Dallas \u2014 where some of the most contentious zoning battles over apartments have been fought. Though none have been filed, residents have mulled legal challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of the [developers] are bullish on this as a golden ticket to Willy Wonka\u2019s chocolate factory,\u201d said William Rosatti, a senior associate within Northmarq\u2019s National Development Services group. \u201cThey all kind of understand that there\u2019s major challenges. And unless it\u2019s a city of Dallas site, we aren\u2019t really advising any material change to land pricing unless we\u2019ve heard that a particular city is clearly welcoming the policy change.\u201d<\/p>\n Construction zone of a new apartment complex by interstate 30, on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025 in Dallas. <\/p>\n Shafkat Anowar \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n SB 840 <\/p>\n As more folks flock to D-FW and Texas, lawmakers at all levels have worked to build more housing.<\/p>\n In 2023, Texas was short 306,000 homes<\/a>, according to an analysis by housing equity group Up for Growth. <\/p>\n The estimated housing deficit in D-FW hit 49,204 in 2023 \u2014 that\u2019s the number of families \u201cdoubling up\u201d by living with nonrelatives, minus the units available to buy or rent, according to the most recent data from Zillow.<\/p>\n Growth brings tension, and residents must reckon with the consequences of explosive growth. Dallas is no different. <\/p>\n The most contentious among them centered around ForwardDallas<\/a> \u2014 the first update to the city\u2019s land use plan in roughly two decades. <\/p>\n The biggest opposition came from homeowners who feared city leaders were plotting the death of single-family neighborhoods. They packed public meetings last year in Dallas\u2019 libraries, rec centers and churches to decry the changes.<\/p>\n The Dallas City Council approved the plan meant to guide future development throughout the city by a vote of 11-4 after crafting amendments to protect the character of existing neighborhoods.<\/p>\n State lawmakers want to eat into the housing shortage, too. A slate of legislation with bipartisan support was approved, including SB 840.<\/p>\n SB 840 applies to any city with at least 150,000 residents within a county that has a population of at least 300,000. The law limits development regulations and streamlines the permitting process for these projects in zoning districts that allow office, commercial, retail or warehouse uses.<\/p>\n Of the nearly 20 cities affected, more than half are in Dallas-Fort Worth:<\/p>\n Height limits for buildings are 45 feet or the tallest height allowed by the zoning code at the site, whichever is greater. <\/p>\n Density must be 36 units per acre or the highest density allowed in the municipality, whichever is greater. <\/p>\n Cities may not require setbacks greater than 25 feet or the largest setback required of a commercial building, whichever is smaller.<\/p>\n To convert an existing commercial building without a zoning change, the property has to be at least five years old. Developers won\u2019t need to complete a traffic analysis under such a conversion. <\/p>\n Cities are prohibited from requiring parking at a ratio greater than 1 space per apartment. Projects also don\u2019t need structured parking or nonresidential\/retail uses.<\/p>\n The new law has the potential to change the makeup of the region.<\/p>\n An updated Child Poverty Action Lab analysis <\/a>of zoning districts in Dallas County found 75,600 acres of commercially owned land were deemed \u201chigh potential\u201d for the construction of housing. Much of the land is vacant. <\/p>\n Using only 25% of the parcels and building at 25% density, the firm estimates 328,000 new apartments could be built.<\/p>\n These projections are meant to be taken with a grain of salt. They don\u2019t take into account the shovel-readiness of each parcel. Some lack needed infrastructure or are far from public transit and employment centers, the group said.<\/p>\n The analysis also doesn\u2019t account for Dallas\u2019 numerous Planned Development (PD) districts, which set specific zoning regulations for portions of the city. <\/p>\n While density would be unlimited in Dallas, height limits will differ between Planned Development districts. Thomas Mann, a land use attorney with Dallas-based Winstead PC, said there are more than 2,000 such districts in Dallas.<\/p>\n While not an actual impact analysis, the numbers give high-level estimates on the law\u2019s potential impact in Dallas.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lot of opportunity that could be unlocked with SB 840,\u201d said Ashley Flores, senior director at Child Poverty Action Lab, a Dallas nonprofit that tracks housing data and is dedicated to dramatically reducing childhood poverty. \u201cThe potential is enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n That potential comes with its own set of challenges. At least half of the D-FW cities impacted by the law have already put up roadblocks, and residents have mulled their own legal challenges.<\/p>\n D-FW cities fight against new law<\/p>\n SB 840 became law Sept. 1. <\/p>\n In the lead-up and the months following passage, at least six D-FW cities have made changes to their building codes that effectively make it more difficult to build more apartments in these areas.<\/p>\n They are Arlington, Frisco, Grand Prairie, Irving, McKinney and Plano.<\/p>\n Each took a slightly different approach<\/a>. Changes included height thresholds, stricter building codes, amenity requirements, design standards and infrastructure requirements. <\/p>\n For example, Irving upped its height requirements to eight floors. Developers must include a dog park, a gym, a swimming pool, a workspace for remote workers and pick from a handful of additional amenities for new developments.<\/p>\n Frisco took a more complicated approach that might allow the city to sidestep the law altogether. They created a new use within their zoning regulations \u2014 heavy industrial. <\/p>\n The use is now allowed in every commercial zone in the city if a special use permit is granted. However, the state law explicitly forbids apartments and mixed-use developments in zoning categories that also allow heavy industrial use or within 1,000 feet of an existing heavy industrial development site.<\/p>\n The city may argue that any commercial site has the potential to be a heavy industrial site. Representatives for the city declined to speak with The Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n Garland is considering changes that would include raising the maximum height to 60 feet, but setting a minimum height of 40 feet to discourage two-story, garden-style apartments. <\/p>\n The city, like others in North Texas, would force developers to pick from a list of amenities that must be included in the project.<\/p>\n The cities argue the changes will help these new apartment projects fit with nearby developments.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though the state has limited cities\u2019 control, McKinney is taking steps to protect the character of the community. New rules will focus on building design so that apartments in business districts will be shaped and styled to fit better with nearby offices or retail,\u201d the city said on its website explaining the new law. \u201cThese changes balance growth with livability and ensure new housing fits McKinney\u2019s quality standards while staying compliant with state law.\u201d <\/p>\n The changes effectively make projects more expensive. At certain heights, wood frame construction must become steel and concrete. Additional amenities means additional costs.<\/p>\n The local restrictions could motivate state lawmakers to make additional changes, Mann said.<\/p>\n \u201c(People) think it\u2019s going to be this flood of apartments, and that\u2019s just not correct because of the local responses to it. We\u2019re actually in a period \u2026 where apartment development is harder now than it was before the bill in many instances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Traffic move along S. Buckner Blvd as a construction of an apartment complex is seen, on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025 in Dallas. <\/p>\n Shafkat Anowar \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n Other D-FW cities are embracing the changes<\/p>\n Dallas has shared information<\/a> with developers to help them understand the new law and how it works.<\/p>\n Fort Worth passed a resolution affirming the city will comply with the law. City staffers are drafting amendments to the city\u2019s Zoning Ordinance, and the council is expected to vote on the changes early next year.<\/p>\n \u201cDallas has been pushing for years to try and get more mixed-income housing development. I think they\u2019ve taken the view that this law can be helpful in this endeavor,\u201d Mann said.<\/p>\n Mann added that the local changes create an environment ripe for legal challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cAny time the law changes this dramatically, there\u2019s just going to be any number of scenarios that are unclear in how it\u2019s going to be applied,\u201d he said. \u201cThen you couple that with all the local legislative changes that we\u2019re made in response to it. Now, you\u2019ve got a lot of new laws, both at the state and local levels, that were created in the last 60 days and arguably, conflict with each other in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the new law, a housing organization or other adversely affected person may sue for declaratory or injunctive relief. The venue is where the project is located and appeals are handled by the Fifteenth Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n Major North Texas developers are keeping a close eye on SB 840 and how the bill might impact their work.<\/p>\n Centurion American Development Group CEO Mehrdad Moayedi is best known for his development of single-family neighborhoods across North Texas, but he has some mixed-use and apartment projects underway. His firm is nearly done with the Parc at Jackson, an apartment development in downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n It\u2019s areas like downtown Dallas and other major corridors that will benefit most from the bill, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ordinance is not going to affect much at all in the suburbs because those guys will fight it bad,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the same time, when you\u2019ve got this new building going on, it\u2019s hard to [convert] an existing building \u2014 because it\u2019s going to take $200 to $300 a square foot to convert. …It doesn\u2019t work well unless you have a plan.”<\/p>\n David Craig, CEO of Craig International and master developer behind the $7 billion mixed-use Preston Harbor project<\/a> at Lake Texoma, said the state will prevail over the suburbs in this dispute.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state will come back and say this is completely contrary to why we did what we did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Will neighbors fight back?<\/p>\n Bach didn\u2019t want to give up on Pepper Square, even after the passage of SB 840. They talked to groups about continuing the legal fight.<\/p>\n Money was the biggest impediment, but Bach is holding out hope someone challenges the law.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just knew there weren\u2019t the resources to pursue that. Believe me, it was mulled over a lot, and a bitter pill to swallow,\u201d he said. \u201cWe let it go just because of money.\u201d<\/p>\n Residents seeking to challenge the new law might argue \u201cinverse condemnation\u201d \u2014 a legal concept used by property owners when a governmental entity destroys or acquires property without paying proper compensation, said Chuck Dannis, an SMU adjunct professor who has been a real estate appraiser and consultant since 1972. <\/p>\n \u201cIt sure sounds like an action by the government that affects you as a landowner that wasn\u2019t anticipated. Now, whether all that\u2019s illegal \u2014 who knows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mann, the land use attorney, said such a challenge on the validity of the law likely wouldn\u2019t be successful.<\/p>\n \u201cMost cities have zoning authority only because it\u2019s given to them by state law,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat SB 840 did was it went into that zoning enabling statute and it amended it. It said [cities] still have zoning authority, but you can\u2019t do these things.\u201d<\/p>\n Construction zone of a new apartment complex by interstate 30, on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025 in Dallas. <\/p>\n Shafkat Anowar \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n Market challenges and the affordability issues<\/p>\n Even if D-FW cities fully embraced the new law, market conditions aren\u2019t favorable for apartment developers right now.<\/p>\n Dallas has a temporary oversupply of apartments, fueled by a building boom as remote workers flocked to North Texas and other Sunbelt cities in the post-COVID years. Renters are still receiving concessions and other incentives. <\/p>\n A report from Colliers found construction continued to slow in the third quarter of 2025 and demand is down year over year. In D-FW, 43,521 apartment units are under construction \u2014 the 12th straight quarter of slowed building. Net absorption, the number of new units occupied minus the number of apartments vacated, was just over 5,000 during the quarter.<\/p>\n Data from Richardson-based RealPage show D-FW has offered among the highest share of rental concessions<\/a> among the nation\u2019s largest apartment markets.<\/p>\n As of August, 23.1% of all apartments in the Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine\/Granbury market and 22% of all units in the Dallas-Plano-Irving submarkets were offering concessions to renters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe equity investor, the group that is putting up the money, is very cautious and focused on what the returns look like for the capital they\u2019re investing,\u201d said Brian O\u2019 Boyle Jr., vice chairman of multifamily capital markets for Newmark. <\/p>\n Multiple apartment experts said fewer units are being started, and fewer units will come online from 2028 and beyond \u2014 a return to pre-pandemic production. <\/p>\n If market conditions were similar to those 2021, the legislation could turbocharge construction, experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think we will see an increased availability of housing related to the new bill, but you still have to have the economics make sense, and a challenge right now is just getting deals to pencil,\u201d O\u2019Boyle said.<\/p>\n Dallas is one of the nation\u2019s top markets<\/a> for apartment conversion projects. In 2024, North Texas added 698 apartments from adaptive reuse projects \u2014 the fourth-most in the nation, according to a study from Rentcafe.<\/p>\n Dallas has the country\u2019s ninth-largest adaptive reuse pipeline with nearly 3,000 apartments in various stages of redevelopment. This is driven mainly by office-to-residential projects. Those make up 80% of the conversions, according to the study.<\/p>\n Not every vacant commercial building will be converted to apartments. The deal doesn\u2019t always make sense.<\/p>\n New York developer Arthur Zeckendorf and his AZ Family Partners firms were the winning bidder for Preston Plaza<\/a> \u2014 a mostly empty office tower sitting on one of Far North Dallas\u2019 largest development sites.<\/p>\n The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks, and Zeckendorf did not reveal how much his business bid for the site at 17950 Preston Road.<\/p>\n Commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield served as the auction adviser and touted the site\u2019s potential for a multifamily development under the new state law.<\/p>\n However, Zeckendorf won\u2019t be building apartments here. He\u2019s keeping it an office property and plans to spend $14 million on property improvements.<\/p>\n \u201cOur specialty is residential. So we love doing apartments, but in this situation, we don\u2019t think the economics work. We think this is a much better asset as an office,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have no plans of making it residential. The office market in Dallas is probably performing the best of any office market.\u201d<\/p>\n State lawmakers argue the new law, combined with other measures, would add to Texas\u2019 housing supply and make housing more affordable.<\/p>\n Housing advocates say the new law may help address a shortage, but it may not help the region\u2019s lowest-income renters. <\/p>\n The city of Dallas has a 46,000-unit gap<\/a> in affordable rental housing. The shortage is expected to grow to 76,100 units by 2035, driven by a loss of over 54,000 unrestricted affordable housing units, according to data from the Child Poverty Action Lab.<\/p>\n Flores, who heads the Child Poverty Action Lab, said cities play a role in making sure more affordable housing gets built under the new zoning laws as well. <\/p>\n For example, publicly owned land could be converted to apartment developments, and cities could encourage public-private partnerships. <\/p>\n There are just over 32,000 acres of publicly owned land in Dallas County with high potential for conversion to housing, according to the nonprofit\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity for cities to think really creatively about how they might pair SB 840 with other program incentives,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s the latest real estate news from North Texas.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the first project in the Dallas Midtown district, and it only takes up a small portion of the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Bach gave up. There was nothing more to do. He and his neighbors spent years fighting what…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":406392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,12611,1596,7371,7372,4329,10204,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-406391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-commercial-real-estate","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-real-estate","14":"tag-residential-real-estate","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115617037750069995","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Construction](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/OSRMGXJRDNCEBETLOGKU3B6UFE.jpg\")
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<\/a>Roughly 87% of D-FW homes lost estimated value and other real estate news<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764175875_214_AE527E2QNRB73K3NMNDLYMOBB4.jpg\")
<\/a>New $85 million mixed-use development coming to former Valley View mall<\/a><\/p>\n