DALLAS \u2014 An early proving ground for Texas to tackle the state\u2019s housing affordability problem \u2014 and the pushback those efforts often generate \u2014 sits at an aging shopping center in North Dallas.<\/p>\n
Large stretches of storefronts at Pepper Square sit empty. Signs from a touring Harry Potter exhibition that closed in May still hang from a former Stein Mart where the attraction was housed. Cars pack the parking spaces of a Trader Joe\u2019s and an indoor trampoline park, but wide swaths of the lot sit deserted.<\/p>\n
The center\u2019s owner saw an opportunity to revive the flagging retail strip with hundreds of apartments as well as new shops and restaurants. Nearby homeowners saw the threat of a looming high-rise over their neighborhoods. <\/p>\n
For years, a group of homeowners waged a pressure campaign to stop the redevelopment. They effectively forced a City Council member to not seek reelection and sued to stop the overhaul after council members gave it the green light.<\/p>\n
Now, Pepper Square will become a place for people to live after all. It\u2019s among thousands of new homes moving forward with the help of new state laws passed last year<\/a> aimed at reining in high prices and rents by easing the state\u2019s housing crunch. Those rules relaxed local zoning regulations on what kinds of housing can be built and where, allowing more homes to be built in more places at a time when Texans have increasingly struggled to afford keeping a roof over their heads.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest obstacle to more homes for Texas families isn\u2019t the land. It isn\u2019t the money. It is some of the local obstacles protecting the status quo,\u201d said Nicole Nosek, who founded the group Texans for Reasonable Solutions, which pushed the housing bills<\/a>.<\/p>\n The law that appears to be enabling the most new housing is Senate Bill 840, which allows owners of offices, shopping centers and warehouses to redevelop properties into apartments or mixed-use complexes with residences.<\/p>\n The law has enabled at least 8,400 apartments since it took effect Sept. 1, according to a tally by a bipartisan coalition that supported the bill, including Texans For Reasonable Solutions, American Enterprise Institute and Texas Appleseed. That\u2019s an amount equivalent to about one in five of the multifamily units permitted in Texas since the law took effect, a separate Texas Tribune analysis of building permits shows.<\/p>\n Apartment construction has slowed in Texas and the rest of the country amid a temporary glut of new apartments and higher construction costs. But while multifamily permits fell 10% statewide in the period since the bill passed, those permits have risen in the 19 cities where SB 840 relaxed local zoning restrictions, The Tribune\u2019s analysis of the Texas A&M University\u2019s building permit data found.<\/p>\n \u201cTexas passed this, which was, you know, a tremendous achievement. And it\u2019s already bearing fruit in the first year with positive direction,\u201d said Ed Pinto, co-founder and co-director of the conservative American Enterprise Institute\u2019s Housing Center.<\/p>\n Another law<\/a> that reduces how much land cities can require single-family homes in new subdivisions to sit on has so far allowed 2,800 homes to proceed in Dallas, Plano and El Paso, the groups\u2019 analysis shows.<\/p>\n One aimed at making it easier for city councils to approve new housing<\/a> has seen mixed success, according to a Tribune analysis.<\/p>\n The laws, particularly SB 840, face resistance from some homeowners and several North Texas cities that are trying to prevent such projects. Devotion to the single-family home runs deep in the suburbs, where residents often meet new apartments with scorn and local officials fight to keep the authority to shape how their communities grow. <\/p>\n Limiting how many apartments get built means fewer housing opportunities in some of the state\u2019s fastest growing economies \u2014 particularly for those who can\u2019t afford to buy often pricey homes in those areas, the bill\u2019s proponents argue.<\/p>\n \u201cThey basically say, \u2018You can work in our communities. But when the lights go out, we want you heading back across the border,\u2019\u201d said state Rep. Gary Gates<\/a>, a Houston-area Republican who shepherded the bills.<\/p>\n Lawmakers have signaled that improving the state\u2019s housing affordability will be a further focus next legislative session, with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick<\/a> and House Speaker Dustin Burrows<\/a>, both Republicans, telling legislators to study the issue before they meet next year.<\/p>\n More apartments in more places<\/p>\n The new developments cited by the groups ranged from a 1,000-unit housing complex in southwest Austin to a 14-unit building sandwiched between single-family homes in South Dallas.<\/p>\n Pepper Square is one of them as well. The strip mall\u2019s sorry state is partly what drove owner Henry S. Miller Co. to seek to redevelop with about 2,000 apartments initially proposed.<\/p>\n The Dallas-Fort Worth area is adding more residents than any other region in the country, said Greg Miller, the firm\u2019s president and CEO, and needs to build more housing to meet demand.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople need a place to live,\u201d Miller said, adding that putting apartments on the property would help maintain a customer base for retail at the site.<\/p>\n Neighborhood groups aggressively fought the plan even as the developer slashed the number of units. The project\u2019s opponents feared increased traffic congestion and lost privacy owing to the project\u2019s height. <\/p>\n Miller said apartments generate fewer car trips than retail and the Pepper Square development won\u2019t even be as tall as an existing 12-story office building across the street.<\/p>\n Opponents sued the city to kill the project after the Dallas council approved it. But after lawmakers passed SB 840, which allows apartments to be built in commercial areas such as Pepper Square without local approval, their lawsuit was moot.<\/p>\n Miller sees the law as further endorsement of his company\u2019s plans for the project, which will include about 1,000 apartments on the site and roughly two acres of park space, Miller said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state and the city, they want growth,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to continue to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who fought against the redevelopment are still smarting, though they agree the shopping center needed some kind of makeover.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a kick in the gut,\u201d said Matt Bach, who headed the Save Pepper Square Neighborhood Association. \u201cThey had the state Legislature come in and say, \u2018Okay, now we\u2019re just changing the game. The goalposts are being moved back another 50 yards.\u2019 It was very disheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n Other projects not part of the groups\u2019 count include five fourplexes in east Fort Worth, a complex for low-income seniors in Killeen and a 256-unit apartment complex in southwest Arlington, spokespeople for those cities said.<\/p>\n More homes could be in the pipeline for North Texas and elsewhere because of the law. <\/p>\n Tommy Mann, a land use attorney, said he is working on a few dozen projects made possible by the law. Most of them are in Dallas and will have about 250 to 350 units, he said.<\/p>\n City officials have had more than a dozen meetings regarding apartment buildings proposed in places they wouldn\u2019t have been allowed without city approval before SB 840, said Andreea Udrea, Dallas\u2019 deputy director of planning and development.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is big interest,\u201d Udrea said.<\/p>\n Some developers across Texas appear to be leveraging the law to extract concessions from city leaders wanting to avoid the maximum density allowed under the law, observers said. <\/p>\n That\u2019s the scenario that played out in Plano when a builder received approval to add more apartments and single-family homes to a project than what city officials had previously allowed.<\/p>\n \u201cNow the community and the city are evaluating options that are very different than they used to be,\u201d Mann said.<\/p>\n The law appears to be aiding the construction of more affordable apartments for households making less than an area\u2019s typical income, the groups\u2019 tally found \u2014 about 1,600 units so far.<\/p>\n Lawmakers didn\u2019t require building affordable housing units, which tend to face vehement opposition from neighboring homeowners. However, allowing more market-rate apartments tends to bring down rents, particularly in places such as Austin, where rents have fallen amid an apartment building boom<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of our contentions has always been that it would be easier to get more affordable housing on the ground as a result of this bill,\u201d said Brennan Griffin, senior deputy director at Texas Appleseed, a social justice group. \u201cThat\u2019s been borne out so far.\u201d<\/p>\n Pinning down exactly how many new homes the law has enabled is tricky. <\/p>\n The bill applies to only the state\u2019s 19 largest cities, and not every city is tracking how much development they\u2019re seeing. The bill also bumped up cities\u2019 height limits for apartment buildings, so developers may be adding a floor to a project they already were allowed to build, a subtle difference that\u2019s hard to track, advocates said.<\/p>\n Pushback to housing laws<\/p>\n A group of cities across the Dallas-Fort Worth region have thrown up stricter building codes, design standards or height requirements aimed at curbing how much housing goes up under the new law. <\/p>\n A new apartment complex built in Irving, for example, must now have eight floors unless the City Council grants the developer an exception. Arlington and Plano adopted similar, though smaller, height thresholds.<\/p>\n Some cities now mandate that apartments provide specific amenities to tenants \u2014\u00a0requirements critics argue are nothing but ways for cities to skirt the law. <\/p>\n Irving requires apartment buildings to include a workspace for remote workers, a dog park and a gym. Grand Prairie requires apartments built under the bill to put in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.<\/p>\n Kurt Johnson, Grand Prairie deputy mayor pro tem, defended the requirement to Texas House lawmakers last week, arguing that the city is trying to ensure pools built at new complexes enabled by the law are \u201clarge enough to accommodate the additional family members\u201d living there.<\/p>\n Kimberly Levinson, vice chair of Austin\u2019s Downtown Commission, told the House Land and Resource Management Committee they shouldn\u2019t take such concerns seriously. The building where she lives in downtown has more than 140 units, she said during the committee\u2019s July 20 meeting, \u201cand all we have is a two-lane lap pool.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomehow or other, we don\u2019t feel the least bit deprived,\u201d Levinson said.<\/p>\n Gates, who chairs the committee, signaled that he would push to force cities to comply with the law when state lawmakers return for work in January.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s clearly designed to thwart what we were trying to do,\u201d Gates said in an interview. \u201cWe can come up with a solution that basically stops them from being able to do these kinds of tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether the suburbs find friends in the Legislature, dominated by Republicans who have long pushed to curb the authority of cities and whose leaders have named housing affordability among their top priorities, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n In the meantime, some city leaders expressed a desire to work with state lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe welcome the opportunity to partner with the Legislature through a task force or working group to advance shared housing goals, including increasing supply and affordability, while allowing flexibility for communities to implement solutions that reflect local needs and conditions,\u201d Arlington Mayor Jim Ross told the committee members.<\/p>\n The additional rules enacted by the suburbs haven\u2019t completely halted SB 840 development in his city. <\/p>\n Arlington, Plano and McKinney have each advanced new projects,, representatives for the cities told The Tribune. <\/p>\n Irving spokesperson Raul Garza noted that the city granted exceptions to its additional regulations to a developer on an affordable housing complex but didn\u2019t provide more details. Grand Prairie has not seen any development under the law, city spokesperson Claudia Garibay said. A representative for Frisco did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n In the meantime, urban areas such as Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio seem to be embracing SB 840. In Dallas, city boosters said the law could help them become more competitive with the suburbs when it comes to attracting residents and new companies.<\/p>\n The suburbs will \u201cbe sorry they\u2019ve limited access to housing,\u201d said Linda McMahon, executive director of Dallas Economic Development Corporation. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have housing availability at various price points, your economy is going to stagnate. That\u2019s a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, SB 840 even faces hurdles in places less resistant to the law. <\/p>\n In El Paso, the law made about a third of the city\u2019s total land area available for building under the law, said Alex Hoffman, the city\u2019s assistant planning director. But about 36% of those lots have private deed restrictions prohibiting apartments, he said.<\/p>\n Projects that aren\u2019t deed restricted still must seek exceptions from local ordinances \u2014 such as minimum parking-spot requirements \u2014 in order to take full advantage of the law, he said. That gives local residents an opportunity to stop them.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just anticipating that opposition will likely increase once we start seeing things getting developed under 840,\u201d Hoffman said.<\/p>\n Disclosure: Kimberly Levinson, Linda McMahon, Nicole Nosek, Texas A&M University and Texas Appleseed have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 An early proving ground for Texas to tackle the state\u2019s housing affordability problem \u2014 and the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":962228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,11103,83920,79,386880,80,5528,358,7376,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,168943],"class_list":["post-962227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-dallas","tag-dan-patrick","tag-dustin-burrows","tag-economy","tag-gary-gates","tag-politics","tag-state-government","tag-texas","tag-texas-legislature","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-well-a-homepage"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962227","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=962227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/962228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}