Title
Review and discuss the draft multi-family development policy
Body
BACKGROUND:
Why create a multi-family development policy? First of all, the City is committed to providing for a diversity of housing types, whether it be single family or multi-family. Housing diversity also contributes to a community’s vibrancy, and provides housing options for persons at various stages of their life. Secondly, multi-family development continues to be a highly requested land use given the population growth and overall increasing economic development that is occurring throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and Farmers Branch is no different. Many of the City’s long-range planning policies, such as the East Side Plan, identify “high quality multi-family development” as a recommended land use. Since long-range planning documents address land use policies at a higher level or broader perspective, it is appropriate to consider adopting supplemental planning policies that further define certain types of land use development desired. If higher quality multi-family development is desired by a community, then what does that really mean?
Given the continued requests for multi-family development within Farmers Branch, combined with the City’s desire for high-quality development, at the recommendation of staff, City Council directed staff to create a multi-family development policy at their September 17, 2019 meeting. The goal of this policy is to ensure that new multi-family development be of high quality and incorporate best practices that are appropriate to Farmers Branch as well as the specific site, while still providing some flexibility recognizing that not all sites and areas are created equally.
The use of this policy will provide staff, developers, the Planning & Zoning Commission (Commission), and City Council with better direction and defined expectations related to multi-family developments to ensure priorities identified by the City are addressed. This supplemental policy is intended to primarily be used to evaluate zoning applications in tandem with applicable comprehensive plans and zoning regulations at the time of rezoning and to some extent, detailed site plan consideration where possible.
Topics that may be incorporated into the policy include, but are not limited to:
• Amenities
• Attainable multi-family housing
• Building design
• Building materials
• Density
• Landscaping
• Lighting
• Locational considerations
• Mixed-use
• Parking
• Open space (public and private); and
• Site design.
The purpose of this agenda item is to present the draft multi-family development policy to the City Council and Commission, and obtain feedback and direction on priority items to include in the policy. The Commission previously provided direction on January 25, 2021 when this topic was first introduced, and the proposed draft policy reflects the Commission’s initial direction. Additionally, during City Council’s discussion related to population growth on March 2, 2021, City Council requested that the policy consider addressing attainable multi-family housing which is also addressed in the draft policy.
DISTRICT: City-wide
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the Planning & Zoning Commission and City Council provide feedback and direction related to the draft multi-family development policy. To assist the Commission and City Council with their discussion and providing feedback to staff, a list of questions for consideration are included in the attached staff report.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Staff Report
2. Draft Multi-family Development Policy
3. Staff Presentation