What South Dallas residents want to see in the ForwardDallas update

City planners hope to have an updated land use policy, called ForwardDallas 2.0, later this year.

Community engagement has been a priority throughout the process, which began in 2021.

At a February City Council meeting, Andrea Gilles, the interim director for Planning & Urban Design, reported that city staff hosted more than 65 virtual events and more than 170 in-person events to discuss ForwardDallas 2.0, the plan that will set guidelines for how land should be used throughout the city. More than 1,600 comments were submitted via the city’s interactive, online map, which was visited over 22,000 times. 

South Dallas residents were among those who provided feedback, sharing their thoughts about how their neighborhoods should look in the future. 

At the beginning of the process, South Dallas residents noted issues with housing affordability and grocery stores, in addition to concerns about safety, transportation and walkability, and concentrations of certain types of businesses in certain areas. 

They repeated these comments throughout the community engagement process, at in-person events and in submissions to the city’s interactive map. 

Here are a few common themes in the feedback: 

• Residents want more development in the Cedars, including housing and retail. 
• Stakeholders ask for features such as crosswalks, lighting and sidewalks to improve safety for pedestrians. 
• Comments reflect the desire to maintain residential neighborhoods and, in certain areas, mixed-use developments.

While there are several parts of the ForwardDallas plan, including land use themes and implementation strategies, the bulk of residents’ feedback relates to placetypes and the placetype map. Click here to read our explainer on placetypes.

Dallas Free Press collected residents’ comments from several in-person and virtual events, along with those submitted via the interactive map, to keep a record of the feedback and determine how the city incorporates it in the land use plan.

Use the graphics below to view the comments regarding South Dallas.

How to provide feedback on ForwardDallas

There’s still time to comment on ForwardDallas. Stakeholders may speak at City Plan Commission and City Council meetings, or they can contacting Planning and Urban Design at pud@dallas.gov.