Panel directs city, home builders to find compromise on Elm Thicket zoning cases

A quasi-judicial panel directed the city of Dallas and a home builder to reach a compromise that will allow the completion of a partially built duplex.

The Board of Adjustment (Panel A) deferred a decision on 6801 Tyree Street until the Oct. 22 meeting, but not before panel members said they could neither uphold nor overturn an earlier ruling revoking a building permit.

The three-hour hearing on Tuesday highlighted tensions between the city of Dallas permitting office and home builders over how new zoning requirements have been enforced in the Elm Thicket / Northpark neighborhood.

New, larger homes tower over bungalows built in the 1940s in a historically black neighborhood just east of the runways at Love Field.

The Dallas City Council unanimously approved updated zoning in October 2022, which reduced the lot size percentage and height and specified building aspects like roof style.

Dallas issued stop-work red tags in July on the Tyree Street home and another block over on Victoria Street after it realized build permits were issued based on the old zoning.

Dallas Cothrum, who represents the applicant on the Tyree house, told the Board of Adjustment that the home builder shouldn’t be responsible for the city’s permitting mistakes.

“In this instance and about twenty others, the city of Dallas failed the customer,” Cothrum said.

A representative with the Dallas City Attorney’s office said it was reasonable that home builders should have known about the new zoning requirements, even with a mistake from the permitting office, because of publicity surrounding the zoning change in 2022.

After lengthy testimony, the Board of Adjustment directed the city of Dallas and the applicant to find a solution allowing the builder to make alterations to the Tyree home to prevent it from being torn down.

“I do think both sides are at fault,” Kathleen Davis with the Board of Adjustment said. “I think one is much more than the other, and I hope that those processes are corrected because this is very, very embarrassing for our city.”