Punchline: Eight Stories at THE MINIMUM (kinda like 8 seconds on the bull)!
Punchline: Eight Stories at THE MINIMUM (kinda like 8 seconds on the bull)!
Irving’s approach to SB840 has enough flash to compete with Elvis. (Cue “Suspicious Minds.” All together now: “We’re caught in a trap…”
I can’t tell you how clever a move Irving made to work around SB840? Pick a number between 1 and 10. If you picked 8, you win. Because instead of using the SB840 height of 45 feet or what was the height was set for that local zoning before SB840, the smartest of the smart found a way to read through the legalese for what is called a loophole. So folks in Irving bumped it on up to a MINIMUM of 8 stories.
Eight! You read that right the first time. Eight stories or 85 feet is the minimum y’all need to build either a multifamily project (3 or more units) or mixed-use, residential project in Irving, Texas. The loophole lingo had to do with being “less restrictive” and so it is go big or go home time!
Now Some Facts
Check out Irving’s highfalutin website about going so big: Irving TX Multifamily By Right. I’m in awe of the stats at the very bottom of that page. Listen up Texans! You are not all living in little pink houses on big prairie frontiers. Many, many are already doing the apartment thing. Here are the stats from City of Irving:
Nearly 25% in all of the Lone Star state housing is ALREADY MULTIFAMILY.
NEXT, nearly 55% of all the housing in Irving, TX is ALREADY MULTIFAMILY.
FINALLY, nearly 40% in the cities marked as having to comply with SB840 already have an average of 40% MULTIFAMILY HOUSING UNITS.
So SB840 doesn’t have a reporting requirement and there is no “sunset” date after “x” amount of units gets built to fill the chasm the TX Comptroller claimed as a missing “320,000 units.” Did ya ever see that report? Here it is just click the little italic like “Housing Affordability Challenge” and bingo!
By the way, it is comforting, like a good Sunday spent at the lake, to know the research material was provided by the kind folks who just also happen to like to build lots of multifamily type projects. Surprise, surprise, surprise….and the point is that the stats sure indicate Irving is not, as the main-street media would you have you believe predominately single family homes. How did I get that math? Well if the statistics are saying 55% of all available housing in Irving IS ALREADY multifamily. So there!
Single Family is The Underdog in Irving But Where Else?
Single family homes are the underdog, you know, the group that doesn’t have the money or the fancy connections to call and say “hey, I could use more of this or that” - they don’t. They just stick to the basics like paying their taxes and going to work and trying to get to the rodeo every year. But sometimes, as Mama used to day “trouble comes lookin for you!’ And that, my friends is SB840 in a nutshell.
With all the pressures life already has, why did they pile it on with SB840 and to think…Irving is already a Multifamily Majority. That is not in the printed publications being passed around by the policy makers I do not believe. If they had that kind of information, it would be might embarrassing to do the pile on and add more, right? It just isn’t fitting.
I’ll have to give more effort into getting such helpful “stats” as Irving had for other cities. More on that when I get to it but first I need ya to know - you ain’t imaging things. It isn’t your mind playing tricks on ya.
Single Family Homes Are Under Attack
While plenty of states are doing things like SB840 - and seizing the opportunity to tell their minion cities what to do - it has come to look like a real pattern, like the way you plant corn in a field or line up your barn to make work easier with your tractor and truck. I’d like to think there is fanfare for all the hard working Americans trying to live that dream of having a house to call their own.
But no, no these fat cat legislators ain’t trying to save Single Family Homes even while floating the idea that their intentions are to extend - yes I think I’ve heard that word - your property rights but letting it all go nut. Nope, far from it. I just admire the leaders willing to say the quiet part aloud. Like this council member from Dallas (link) who had a real flair…she did not campaign for the most recent election. I think it is getting hot, hot and hotter to be on a city council these days…my two cents. And let’s not get into Pepper Square. That’s a whole ‘nother story in a story.
We're coming full circle folks. Those who make a fuss about workarounds like Irving’s 8 story maneuver (that words is like “Man” and “Uber” funny) are having to do such acrobatics because of the situation - it is no laughing matter to those who have poured their lives into a place they call home, not housing.
A round of applause to the many showed who up in Grand Prairie to to say their peace at the October 14th city council. I’ve posted videos of brave citizen standing up to their city council and making it clear they want action as well as expressing appreciation for what Irving included in its “defensible” SB840 add on regulations
What Are You Gonna Do About SB840?
Special Interest Groups Are Behind This!
So as I gather the best and the brightest ideas from around Texas, I plan to start to write more about other states too. You see, I there is no such national organization as the highly toxic-sounding-like group as “Not in My Backyard.” The shaming and the labeling are all done to try to shut you up. So do not fall for it. NIMBY is not a national organization but I will let you in on a little secret. They ARE organized. The NIMBY folks take it case by case and do not have an engine behind them…sorry to be the bring ya the bad news. It isn’t too late I hope.
YES IN MY BACKYARD IS A REGISTERED NON PROFIT (LINK)
On the link, you’ll see a nice looking group of folks that just want to say Yes to People and Yes to Housing and isn’t that nice? But behind all this smiling and wanting to have a housing for all is a real organized and well funding (you know money talks) effort. This video is from someone in the Institute for Justice (link) that is also claiming to have been part of SB840’s legislation. Is that some scrufflin on those trying to help the little guy or what?
Can anyone, please, give me one name of one man or woman who the 89the Legislator would listen to without an army of their own lobbyists as these “kinda big wigs” have? Hmm….?
Prize Goes To…
Cowboys and cowgirls, you may think I’ve gone plumb loco (I do yammer on from time to time).
But no. I just proved that I can use my God-given ears and learn new tricks and facts like this: there are some development requirements that can be TOO BIG—even for big developers.
Close your eyes and imagine meeting with the city about your project. Now open just one eye and read this out loud: “Build me a dream project with lush grounds, an inground O-lympic sized pool or spa, and make it at least 8 stories!”
It just cuts to the quick! Concrete, steel, glass, landscaping, pools, fountains and cabanas were not what most developers likely had in mind when SB840 was being pitched.
Let’s make it official. By the power vested in me by the third TXZoning newsletter, I pronounce Irving as the most creative go-getters in the Metroplex. Ride ‘em, Irving! Yeehaw!
Cowboys and Cowgirls, it has been a real genuine pleasure working on this little post. I’m writing so much these days, adding little handouts by city (if you haven’t found it yet, this page is filling up!). Plus, I’m working like crazy to keep up with the info coming in city by city. I’d sure love any tips you might hear so write me. I’d sure appreciate it.
