Here is your invitation to hear Larry Beasley, an award-winning architect and planner from Vancouver, a few days before Dallas City Council.  Monday evening the Trinity Trust is hosting a public lecture by Beasley at Methodist Hospital.  Hope to see you there.

“A minor miracle recently occured for the benefit of Dallas: The Real Estate Council (TREC)– made up of 1,500 of the largest developers in Dallas, Preservation Dallas, the Dallas Homeowners League, the North Dallas Neighborhood Alliance and the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League joined together to support Form-Based Zoning requirements, which promote walkable, urban environments.

But guess what? For reasons no one can quite grasp, city councilman Ron Natinsky (yes, Ron “$12,000 of your money on pizza cutters with my name on them!” Natinsky: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/102908dnmetnatinsky.4a7feaf.html), against the wishes unanimously supported by the City Council-appointed Advisory
Committee and the City Plan Commission, has decided not to recommend the proposal.

Why should you care? Because without form-based zoning we’re on the path to more sprawl and even less charm. Walk ability increases real estate values, form-based zoning actually SLOWS DOWN traffic on streets –which is much safer for runners and cyclists, promotes transit-oriented development which is more sustainable–basically it puts people and homes before cars. In fact, the entire code is based around creating a “high quality public realm,” AKA no more strip-malls. (Eight advantages to form-based codes here: http://www.formbasedcodes.org/advantages.html )

What does Natinsky want? Scattered density (more sprawl), no critical mass, no 1/2 block transition neighborhood
before residential areas, and even less parking than we call for now.

If you could, please take a minute and cut and paste the emails of the city council and mayor into a new email and tell them NO to the Natinsky proposal. If you’re in the media and cannot get involved, please forward this on to a friend who can.”