Source: City of Richardson (2016).
I recently wrote about Clay Cooley VW repeatedly coming to the City of Richardson to ask for waivers, variances, and changes to the zoning on their property ("City Council Waits for a Sign"). Besides a 2022 request to expand the auto dealership, there are two outstanding requests for rezoning. One is to build a 39-foot pole sign and the other is to add a repair shop, a body shop, and a vehicle storage lot on the property. I'm back to add an important consideration that I neglected to mention in my post.
I opposed both requests. My arguments were based on the use of this property. I think catering to Clay Cooley's VW's vision will transform the Interurban District away from the vision of "an eclectic live/work neighborhood through reuse of existing building stock for specialty industrial, commercial, retail/restaurant and residential uses."
What I failed to consider is the fact that the Interurban District is not zoned by use any more. It is now regulated by a form-based code. Form-based zoning emphasizes the physical form of the environment over the separation of land uses. It ties a neighborhood together rather than keeps its various uses apart. It emphasizes the relationship between one building and its neighbors, between buildings and public spaces, leading to more walkable and livable environments. It understands that land use evolves and therefore emphasizes that buildings should be adaptable.
I'll mention just two Council members' comments as examples of how the form-based code should have informed the Council's deliberations (and my own commentary on it) and didn't.
Council member Joe Corcoran: "It just seems like functionally if it's anything besides a car dealership, it's going to have to be rezoned in some way. I just can't envision another business use for that property." In my article, I took the second sentence (highlighted) out of context and expressed astonishment at the lack of imagination expressed. In context, a different interpretation of Corcoran's comment is possible, one that I agree with. That is a recognition that Clay Cooley VW's planned changes to the property are incompatible with adaptable reuse. If this is what Corcoran meant, he should have specified why. He does go on to say, "Maybe a decade or two from now, something else comes in and it's a PD [Planned Development]. They scrape it and it's an apartment complex or something." This is a reason to insist that all of Clay Cooley VW's requests conform to the form-based code of the Interurban District before they are granted. Form-based code is intended to make it unnecessary to "scrape it" to put the land to another use. Clay Cooley VW's requests should be denied not because it's Clay Cooley specifically, not because it's an auto dealership generally, but because Clay Cooley VW's vision is limited to their own auto dealership's needs today. The changes fail to imagine future uses of this property, and fail to promote the future development of the surrounding neighborhood.
Mayor Bob Dubey: "I think about the applicant and all of the renovations they've done to upgrade that site, and what they've done. They poured a lot of energy into that to make it more appealing in that area. So a new sign kind of goes with this is all I would say. It complements what they've already done. So I'm a little hesitant not to say it because I think their investment in the city of Richardson is significant based on what they have done and what they're in the process of doing."
Mayor Dubey's arguments fail for a different reason. He argues in favor of granting a favor to one particular business (Clay Cooley VW). Land use decisions should be based on what's good for the City, not what a particular businessman wants. Form-based code understands that businesses come and go, land use evolves, and therefore emphasizes that buildings should be adaptable. While trying to be business-friendly to one particular property-owner today, Mayor Dubey doesn't consider that he may be locking into place a built environment that keeps the Interurban District from reaching the potential of the vision it was zoned to achieve. It's a shortsighted understanding of what being business-friendly means.
Given that more and more of Richardson is being rezoned with form-based codes, everyone involved with zoning (City Staff, City Plan Commissioners, City Council members and the Mayor) should refresh their understanding of what form-based codes are and then focus their deliberations towards adhering to the codes that were crafted to achieve the vision. With that understanding you sometimes have to tell a property owner no, even one with a big wallet.
By the way, the title "Coding the Vision" is a quote from the City of Richardson's own document spelling out the development code for the Interurban District. That might be a hint that giving variances to the code risks losing the vision, too.
"Whatever the use,
form-based code should guide our plans.
Let's build to adapt."
—h/t ChatGPT
3 comments:
Sure Mark, I'll bite on this one - I was trying to look at this decision from the POV of what harm allowing this sign would cause, and thinking out loud about how easy or difficult it is to convert a car dealership to serve a different purpose. My initial reaction was that a car dealership was such a specific use that a sign heigh exception might make no difference, but I ended up agreeing with my colleagues that that was not the case and a further discussion was needed, as indicated by my vote.
Now, this is an ongoing vote, and I don't want to discuss this too much past that.
I'll just point out that in two prior votes, both of which you've referenced in the blog, I voted to not grant exceptions to the vision laid out for the Interurban area, in a 5-2 minority both times.
- Joe Corcoran, Richardson City Council, Place 4
Thanks, Councilmember Joe Corcoran, for the feedback on your thinking behind your vote.
Re: "Maybe a decade or two from now"...
Ironically, long before I was a Richardson resident, I purchased a new 1981 Volkswagen from this dealership in November 1980. As a recent college graduate, this was my very first new vehicle.
So this Volkswagen dealership is at least in its fifth decade despite all of the ownership changes.
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