Grading Richardson's Comprehensive Plan

Source: City of Richardson.

The City of Richardson has published a draft of its long-overdue Comprehensive Plan update, the first since 2009. The initial grade I'd award? Incomplete. I was interested in, for example, what the recommendations would be for increasing the so-called missing middle housing in Richardson, that is, housing types like duplexes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), bungalow courts, and townhomes. I found some mushy aspirations, but nothing that commits the City to any changes.

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Figure 3.3 in the draft lists "Missing Middle Housing by Placetypes." For the "Neighborhood Residential" PlaceType (the largest land use in Richardson), the acceptable housing types are shown as "Accessory Dwelling Units," "Bungalow Courts," "Duplex,", and "Townhomes." Sounds pretty clear that our neighborhoods, now filled with single family homes, are going to make room for more creative housing types to solve our shortage of missing middle housing.

Or are they? So much of the actual progress on achieving this is left as an exercise for future City Councils. Under "Action Items" for Housing are five items. I've emphasized the verb for each to show the tenuous nature of the commitment to solving this perceived need.

• Housing Inventory. Maintain an inventory of Richardson's existing housing stock, its price points and vacancy rates, and entitled residential projects to provide a baseline for program and policy reviews.
• Housing Needs. Prepare a housing needs assessment to better understand the gaps between current housing inventory and demand that current and future residents will create.
• Innovative Housing Solutions. Explore ways that Richardson can encourage the use of new technologies to reduce home energy usage and expand the usage of building materials that are more durable and resilient to deliver housing at more affordable price points , while maintaining quality.
• New Programs. Consider development of housing assistance programs based on the findings of the housing needs assessment, maintaining a clear alignment with assistance offered and community needs.
• Zoning. Explore zoning options that allow Missing Middle Housing types, including accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in neighborhoods that are appropriate. Locations for zoning modifications should align with PlaceType descriptions.

Explore. Consider. Explore (some more). Even the first, "Maintain an inventory of Richardson's existing housing stock,..." assumes we already have such a baseline, which I'm not sure we do. If we did, why wouldn't it be referenced in this draft? So, maybe "maintain an inventory" would have been more accuratedly worded, "create an inventory." The plan implies that an inventory is needed to "explore" and "consider" solutions. This "plan" is better thought of as a "plan to create a plan." Hence, the grade of "Incomplete."

I don't expect this draft plan to be at all controversial. I expect it'll easily pass 7-0. That's because it doesn't actually commit to any changes, at least nothing specific, at least not right away.

The Comp Plan update won't change zoning, at least not automatically. I don't expect the City Council to have any desire to make wholesale changes to zoning. If the Comp Plan says, for example, that accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are permitted as a secondary use in neighborhoods zoned for single family homes (and it does), I expect homeowners who want to build an ADU will still have to file a zoning change request for approval for such a secondary use. Government by whim of seven councilmembers will continue.

Call me impatient. Call me demanding. Call me unreasonable. But I expected more from this update to the Comprehensive Plan. In my view, we just spent a year learning what our City Council members already knew. They've talked to voters all across Richardson, even before they were elected. I'd like to see them light a fire under City Staff to bring something to them that they can vote on, something residents of Richardson can act on, by right.

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"Placetypes hold the key,
Yet the door is only cracked.
Draft plans aren't zoning."
—h/t ChatGPT