The Dallas Zoo wants to add a zip line that would rise 116 feet, and the land it would sit on is not zoned for anything that tall.
Dallas Zoo Management Inc. has asked the City Plan Commission to rezone about 33,182 square feet inside the zoo from RR Regional Retail to MU-2 Mixed Use, according to the city's case report for file Z-26-000065. The commission takes up the request Thursday, Oct. 8, at its 10:30 a.m. hearing in the City Council chambers on the sixth floor of City Hall.
Regional Retail zoning caps structures at 70 feet. MU-2 allows up to 135 feet, or 180 feet for a mixed-use project that includes retail, the report shows. The case report says the sole purpose of the change is to allow the zip line.
Where it would go
The site is within the zoo lot on the southwest side of South Marsalis Avenue between Interstate 35E and East Clarendon Drive, in City Council District 4. The land belongs to the city's Park and Recreation Department; the zoo operates under a certificate of occupancy for a public park.
Single-family homes sit to the west. Offices and commercial buildings are to the north, a parking lot to the east and more of the zoo to the south. Seven nearby property owners were mailed notice of the case, according to the city's Sept. 10 notification list. The report notes no other zoning cases in the area in the past five years.
Why staff supports it
City planners recommend approval. They wrote that the zip line is not expected to hurt surrounding development, that the distance from nearby homes helps limit the effect of the added height, and that the tract's small size and layout would limit how much could ever be built there. Transportation staff found the change would not significantly affect nearby roads.
