A parking lot the owner calls underused, behind a shopping center near the SMU/Mockingbird DART station could become townhouses under a zoning change the City Council is scheduled to take up today.
The case covers about 5.1 acres at the southwest corner of Mockingbird Lane and McMillan Avenue, including 5400 E. Mockingbird Lane and 5432 Winton Street, in Council District 14. The owner, CL Mockingbird Central Plaza, TX LP, wants to rewrite Planned Development District No. 28, which the council created on Aug. 22, 1966, and last amended in 1988.
The case is listed among the consent zoning items on today's agenda. Under the posted agenda, public hearings begin no earlier than 1 p.m. at City Hall.
From parking spaces to townhouses
Today the north side of the site holds a shopping center with shops, restaurants, personal service businesses and offices. The south side has duplexes and surface parking.
The request would carve a new Subdistrict A out of the southern parking area and let it develop under the city's TH-3(A) townhouse rules. The staff case report lists a 36-foot height limit and a density of up to 12 units per acre for that subdistrict. No changes are proposed to the existing retail buildings, according to the report.
The applicant told the city the southern lot is underused. The current district requires at least 441 parking spaces for the commercial portion; the amendment drops that number and points both the homes and the businesses to the standard parking rules in the Dallas Development Code.
Because the site is within half a mile of the SMU/Mockingbird station, the report notes, the city's recent parking reform sets no minimum parking for any use there.
