Garage apartments are coming to Lower Greenville after the Dallas City Council approved for the first time a zoning overlay established last year. Residents say the approval allows them to add a mix of affordable housing units and a new income source to a neighborhood with increasing rents and home values.
Accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, may now be constructed along portions of Belmont Avenue, and neighbors are already planning to add home offices, garage apartments, and pool houses.
“I’m very happy to see this taking shape,” said council member Phillip Kingston, who represents the neighborhood in District 14, “It’s the first [neighborhood] under the ADU overlay.”
The overlay is in the Belmont Addition Conservation District and runs along Belmont Ave from Greenville to Skillman avenues. The area includes both sides of Belmont, except the south side from Greenville to Matilda Street.
“Vibrant communities have diversity, diversity of age, of occupation, of state of life, etc.,” said a Belmont Addition resident while addressing the city council. “East Dallas is gentrifying, therefore requires smaller affordable housing spaces for young professionals, family members, service industry workers, and others.”
While residents have always had the ability to build secondary dwellings, the ordinance enables property owners to rent those out to tenants.
Dwellings must be one story unless it’s on top of a garage, and can only be two stories tall. City code outlines many specifications for the units, which can’t exceed 700 square feet or 25 percent of the main home’s size, whichever is higher.
The City Plan Commission is set to consider parking concerns about the Belmont Addition overlay, though city staff said it’s at the end of the commission’s current docket.
The ADU ordinance requires one off-street space for the unit in addition to the parking requirements of the main house. There are no parking requirements for the few residents who live within 500 feet of the four nearby DART bus stops, and 75 percent of neighbors can vote to waive the parking requirement altogether.
Nearby, Alexan Lower Greenville is nearing completion of a sprawling development at Belmont and Greenville, adding 450 apartments and 50 townhomes. Units are reported to start at $2,000 per month.
An underground parking garage was constructed, and townhomes have their own garages. Developer Trammell Crow Residential anticipates construction will wrap up in July 2019.
Neighbors in the Belmont Addition were supportive of the development after Trammel Crow took over the project in 2017, led by Matt Enzler, who lives a few blocks away. Trammell Crow updated to a Craftsman facade, ensured adequate parking and include more trees and greenery to fit better with the neighborhood.
In July 2018, Dallas City Council approved the accessory dwelling overlay, introduced by Bishop Arts and Oak Cliff Councilman Scott Griggs. The zoning measure was championed by affordable housing advocates and passed with near-unanimous approval from the city council.