Nationally Renowned Panel of Land Use and Urban Planning Experts to Visit Dallas February 28-March 4

For more information, contact: Trisha Riggs at 202-624-7086

WASHINGTON (February 26, 2016) – A group of nationally renowned land use and urban planning experts has been convened by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to make recommendations to the City of Dallas regarding strategies for increasing the supply of affordable, workforce, and mixed-income housing in the city. ULI is a global, multidisciplinary research and education institute dedicated to responsible land use and creating thriving and sustainable communities.

Conducted through ULI’s advisory services program, the panel will be visiting Dallas February 28-March 4. Panelists will spend the first part of the visit reviewing the city’s existing housing policies and practices, and analyzing best practice examples from other municipalities related to the development of affordable, workforce, and mixed-income housing. Based on the analyses, the panelists will determine what could best be replicated in Dallas to provide metro-wide benefits and will make recommendations to the city’s Housing Committee regarding policies and practices that could be included in the city’s housing policy.

In preparing its recommendations, the panel will be considering factors such as:

• What the city aims to achieve with its housing policy, and how progress should be measured;
• The definition of affordable and mixed-income housing;
• The extent of demand for both rental and owner-occupied affordable and workforce housing;
• Current and future needs for various product types and price points for a range of affordable, workforce and mixed-income housing types;
• Barriers to providing affordable, mixed-income and assisted housing throughout the Dallas metro area;
• Policies that have been effective in other areas of the U.S. that are similar to Dallas in terms of housing needs, capacity and the development environment; and
• Who will assume a leadership role in encouraging the development of affordable and workforce housing, building consensus around the effort, and keeping the momentum going.

The panel assisting the City of Dallas is being chaired by renowned housing industry expert Tony M. Salazar, president of the West Coast Division of McCormack Baron Salazar, one of the nation’s most successful developers of affordable, workforce and mixed-income communities. Salazar has overseen the development of more than 4,000 residential units in Los Angeles, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Phoenix and San Francisco. “We’re excited to bring ULI’s expertise to Dallas,” Salazar said. “We are aiming to demonstrate how increasing the stock of affordable and workforce housing throughout Dallas will play a major role in sustaining the city’s economic prosperity, livability, investment appeal, and overall competitiveness.”

In addition to Salazar, other panelists are: G. Kent Collins, principal, Centro Development, LLC, Austin, Texas; Nancy Montoya, principal, TTA, New Orleans; Dionne Nelson, principal and chief executive officer, Laurel Street Residential, Charlotte, North Carolina; Phil Payne, principal and chief executive officer, Ginkgo Residential, Charlotte; Meaghan Shannon-Vlkovic,  vice president and market leader, Enterprise Community Partners, Atlanta; Mark Shelburne, senior manager, Novogradac and Company LLP,  Raleigh, North Carolina; Jake Wegmann, assistant professor, School of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin; Austin; Roger L. Williams, principal, RW and Associates, LLC, Potomac, Maryland; and Stockton Williams, executive director, ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing, Washington, D.C.

“ULI’s advisory services program has an excellent track record of helping cities solve urban development challenges to become more vibrant and successful,” said ULI leader Karl Zavitkovsky, director of economic development for the City of Dallas. “We look forward to the panel’s recommendations on how best to provide affordable and workforce housing options throughout the metro area.”

Now in its 69th year, the ULI advisory services panel program assembles experts in the fields of real estate and land use planning to participate on panels worldwide, offering recommendations for complex planning and development projects, programs and policies. Panels have developed more than 600 studies for a broad range of land uses, ranging from the redevelopment of industrial properties for residential uses to the reuse for closed military facilities to the revival of aging sports complexes.

The program has offered recommendations on urban growth-related issues in Dallas and the metropolitan region on several occasions over the past 25 years, including a revitalization strategy for West Dallas in 1990; redevelopment of the Oak Cliff Gateway District in 2001; a strategy for new development in Frisco in 2004; development of a regional logistics hub in Southern Dallas County in 2006; a reuse plan for Southwest Center Mall in 2009; and a development strategy for Vitruvian Park in Addison in 2011.

According to Thomas Eitler, senior vice president of ULI’s advisory services program, the strength of the program lies in ULI’s unique ability to draw on the substantial knowledge of its 37,000-plus members, including land developers, engineers, public officials, academics, lenders, architects, planners and urban designers. “The independent views of the panelists bring a fresh perspective to the land use challenge,” Eitler said. “The advisory services program is about offering creative, innovative approaches to community building.”

More information on the panel’s assignment in Dallas and the panelists is available here.

NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: The ULI panel’s recommendations will be presented at 9 a.m. on Friday, March 4, 2016 in the City Hall Council Chambers at 1500 Marilla Street in Dallas. The event is open to the public.

About the Urban Land Institute                                                                                  
The Urban Land Institute is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has more than 37,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.