Planning and Urban Design: Building strong neighborhoods

The City’s Planning and Urban Design Program has three major initiatives for fiscal year 2015-16, including Neighborhood Plus implementation, Complete Streets Policy adoption and implementation, Urban Design Practice and Policy and Guideline adoption and implementation.

The mission and role of the Planning and Urban Design Department is to enhance the impacts of public and private projects, foster a comprehensive approach to projects, emphasize and integrate ongoing community engagement and to advance city policies from planning through implementation.

The Planning and Urban Design Program presented to Dallas City Council on Wednesday covered key overview of its three major initiatives. The Neighborhood Plus implementation serves to promote neighborhood revitalization, build healthy, sustainable neighborhoods and address the root causes of poverty and blight in Dallas neighborhoods. A Neighborhood Vitality team will monitor, develop metrics to measure the impact of the program, coordinate with organizations and external partners and create an action plan to implement the program.

The Complete Streets Policy adoption and implementation will ensure streets are designed for all types of users, including pedestrians, bikes, transit and automobiles. This policy has a goal that all streets will be designed to suit the area and needs of those particular users.

Urban Design goals hope to achieve the next level of livability for Dallas, enhance economic competitiveness and improve environmental quality for our city by fostering working relationships with neighborhood organization leaders and facilitating coalition building among community organizations. The initiative will also expand and maintain a community organization database in partnership with external organizations and provide community outreach support for departmental projects.

The next steps for the Planning and Urban Design Program is to fill vacant positions across the department and to renew the professional services contract. GrowSouth Coordination will continue with the Mayor’s Office on Collective Impact organization and target area planning. Moving forward with Neighborhood Plus, committee and council briefings on the Neighborhood Plus work program and selection criteria for target areas are planned. The Council will be briefed on Complete Streets and the design manual, while Urban Design will be discussed in committee and council briefings to address the capacity building program.

For the full briefing, click here.