Douglas Newby

Insights, Musings, Reflections

Douglas Newby

How A City Can Flourish – What to Avoid and What to Pursue

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Harper Belmont Media interviewed Douglas Newby for a documentary they were doing on short-term rentals (STRs).  Here are 20 video clips taken from that interview where I am discussing additional dwelling units (ADUs) and STRs and what happens when density is added to single-family zoned neighborhoods.  Included in the conversation are the reasons why adding density lowers the property values in a single-family zoned neighborhood and also why reducing density increases property values in a neighborhood.  When STRs originally became a threat to neighborhoods, few realized that STRs were just the tip of the spear trying to pierce the protection of single-family zoning for homeowners. 

Added Density Is a Disease, Munger Place Homes Lost 30% Of Their Value Over 70 Years

The future of the city of Dallas is based on the strength of its neighborhoods. People visiting Dallas always remark how clean the neighborhoods are and how many trees they have. Munger Place was developed as the most prestigious neighborhood in Dallas with architecturally significant homes and architectural deed restrictions. When gentle density and apartment zoning was added to the older Dallas neighborhoods, Munger Place plummeted in value and became the worst neighborhood in the city. When Munger Place and the surrounding neighborhoods of Peak Suburban and Junius Heights, then filled with apartments and rent houses, was rezoned single family, they began to have a steady climb back to a stable neighborhood. The neighborhood property values here rose one billion dollars over the next 45 years. Douglas Newby began his real estate career in Munger Place specializing in architecturally significant homes. He continues to specialize in architecturally significant homes in the neighborhoods of Highland Park, Preston Hollow, Turtle Creek, Volk Estates and other finest Dallas neighborhoods.

A STR Next Door Causes an Immediate Decline in Value – Much Greater Decline Overtime

Neighborhoods decline or flourish in increments. Homeowners that are not on a block with an STR might not even know STRs are an issue until the single-family neighborhood cohesiveness and stability starts to unravel. The short-term decline of Dallas neighborhoods over the first few years might not be dramatic, but over 10 or 20 years the decline is devastating.

Also discussed in these 20 video clips are the economics and the reasons for the positive effects of single-family zoning and the negative impact of adding density to thriving neighborhoods.  You will hear a case study about architecturally significant homes in the Munger Place, Peak Suburban, and Junius Heights Historic Districts in Old East Dallas, where single family rezoning created one billion dollars of value in a 100-block area.  Also, you will hear why Highland Park land is worth more per acre than land in downtown Dallas. 

There is an ideological top-down push from most city planners and many politicians to change the use of existing single-family zoned Dallas neighborhoods to denser housing types that deforest and destabilize neighborhoods.  Adding density to single-family zoned neighborhoods is tantamount to infecting them with a disease that might take decades to recover from. Currently, the Dallas City Manager and Dallas Planning Department are preparing the ForwardDallas Plan that eradicates single-family zoning, and through a point system determines how much new density and uses can be inserted in each specific neighborhood. Homeowners and neighborhood desires have historically been sacrosanct.  Now the City Manager and some City Councilmembers want permission to zone how they please in each neighborhood. Thank you for your interest in protecting and nurturing our neighborhoods – Douglas Newby

Do We Want Dallas to be an Urban Reservation of Renters or a City of Homeowners?

City planners want cities to have diversity, and all of their policies are intended to create a higher percentage of apartments and a decrease in homeownership. We see this currently in the ForwardDallas land use plan. Homeownership is declining, absentee rental house investors are increasing, and the Dallas area leads the nation in new apartments. Still owner-occupied homes are the magnet for other homeowners, renters and neighborhood amenities. Do we want Dallas to be a refuge, or reservation for renters, or a vibrant city of homeowners?

Cities Are Very Fragile – Why Force Density When You Don’t Have More People

The population of North Texas is booming, but the city of Dallas population is stagnant. Why does Dallas need more density if there are not more people in Dallas? Many city planners and politicians fundamentally do not believe in homeownership or that homeownership provides benefits to the homeowner, the home, the neighborhood or the city. That is one reason the city planners are incessantly pushing for more apartments in the city of Dallas.

Homeowners, Renters, and Even STR Owners, All Agree They Would Rather Be Next to a Home Than an STR

There is a consensus that everyone would rather live next to a homeowner than a rental unit. Homeowners want to live next to other homeowners and renters want to live next to homeowners. Rental owners would also prefer owning a rental unit next to a homeowner. Homeowners are what make neighborhoods and cities thrive.

Single Family Home Neighborhoods Provide More Paths Under a Canopy of Trees Than Most Urban Parks

Mayor Eric Johnson has done a fantastic job in Dallas. He is the only major city mayor that has worked to lower taxes, increased funding for police, and simultaneously created more parks and greenspace. However, the best walkways and pathways are not Dallas parks but the single-family zoned Dallas neighborhoods. ADUs and STRs would replace the large canopy of trees, open spaces, and uncluttered streets with more buildings, concrete and cars.

Single-Family Zoned Neighborhoods Creates a Love of Ones Home, Neighborhood, City, and Country

Single-family zoned neighborhoods create a love of one’s home, family, neighborhood, community, city, state and country because of the positive environment and interaction one has with their family and neighbors.

Let Backward Cities Toy With STRs ADUs and Civil Unrest as Dallas Single-Family Neighborhoods Thrive

Let backward-thinking cities like Portland experiment with banning single-family zoning and allowing ADUs and STRs and adding density to single-family home neighborhoods. When single family home neighborhoods are compromised, the entire city is compromised. It makes sense that civil unrest and unpleasantness on the city streets would proliferate more easily in Portland.

Lobbyist for STRs and Gaming Prey on Neighborhoods That Do Not Have Lobbyist to Fight Back

Homeowners don’t have a lobby that articulates the short and long-term negative effects of ADUs, short-term rentals and added density. ADUs and STRs have one of the strongest lobbies. In addition, Dallas has a City Manager who is not elected or responsible to the voters, and he is in favor of STRs and ADUs. The Dallas Planning Department planners are ideologically in favor of more density in single-family neighborhoods. Also, their career ambitions dictate that they work to eradicate single-family zoning that is out of favor with the urban planning community. As they professionally hopscotch around the country, it is necessary that they are on board with diluting single-family home neighborhoods with apartments so they can get a promotion or a position in another city. While city planners are pushing apartments and rentals in single-family zoned neighborhoods, homeowners, who do not have an STR or ADU on their block, are often unaware or unconcerned about these potential intrusions of renters and lodgers on their block. When there is talk about changing the Dallas code for construction or development, or talk about “place types” in a neighborhood, homeowners don’t even realize this is another way of effectively changing the zoning from single family to multi-family without them knowing about it.

The Texas Commitment to Property Rights Puts Homeowners in the Driver Seat – Commitment is Changing

The city of Dallas and Texas is the most successful city and state in the country because it has always revered property rights and put decisions as close to the people as possible. This looks like it is changing. If Dallas and Texas politicians start making top-down zoning decisions for the neighborhoods, homeowners have lost their ability to shape their neighborhood and city.

Texas Leads Nation in Urban Population, Dallas Homeowners Make the City of Dallas Strongest in the Nation

Texas leads the nation in urban population. Its urban population is greater than its rural population. So, cities are really important to Texas. Homeowners are the foundation and fabric of the success of a city, especially Dallas. If a large percentage of homeowners are removed from the city and the city is built on a foundation of transient renters, it is like building a city on quicksand. Dallas needs homeowners fighting for good Dallas neighborhoods and the city.

STR Advocates Have No Sense of What It Takes to Maintain or Improve a Neighborhood

The City of Dallas Planning Department Director says the Dallas city zoning code is way outdated. This is another way of saying our single-family zoning in Dallas is an outdated concept. Planners were promoting these same misguided density ideas 70 years ago, 50 years ago, and currently are promoting them from what they learned from their professors in planning school. They have no idea what it really takes for a neighborhood to thrive or that homeowners are a great asset for a neighborhood.

Improving Neighborhoods Draw More Homeowners – Neighborhoods in Decline Default to Absentee Owners

Neighborhoods that are becoming more attractive draw more single-family homeowners. Neighborhoods in decline attract absentee owners who rent out homes or divide them up into rental units. The threat of ADUs and STRs and apartments in single-family zoned neighborhoods is really a battle for the future vision of Dallas – a city of apartments or a city of single-family homes.

Single-Family Zoning Creates Neighborhood Confidence – STRs Introduce Uncertainty and Instability

Dallas City Councilmember Chad West is entirely in favor of ADUs, STRs and density in single-family neighborhoods, but said we needed to get rid of party houses in Dallas. Councilmember Tennell Atkins asked the best question at the STR City Council Hearing, “How does the city define a party house?” The Dallas City Planning Department Director and Dallas City Manager could not answer that question. Any STR or ADU undermines confidence in a single-family zoned neighborhood. Even the possibility of an ADU next door undermines the confidence of a homeowner or homebuyer. STRs have never had a legal right to exist in Dallas.

It’s Impossible to Define and Legislate STR Party Houses Out of a Neighborhood

It was determined 40 years ago that the City of Dallas licensed beer bars could not be effectively regulated even with testimony and documentation of murders, prostitution, gambling, drugs and other vice. It would take months to revoke a beer license. Once a beer license was revoked, the bar owner should just shift the $50 beer license from Joe on bar stool 2 to Jill on bar stool 3. Only when the City of Dallas passed an ordinance that prohibited any new beer licenses to be issue in East Dallas did those bars quickly go away, because there was such a natural turnover of license holders.

Homebuyers Are Repulsed by Slum Landlords, Absentee STR Owners and Out of State Rental Operators

Homeowners do not like STRs or ADUs. The idea that undesired uses of STRs and ADUs can be regulated and that the neighboring homeowners will like them next door is nonsense. STRs cannot be effectively regulated for the reasons discussed in this video.

STR Owners Contribute Nothing and Profit on the Backs of Homeowners Who Sustain the Neighborhood

Homeowners positively contribute to a neighborhood. STRs and ADU apartment owners take from a neighborhood. Allowing STRs and ADUs is giving permission for a few to diminish the neighborhood for others.

It Is Impossible for a City to Effectively Regulate a Short Term Rental

This video explains ways an owner can get around any potential regulation of short-term rentals. Short-term rentals cannot be effectively regulated.

Cities that New Urbanist Ideologically Revere are Cities of Failure

New Urbanists and Urban “Progressives” are always touting how much better the policies and zoning of big cities are than those of Dallas, and yet it is often those big city policies that have people fleeing those cities and moving to Dallas.

The Best Way for Dallas to Thrive Is Organic Urbanism Where Civilization Meets Nature

Organic Urbanism allows vibrancy that attracts people to a city and nurtures nature to keep people in a city. Concreting over neighborhoods and adding apartments to single-family neighborhoods does not create vibrancy but does destroy nature and why people want to stay in a city.

The Expertise and Experience of Douglas Newby on How to Make a City Flourish

Douglas Newby is a real estate broker that specializes in architecturally significant homes. For his entire real estate career, he has been involved in revitalizing neighborhoods, rezoning neighborhoods, preservation, and articulating the advantages of single-family zoned neighborhoods and architect-designed homes.