Planning commission recommends rezoning 43.7 acres in southern downtown to mixed-use downtown

The City of Denton Planning and Zoning Commission on Sept. 24 recommended that City Council rezone about 43.7 acres in the southern downtown area from public facilities and mixed-use neighborhood (MN) zoning to mixed-use downtown (MD).

The recommendation, which passed 3-1, would replace current zoning over roughly the area south of Sycamore to Eagle and along Elm and Locust streets with the MD district, which the city says will allow more downtown-style mixed-use redevelopment. Commission Chairman Lisa Dyer called for the vote after a staff presentation and public comment period.

Staff presented the proposal as the next step to implement the Design Downtown Denton plan and to respond to a 2024 floodplain project that removed the southern downtown from the floodplain, opening the area to redevelopment. Shawn Jacobson, associate planner, told commissioners that the area had been zoned downtown commercial until the 2019 citywide rezoning and that restoring MD would give property owners more flexibility for small multifamily, townhomes…