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Staff: Farmers Branch contains roughly 16,000 multifamily units; council weighs limits and by‑right development
Summary
Planning staff reported about 16,000 multifamily units in Farmers Branch (11,000 existing, ~500 under construction, ~4,600 allowed by right) and flagged concentrated growth on the West Side; councilmembers pressed staff on vacancy data, infrastructure capacity and options to set a comprehensive-plan baseline for future zoning decisions.
Marcus Narvaez, deputy director of planning, told the council on May 21 that multifamily housing accounts for roughly 64% of the city’s housing units and that there are about 16,000 multifamily units in the city — roughly 11,000 existing, about 500 under construction and an estimated 4,600 units allowed by right but not yet built.
Narvaez said multifamily occupies only about 6% of land area because much of the city’s product is higher-density urban-style development. He noted geographic concentration: about 51% of multifamily units fall on the West Side, roughly 13% in the central area and 37% on the East Side. Narvaez highlighted Planned Development 86 (PD 86) as a district with form-based code that includes no maximum heights or unit-count caps, meaning some sites can proceed by right if they meet PD standards.
"We will have essentially over 16,000 multifamily units within our city," Narvaez said, adding that many of the units counted as “allowed by right” lack site plans and therefore unit counts are approximate. Councilmembers expressed resident concerns about perceived apartment saturation, and asked for vacancy and turnover metrics; Narvaez said staff assume high occupancy for the units presented (he estimated about 98% occupancy) but that vacancy figures are proprietary and can be collected by contacting complexes or using council-of-governments data.
Councilmembers asked about infrastructure capacity; the director of public works said the city’s water and sewer systems were built with substantial spare capacity (noting 17 million gallons of storage and peak summer pumping up to about 16 million gallons per day) and that developers are required to include impact studies and to install water/sewer mains when needed.
Narvaez told the council that zoning runs with the land and that a moratorium on by‑right multifamily is not a straightforward legal option. He and other staff recommended the council consider adding a baseline limit to the comprehensive plan or adopting changes to PDs if the council seeks a policy to restrict new multifamily in targeted areas.
Next steps: staff offered to collect vacancy/turnover data and other metrics requested by council, and the mayor and city manager said they will schedule a broader town hall later in the year to discuss multifamily and code enforcement.
