What the October 14 Vote at Preston and Royal Actually Decides

The southwest corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane has been empty since the EF-3 tornado that went through Preston Hollow in 2019 leveled it. Black and red "No Rezoning" signs from the Preserve Preston Hollow coalition now line nearly every street around it, and the group says more than 4,600 neighbors have signed its petition. The Dallas City Council's October 14, 2026 agenda lists the case, Z-26-000007, as item Z1. City staff and the City Plan Commission both recommend approval subject to a development plan and conditions.

If you're weighing a house within walking distance of this corner, you might assume a "no" vote keeps the site the way it is today. A 2025 state law makes that unlikely. The vote decides how tall the buildings at 5930 Royal Lane get and how they step down toward their neighbors. Whether the corner gets new housing was mostly settled in Austin last year.

What a denial would leave in place

The site sits south of Royal Lane, west of Preston Road and north of Orchid Lane. It's zoned CR Community Retail and P(A) Parking. Under that zoning, buildings can be up to 54 feet tall.

Before September 1, 2025, that would have been a mostly retail picture. Then Texas Senate Bill 840 took effect. It was signed June 20, 2025. It applies to cities with more than 150,000 residents in counties with more than 300,000, which includes Dallas. In those cities, zoning that allows office, commercial, retail, warehouse or mixed-use development must also allow multifamily and mixed-use residential. The city can't require a zoning change, special-use permit or other discretionary approval first.

The law also limits what a city can impose on a qualifying project:

• Density: no cap tighter than 36 units per acre or the city's highest allowed residential density, whichever is greater. Dallas has said some of its residential districts have no maximum density, so eligible projects face no density cap.
• Height: no lower than the height allowed for commercial construction on the site, or 45 feet, whichever is greater.
• Setbacks: no more than the commercial requirement or 25 feet, whichever is less.
• Parking: no more than one space per unit, and no required parking structure.

Nobody has published one official number for what that means at Preston and Royal. A city slide in the District 13 case presentation says the parcel "is currently zoned to allow 850 units built by-right." In May, the Preston Hollow Advocate reported a figure of 800 units. At the August hearing, planning staff said the site could theoretically hold hundreds of apartments under SB 840, with the final size depending on parking, engineering and traffic constraints. The numbers differ, but they all describe a corner that can take on substantial housing without a rezoning.

That's why the opposition has focused on height. "We are in support, 100%, of this corner developing. The uses are fine. The height needs to come down," Preserve Preston Hollow spokesperson Doug Hazelbaker told the commission. The coalition's alternative keeps the 54-foot limit and allows multifamily, retail and office uses.

Pepper Square shows which limits hold

Pepper Square is a few miles north, at the southeast corner of Preston Road and Belt Line Road in Far North Dallas. Its zoning fight ran for years. The case was filed in 2022, and on March 26, 2025, the City Council approved a planned development capped at 868 units. Negotiations had cut that number down from an earlier 984-unit version.

On October 3, 2026, CandysDirt reported that Henry S. Miller Company and Lincoln Property Company had formalized a partnership. They plan at least 1,050 apartments and about 65,000 square feet of new retail on 15.5 acres north of the existing Trader Joe's and Hobby Lobby. That's at least 182 units above the cap the Council approved. Hal Watson, president of HSM Multi Housing, described it this way:

"There are still height limitations [in our PD], there are still open space requirements, but SB 840 allows us to do unlimited density within the envelopes that we're allowed to build in."

Watson said the company expects only "ministerial approval," with no further public hearing. Phase One is planned as a five-story, 313-unit building, with construction targeted for on or about May 1, 2027.

Pepper Square isn't in Preston Hollow, but it's the clearest local example of how SB 840 interacts with a negotiated zoning deal. The unit cap that neighbors and the Council worked out didn't last. The height limits and open-space rules did. At Preston and Royal, the same logic means the October 14 hearing mainly sets the building envelope.

What the rezoning would add, measured from the nearest homes

The request creates a new Planned Development District. It would allow three main buildings of up to 210, 240 and 190 feet, plus a restaurant village capped at 45 feet. The submitted plan sets maximums of 18 stories for the 210-foot building, 19 stories for the 240-foot building and 12 stories for the 190-foot building, with the restaurant village limited to two stories.

Here's how the height is arranged, starting from the neighbors:

1. West edge. The nearest residences are low-rise, two-story condominiums about 45 feet west of the property line, next to MF-2(A) multifamily zoning and a fire-station PD. Staff notes that height rises faster along the west property line than along the south.
2. South edge. Height Zone 1 on the south side is capped at 54 feet, the same as current zoning. South of the site is neighborhood-office property, then TH-1(A) townhouse zoning with duplexes and single-family homes. The nearest of those homes are about 130 feet from the property line.
3. Building 1 setbacks. The setback is 54 feet for portions up to 54 feet tall, 70 feet for portions between 54 and 140 feet, and 80 feet above 140 feet. The city's SB 840 guidance adds a caveat. For a project that qualifies under the law, Dallas says it can't enforce a setback greater than 25 feet, including extra setbacks for upper floors. Whether a future change to this site would qualify is something the published sources don't settle.
4. Open space and parking. The plan requires 0.68 acres of open space, at least half an acre of it contiguous, plus 200 site trees. The applicant proposes multi-level underground parking.

The program itself would include no more than 50 condos and 150 hotel rooms, about 175 apartments, a 12-story office tower, and several restaurants and retail spaces.

The plan has come down in height over the year. The January 2026 application asked for 325 feet. The tallest building dropped to 299 feet in April, then to 240 feet in June, when the apartment tower also went from 250 to 210 feet. On August 6, the commission voted 10-4 to recommend approval. A proposed amendment from Commissioner Jack Kocks to cap the height at 75 feet failed.

Traffic depends on what gets built instead

Traffic is the other common concern. Kimley-Horn's comparison for the applicant, dated May 11, 2026, put the proposed project at 4,803 daily vehicle trips. Its "allowable by-right" scenario came to 9,251. Most of that by-right total comes from a 61,800-square-foot shopping plaza with a supermarket, at 6,169 daily trips. The by-right scenario assumed only 130 low-rise apartments.

This is the applicant's model, and it compares the proposal against one possible by-right project, not the 850-unit figure on the city's own slide. It does show a pattern. On a busy commercial corner, retail tends to generate more trips per square foot than apartments or offices, so a shorter project could still bring more cars.

City staff reviewed a separate traffic study dated June 12, 2026. Staff concluded that the surrounding roads could handle the project with targeted improvements, including future signals at Preston Road and Central Market Drive and at Royal Lane and Tom Thumb Drive. Those signals would be tied to full buildout. Preserve Preston Hollow challenged an earlier March study, saying it appeared to rely on the January plan. That critique came before the June study, so some of its points may not apply to the current version.

Reading the commercial parcel before you write an offer near one

The same reasoning applies to any Preston Hollow home near commercial zoning. A unit cap can change after the fact. At Pepper Square, the height limit stayed in place, and Dallas's guidance caps setbacks for qualifying projects at 25 feet. Before making an offer on a house that backs up to or faces a commercial corner, it's worth checking:

• The parcel's zoning district and height limit. Under SB 840, a site's commercial height sets the floor for residential height, so a 54-foot CR limit allows 54-foot residential buildings.
• Whether a planned development district exists. Dallas says SB 840-eligible changes to a PD get administrative staff review rather than a public hearing.
• How Dallas's Residential Proximity Slope applies. The city's SB 840 information sheet says the slope still affects height. Under SB 840, though, the highest point reached under the slope can become the maximum for the whole site, and it can't go below 45 feet.
• Pending cases. Dallas posts zoning cases and agendas on Legistar. The Preston-Royal case was already postponed once, pulled from the September 9 agenda after a postponement request.

In September, District 13 Council Member Gay Donnell Willis told KERA the case is going through the standard review process and has been revised based on neighbor input. If the rezoning passes, the corner gets the height zones described above, with the tallest building set toward the middle of the site. If it fails, the 54-foot CR limit stays, and housing is still allowed there under state law.

If you're considering a home near Preston and Royal or another commercial corner in Preston Hollow, Diane Bearden can go over the zoning, setbacks and pending cases on the nearby parcels with you before you make an offer. Contact Diane for a personalized market consultation.