Dallas zoning rewrite puts April 2025 IRC amendment to the test

Dallas is now pressing a broader zoning overhaul that will determine whether its April 2025 building code amendment translates into actual housing production. The Dallas Housing Coalition launched its "Be My Neighbor" campaign in late July 2026, pulling residents into a process that advocates describe as the city's first comprehensive zoning rewrite since the 1980s^[1].

What the April 2025 ordinance did

On 23 April 2025, the Dallas City Council unanimously enacted the "1 to 8 Dwelling Units" ordinance, amending the city's Dallas One- and Two-Family Dwelling Code to extend IRC coverage to residential buildings of up to eight units, three stories, and 7,500 square feet^[1]. Before that change, any structure with more than two units had to comply with the International Building Code - the commercial-grade standard written for large apartment complexes^[1].

The practical effect was significant. Builders constructing triplexes, fourplexes, or other small multi-unit housing previously had to meet commercial code requirements, incurring higher costs from fire systems, structural engineering, and consulting fees - costs that made smaller infill developments financially infeasible. As of late 2025, no projects under the new rules had broken ground, though several were in the pipeline under review at Dallas Planning.

The ordinance was modelled in part on Memphis, Tennessee, which passed a similar ordinance in 2022 allowing buildings with three to six dwelling units to fall under the residential code.

The zoning rewrite now underway

The IRC amendment addressed construction costs, but it did not change where missing middle housing can be built. That is the job of the zoning rewrite. The Dallas Housing Coalition launched its "Be My Neighbor" campaign as the city prepares to rewrite a zoning code that has largely stood since the 1980s, designed to pull residents into the process before the proposal reaches the City Plan Commission and Dallas City Council.

Supporters say the rewrite could allow more duplexes, townhomes, condominiums, smaller homes, and neighbourhood businesses across Dallas. The Dallas Housing Coalition is also advocating for smaller minimum lots, accessory dwelling units, mixed-use areas, live-work districts, and the removal of outdated deed restriction references from the updated code.

The stakes are high. Building code requirements can drive up costs that stifle the construction of missing middle housing, according to a study the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies conducted in Massachusetts. Dallas's sequencing - fixing the building code first, then the zoning code - is being watched by other cities. Dallas's changes were inspired by work in Memphis, and the National League of Cities expects regulation changes that increase housing supply to become more prevalent in 2026.

What the IRC amendment actually permits

Residential builders and small-scale developers working in Dallas should note the specific parameters of the amended Dallas One- and Two-Family Dwelling Code:

• Buildings of three to eight units may now be permitted under a modified IRC rather than the IBC
• Maximum building size: 7,500 square feet
• Maximum height: three stories
• Maximum units per story: four
• A single exit is permitted under the amended code^[1]

The National Fire Safety Association flagged in September 2025 that the Dallas amendment permits a single exit stairway and circumvents IBC life-safety provisions, raising concerns about consistency with national model codes. The authority having jurisdiction - Dallas's Building Inspection department - determines compliance on a project-by-project basis. Builders uncertain about how a specific design is classified should seek a formal determination from that office rather than inferring it from the ordinance text alone.

What to watch

The zoning rewrite is the next test. The Dallas Housing Coalition's executive director said that if changes are adopted over the next year and a half, the goal is new housing that suits varied preferences for whatever stage of life residents are in. Sacramento's experience is instructive: in the first year and a half of that city's missing middle interim ordinance, Sacramento received 34 applications and approved 22, almost all of them duplexes, with not a single project between three and 20 units coming through. Builders there cited commercial building code requirements kicking in at the third unit as a persistent barrier. Dallas removed that barrier in April 2025. Whether the zoning rewrite removes the remaining ones will become clear as the City Plan Commission works through the proposal in 2026 and 2027.