Branch Crossing

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The lot is located in Farmers Branch, the first suburb north of Dallas' NW corner. At the end of WWII, Farmers Branch had a population of about 2500. By the end of the 1970s, the population was over 20,000. The neighborhood where this lot is was developed in the 1950s. It is made up of 750-900 sq. ft. ranch homes mostly on 60-120 lots (60x170 in the case of the lot we bought). Currently, most of the houses are rentals.


In hopes of turning that part of the city around, Farmers Branch designated this small neighborhood a "Renaissance District." They replaced the streets and all utilities and bought eight lots which they sold to developers for $20,000 each. And they renamed the neighborhood Branch Crossing.


This neighborhood is across a creek from a large park that has walking trails, playground equipment, tennis and basketball courts and the City Hall. On the weekends, it fills up with picnicing families. On the other side of City Hall, there is about 1/4 mile of vacant and low-valued use lots before you get to I-35. Supposedly developers are about to get going on converting this area to a mixed use development and land has already been set aside for a light rail station. Of course, Dallas' hopes for an expansion of the DART light rail system took a big hit when Pete Sessions defeated Martin Frost for Congress. We'll see.


Perhaps most notably, the lot is not in the Dallas school district. A neighbor who teaches in Dallas, in trying to convince us to stay put, said, "Well, I can't see how it could get any worse." Not a ringing endorsement.


I got a lot of the above information by calling the city and talking to someone involved in revitalizing Branch Crossing. He also offered that the city had changed the zoning to accomodate larger houses (setbacks have been reduced).


So we negotiated and bought the lot. There was still a house there, It had been a rental ($300/mo.) for 20 years. Broken windows were covered with plywood, all other windows were covered with towels. After going into the house with me once, a friend (who HAD wanted to have fun in there with a sledge hammer before the `dozer arrived) said, "Ew, I need to go home and take a shower." It was hard to imagine anyone could have lived in there.


The contract to buy the house gave us a 30 day option period. Through an architect friend I contacted a builder who agreed to give us info on what it should cost to build a house. Then I called the city to get a copy of the special zoning restrictions... you know, the changed size of the setbacks.

Even though I had been working on a design for some time (with Greg LaVardera's help, I may add), LaVardera's Cube House really caught my imagination. Not only is it a great design with a boatload of commodity and delight (firmness would be a construction issue), but the prospect of saving achitect's fees really appealed to us... But then we got a copy of the code.

"Whereas, the City of Farmers Branch deems it necessary, for the promoting the health, safety, morals, or general welfare of the City to enact a new zoning ordinance: and..."


It went downhill from there.


"Fully enclosed garage parking for a minimum of two full-sized automobiles is required for every residence"


There goes the carport idea.


"Diagonal and horizontal fencing is prohibited. Chain link fencing is prohibited."


"All single-story houses shall include some variance to the ridgeline."


"The minimum slope for all roofs shall be no less than a 5 to 12...pitch."


And in case you didn't get it.


"Flat roofs are prohibited."


Can a modern (not post-modern) house even be done this way? We'll see.


"Every residence shall include a minimum of one fireplace. The chimney shell must be masonry. Wood, metal and other materials are prohibited."


We have a fireplace in our current house. We have used it three times in eight years. But you gotta protect the City's morals! How spewing CO and particulates into the air protects the public health is beyond me.


"Brick, stucco or stone finishes are acceptable and shall occupy a minimum of 75% of all facades."


So much for painted Hardie siding or corrugated galvalume.


I could go on, but this was enough to give us pause. How do you build a modern house that complies with these rules!


I have had numerous lawyers tell me the ordinance is illegal, but until someone challenges it ($$$), it stands.

In another city document, they say that "Old World," Hill Country and other traditional styles are encouraged in order to maintain stylistic consistancy. Hill country refers to central Texas farm and and ranch houses built 70-120 years ago. Basically simple stone buildings with big porches (and the porches never have a roof slope of 5:12 or steeper). So they think a mix of English Tudor and French Country from the 17th century looks of-a-piece with 19th and 20th century Texas farm buildings. Basically, the Mayor et al. decided that what Farmers Branch needed was a old historic district. Since most of the remaining houses from 60+ years ago are shacks, they needed to build a historic district. They seemed to have missed the fact that one of the main reasons that historic districts are neat is that they are old. The only way to get that is to build something and then wait. They also seemed to have missed the fact that most historic residential buildings in the US have wood lap siding. Unfortunatly, much of the code seems to be written with an eye toward making houses more expensive to build. Of course, this only succeeds in lowering property values of the existing houses.

I had been working on a floorplan that took the Eames house and added a wing to it. With a simple gable and stucco siding, it could have worked. I then came up with a different scheme that was a square house (40'x40') with a 13'x13' atrium in the middle. With a gable running around the house, it too would comply. However, it looked like it had a mansard roof, not my favorite.


With the help of an architect friend (and getting comments from an architect I had interviewed), we decided we could make it work. It wouldn't be the house I had been dreaming of, but the neighborhood has some serious potential.


The option period expired and we were on our way.