The City of Dallas’ proposed Neighborhood Stabilization Overlay process makes launching a petition drive easier and ignores large homes in a neighborhood. The NSO plan was passed by the City Council last month, and is meant to reduce the development of so-called “McMansions”.

At a briefing on Monday for the City of Dallas’ Quality of Life committee, Theresa O’Donnell, the Director of Development Services, confirmed that the petitioning process will allow for duplicate signatures. She also confirmed that the determination by the City of the nature of a “typical” house in a neighborhood would be based on median measurements rather than average measurements.

The petitioning process for launching and accepting an overlay will be property-oriented rather than owner-oriented. As a result, an individual who owns more than one property in an affected neighborhood could sign a petition more than once, one time for each property he owns. In theory, one person could supply all 10 signatures necessary to launch the overlay process, if he owns 10 properties in the neighborhood.

O’Donnell also explained that the City would be responsible for surveying the neighborhood to determine the nature of a “typical” house. In calculating figures such as setbacks and building heights, the City will use the median figure for the neighborhood, rather than the average.

“Median” is a mathematical concept much like a mathematical average. A mathematical average is computed by adding up a set of numbers and then dividing by the number of numbers. A median is computed by placing the figures in ascending order and then finding the central figure in the list. For example: if the set of numbers is (90, 10, 20), then the average is (90+10+20) divided by 3 = 40. To calculate the median, the figures are first arranged in order: (10, 20, and 90). The central figure is the median: 20. If the highest figure in the set is increased from 90 to 180, the average will increase to 70. But the median will remain 20, since 20 remains the central figure in the new list (10, 20, and 180).

For homeowners, this means that a few particularly large homes (or, for that matter, a few particularly small homes) in a neighborhood might not affect the calculation of a “typical” home at all. O’Donnell also confirmed that an NSO could be reversed and an overlay removed by going through the process in reverse, and petitioning for the removal of an overlay.

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