Dana Collins's View on Senate Bill 840
A Clarification
After our election preview episode dropped, we got a call from Dana Collins, candidate for the District 6 City Council special election, wanting to clarify his position on Senate Bill 840. We appreciate him reaching out to us, as we want to always make sure to get our reporting and analyses right.
Collins wrote to us in an email: “I oppose SB 840 -- it was a terrible bill. Cities need control over population density and zoning issues.” He also adds: “I support the Council moving swiftly to mitigate the impacts of SB 840.”
He points out that his experience and legal background would be useful in helping get legislation limiting cities (like SB 840) repealed. For more on his views, see our interview with him.
A bit more on SB 840 for context on this important issue. Last session, in May of 2025, the Texas Legislature passed SB 840. Sen. Bryan Hughes carried the bill, which was strongly supported by the real estate developers. Sen. Hughes represents the northeast corner of Texas, and is a champion for the developers in the Texas legislature, frequently carrying bills that takes away zoning powers of cities.
That was the idea of the bill — to make it easier for developers to build apartments. Even if land is zoned for something else (office, commercial, retail, warehouse, or mixed-use) cities would be forced to multifamily residential or mixed-use residential. Apartments must be allowed “by right” in cities with over 150,000 people (Irving has 258,000).
(How can the state do this? It’s because — while home rule cities like Irving have a City Charter and inherent powers — they are still limited by state laws and the state constitution.)
What’s the problem with the bill? Wouldn’t it address housing shortages, but cutting out lengthy local zoning processes that slow down the building of new housing?
Basically, SB 840 could invite a surge of apartment projects in parts of Irving that were not planned for that level of residential use.
These projects could strain traffic, parking, emergency access, water, sewer, drainage, and electric infrastructure. The bill limits the city’s ability to require traffic studies, added parking, traffic-mitigation improvements, and utility upgrades beyond minimum service needs. If those impacts are not fully addressed by developers, burdens would be placed on Irving citizens — things like congestion, service demands, utility costs, and future public infrastructure spending.
The bill short-circuits much of the local political process that we use to deal with these concerns. In Irving, that process is led by elected representatives and involves public hearings, mailed notice, public comment, and the ability to question developers about site-specific impacts.
While the city can still enforce generally applicable rules, the questions that could be debated through zoning — whether the location is appropriate, density fits the surrounding area, parking sufficient, and traffic impacts that are not too great — are no longer a question for the public zoning process, but rather a simple administrative review by staff.
In short, SB 840 strips the power of local self-governing units and hands it to developers. And of course they respond mainly to the profit motive.
Happily, Irving did not sit idly by. In a series of meetings detailed on the city’s website — irvingtx.gov/multifamily-by-right — Irving looked for ways to mitigate the impact of this bill.
They found one in minimum height.
The bill limits how restrictive cities can be on maximum height, but SB 840 does not have minimum height rules.
So that’s the direction Irving went in order to discourage these conversions. It makes the conversions more difficult because it is harder to finance. A 3- or 4-story garden apartment is more economical for developers than an 8 story apartment, since, instead of wood-frame construction, they would need concrete, steel, heavier foundations, and more complex engineering. Since it costs more per unit, the developer has to make up the difference through higher rents.
Here’s the discussion from July of last year:
It ultimately passed 9-0 on August 28.
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