Carrollton, TX Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

The DTC District covers four sub-districts, Urban Core, Urban General, Urban Fringe and Historic Square, each carrying its own height and build-to standard (Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Art. 20, Pt. 1, Sec. 5, Sub-District Standards table). Urban Core buildings run 4 stories minimum with no maximum height and sit only 3 feet from the right-of-way; Historic Square buildings cap at 3 stories and may build to 0 feet from the ROW. Section D, Buildings, sets the actual design rules an applicant must meet. Block faces must hold continuous frontage, defined as 80 percent or more of the building facade at the build-to line, broken only by a mid-block parking access no wider than 24 feet (Sec.

a). Every building must be designed in tri-partite architecture with a distinct base, middle and top and vertically proportioned windows (Sec. b). Drive-through windows are flatly prohibited (Sec. d). Buildings that front a Commercial Character Street must design their first floor for retail: entry doors at grade with no elevated stoop, clear glass covering at least 60 percent of the ground-floor facade, and interior clear ceiling heights of at least 14 feet (Sec. e). Buildings over four stories must step back at least 12 feet above the fourth floor (Sec.

a), and primary entries must sit no more than 70 feet apart along the sidewalk (Sec. d). Retail leasable area above 30,000 square feet requires a Special Use Permit (Sec. a). The article was most recently amended by Ordinance No. 4148 on June 6, 2023, within the April 2026 comprehensive update.