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

The Urban Design District-Downtown ("DUDD") is a zoning overlay covering downtown as shown on Exhibit B.16 of the official zoning map. It supplements, rather than replaces, the underlying base zoning district: permitted uses still come from the property's primary zoning classification, but any new structure, building expansion, exterior renovation or remodeling, or surface parking lot must also comply with the Downtown Urban Design Standards and Guidelines, which Section 4.402(d) incorporates into the zoning ordinance by reference.

Before applying, a developer must hold a pre-design conference with the development services director and bring footprints of existing and proposed structures, schematic floor plans, building setbacks, parking and landscape locations, building elevations for every side, and site photographs. The formal certificate-of-appropriateness application then goes to the planning and development department at least ten days before a downtown design review board meeting, and the applicant must post a city-issued notice sign on the site, visible from street level, at least ten days before that hearing. Required submittals include five copies each of the site plan, landscape plan, schematic floor plans, building elevations, and exterior material samples, plus scaled drawings for any detached sign.

No building permit for construction, expansion, renovation, remodeling, exterior alteration, or a surface parking lot may issue within the DUDD until the certificate of appropriateness is approved by the downtown design review board and issued by the planning and development department. Decisions on walkway, landscape, building-edge, and sign requirements are made by the downtown design review board under the procedures in Section 2.104.