NORTH RICHLAND HILLS -- Quick, name the third-largest city in Tarrant County.
Chances are pretty good you guessed wrong.It's North Richland Hills, a Northeast Tarrant city often overshadowed in size by Fort Worth and Arlington, in cachet by Westover Hills and Southlake, and in eye-popping growth by Mansfield and Keller.But steadily it grew, too, throughout the 2000s, maintaining its third-place position behind Arlington with a population of 63,343, according to the 2010 Census, a jump of almost 14 percent in those 10 years.One of the new residents of that decade is now the mayor pro tem, Ken Sapp, who retired from his executive job in Chicago to return to Tarrant County. "I grew up in west Fort Worth and went to TCU, but I was looking for someplace close to the airport," he said. "Someone asked me if I had looked at North Richland Hills, and I said, no, I haven't. I was amazed when I did. I fell in love with the city."North Richland Hills, a young city founded in 1953 that straddles Northeast Loop 820, added 2,758 single-family houses with a value of $500 million from 2000 to 2010, including major, upper-end subdivisions such as HomeTown, Graham Ranch and Thornbridge.Almost all of the decade's growth occurred in the northern reaches of the city, most noticeably between Mid-Cities Boulevard and North Tarrant Parkway.But North Richland Hills will likely see a slowdown in growth, simply because vacant land is getting harder to find. The city is nearly 95 percent built-out, said John Pitstick, the city's planning director."We basically have been landlocked for more than a decade," he said. "We've got to live with what we've got. You can't go out and find 40 or 50 acres in the city anymore."In the future, city leaders will focus on a different kind of residential development, including mixed-use, densely populated neighborhoods with retail, town homes and apartments around two planned commuter rail stations. For a traditional suburban city, it's a big step."I'm very optimistic about our growth potential -- not only the velocity of growth, but the quality of growth," Sapp said. "One of the things that the census pointed out was the aging of the inner-ring cities. But we are putting strategies in place to attract a younger population."Chris Vaughn,817-390-7547North Richland Hills
snapshot
Population: 63,343
Adults 18 and older: 48,015, up 18 percent
Hispanics of all races: 9,906, up 88 percent
Median age: 37.3
2000 median age: 34.7
Households with people 65 and older: 19.5 percent
Median household income: $65,789
Median monthly mortgage: $1,582
Owner-occupied housing: 67.2 percent
Average family size: 3.18
College graduates 25 and older: 29 percent
Military veterans: 10.8 percent
People in poverty: 7.6 percent
Mean commute time: 25.5 minutes
Sources: 2009 American Community Survey, 2010 Census
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