Wanted: Citizens to watch for development snafus

The D.R. Horton company’s excessive clearing of trees on Randol Mill Road has gotten a lot of publicity. It was historically one the worst violations of its type in the city, but it certainly isn’t the only recent case of a developer violating Fort Worth ordinances or building permits.

Just two weeks ago, on March 9, the city ordered Bloomfield Homes to stop work on a 60-site subdivision on Alta Vista Road after the company began grading the property without a permit and took out more of the existing tree canopy than allowed.

Bloomfield President Tim Stewart seemed sincere when he told us his builders at Cottages of Hutson Oaks thought they had the go-ahead to grade the property.

“We’re disappointed we made a mistake during this process. When it came to our attention we immediately went to work with the city to get that resolved,” he said.

The city says Bloomfield has agreed to plant five times more tree canopy than was wrongly removed and pay $9,500 to the city tree fund.

The city says it has responded to at least four additional tree cutting violations in the past six months where companies removed trees without having permits or paved up to the existing trunks, something that can kill trees. We suspect there were many more they just didn’t know about.

In most, if not all of these cases, it’s been citizens who suspected problems and reported them. And, frankly, that’s a big part of what it’s going to take to catch future development problems before they get out of hand.

Last year the city handled about 5,000 residential building permits, more than 2,500 commercial permits, plus others for apartment construction. There’s no way two urban forestry professionals and a small staff of code and compliance officers can stay on top of all the environmental, sewer, storm water and site development issues that entails.

We’ve recommended the city hire additional inspectors and consider paying for them through steeper fines or increased inspection fees. We’ve suggested the city encourage compliance by moving more quickly to shut down projects with problems, and by offering financial incentives for developers who are following the rules.

Here’s another suggestion: create a more consumer-friendly website for the public that clearly identifies the proposed projects before construction begins and updates permits and violations. Ask citizens for their input when deciding penalties.

The city’s “One Address” database reached through its website includes cursory information about city services, neighborhood crime and has a section for permits and code violations. But it’s hit and miss, and you have to know the development’s street address which isn’t always easy to find.

We couldn’t locate the D.R. Horton or the Bloomfield violations using that system.

You can sign up to use the city’s more detailed Accela database designed for those applying for permits. But Mary Kelleher, an involved citizen on Randol Mill Road and former member of the Tarrant Regional Water District, said “it’s very difficult to navigate.”

“I can’t even find my own permit,” she said, explaining she’s digging a pond on her property.

Kelleher said she and other residents in the Historic Randol Mill Valley Alliance are the “eyes and ears of their neighborhood.” They communicate by blog, email and Facebook. They stay on top of things by getting their council representative to appoint their members to the city’s zoning, planning and urban design committees.

Randle Harwood, Director of Planning and Development, said his department counts on citizen observations. He has to consider the most important places to use his “extremely limited resources” which often means monitoring the construction of buildings where “health, safety and welfare” are at stake.

Harwood suggests citizens seeking more information on building projects contact Planning and Development Customer Service at 817-392-2222 or Urban Forestry at 817-392-7933.

He is proud that a recent survey showed more than 90 percent of customers who use the city’s permitting process, including developers, said they had a positive experience. That’s not a small achievement.

Now let’s shoot for 90 percent approval from citizens who want greater development compliance.

This story was originally published March 23, 2018 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Wanted: Citizens to watch for development snafus."