Does Fort Worth need more apartments? These neighborhoods told the zoning commission no
It was a packed house in the Fort Worth City Council chambers Wednesday afternoon when the zoning commission considered two cases that would bring more apartments to rapidly developing areas in the city. Both cases highlighted the disparity between what the city envisions for these areas and what kind of growth residents want to see.
In both cases, the commission delayed a final decision.
The new case for the zoning commission was a plan for more apartments and rental housing in the River District, along Athenia Lane. Shana Crawford represented Fort Capital, the real estate private equity firm behind the plan. From the outset, Crawford requested a 30-day continuance from the commission because the plan had received so much opposition from the neighbors that the company wanted to take the time to iron out any conflict.
But the neighborhood wasn’t interested in a continuance. About 30 people attended the meeting to ask the commission to deny the zoning change because they didn’t want any more high-density housing.
At issue were concerns about added traffic and the preservation of single-family neighborhoods. But beyond those concerns, there was also dissatisfaction with promises for how the River District was supposed to grow.
For years, the city has encouraged redevelopment of the area in west Fort Worth along the river bend. The redevelopment has included luxury apartments, restaurants and new retail in the hopes of creating a walkable urban village where residents wouldn’t have to rely on cars to get around.
But residents said the vision is far from the reality.
Bill Schur said he originally approved of the idea behind the redevelopment of the River District, but it has yet to become the car-free utopia originally envisioned.
“No train station is ever going to be built in the River District,” Schur said. “There’s no bus stop. This is an island surrounded by traffic, nothing going in or out.”
In the end Fort Capital chose to withdraw its zoning application, and will come back to the zoning commission with a new plan.
Continued TCU apartments fight
The other case was one that came up in January: a proposal to build a high-density apartment complex between Forest Park Boulevard and Wayside Avenue, from West Cantey to West Lowden streets. At issue were the neighboring residents’ concerns over the amount of people the complex would bring to an already crowded neighborhood and how the increased population would adversely affect the traffic.
Developer CRG first came before the commission in January, and since the last meeting, the company made several concessions. First, the company contracted an outside company to conduct a traffic study that concluded the added apartments would not make traffic in the neighborhood worse.
Second, CRG met with the neighbors to discuss the issues and eventually made several concessions, including reducing the number of rooms from 450 to 350 and the number of units from 150 to 110. The developer also agreed to decrease the number of stories to three and put its parking structure underground rather than making parking a separate, above-ground building.
However, none of these concessions was enough to allay the fears of the neighbors. J.D. Barnes, the president of the Paschal Neighborhood Association, said the traffic study was not conducted during football or baseball season, when traffic around Paschal High School is heightened.
Additionally, the concessions CRG made regarding density was not enough.
“We do not want this in the neighborhood,” Barnes said. “This is just too large.”
Despite opposition from the neighborhood, the apartment project was consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan, because the neighborhood is within the TCU mixed-use growth center and the TCU residential overlay. The city has long seen the area around TCU ripe for residential growth and has made it its official position to encourage urban residential development, i.e. high-density apartments.
Barnes said the residents of the neighborhood understand that change is inevitable and necessary, but it was also important that the city preserve single-family neighborhoods.
“We’re not asking to go backward here,” Barnes said. “We understand that the future is ahead, but we need more time.”
Ultimately, the commission voted to recommend denial without prejudice, meaning the developer can come back at the next meeting with a different plan. The final decision will be made with the Fort Worth City Council.
