Dust storms and stranded boats: New development angers neighbors in Fort Worth suburb
Every person living in Azle’s Snug Harbor Village has their own tale of what happened when D.R. Horton, the largest homebuilder in the country, moved in next door. Nearly all can agree on how it started: with the arrival of the dust in the summer of 2018.
In June of that year, D.R. Horton began construction on Harbor Parc, a 50-acre housing development nestled near Eagle Mountain Lake. Soon after, Snug Harbor residents, who live across the street from the larger subdivision, complained to city and regional officials that dust from the construction site was covering their homes and vehicles.
“It looked like the Sahara Desert was coming through,” said David Creamer, who serves as vice president of the Snug Harbor Homeowners Association. “It was so bad that you couldn’t see out of your car windows, and they were just solid brown. That should have tipped me off that things were not going to be on the up and up.”
The city of more than 13,000, northwest of Fort Worth in Tarrant and Parker counties, has grown by 22.5% since 2010, leaving city officials and residents alike to navigate a changing landscape and a tangle of institutions tasked with overseeing new construction.
Charged with regulating development within city limits, Azle staff stepped in to reduce the amount of dust generated at the site and briefly shut down construction until more equipment arrived in July 2018, according to a report prepared last month by city stormwater manager James Duvall.
But that was not the end of the story in Snug Harbor. Problems continued to pile up during abnormally heavy rains in September and October 2018, when stormwater flooded one man’s home and the community pool was rendered unusable for several weeks, according to the city’s report and homeowners who remain in the neighborhood.
D.R. Horton paid twice for the pool to be cleaned and installed a new section of curb and gutter along Harbor Drive to prevent future flooding, Duvall wrote. Representatives for the Arlington-based developer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Still, Snug Harbor homeowners say the company has not done enough to address the dirt and rocks that have collected in what they call the “sloughs,” or coves, that feed into Eagle Mountain Lake.
More than two and a half years after their first run-in with D.R. Horton, the homeowners association is considering a lawsuit and demanding that the developer pay to dredge, or remove, sediment that has left boats stranded in mud and residents frustrated with the policies of government agencies, including the Tarrant Regional Water District, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the city of Azle itself.
“It’s a similar situation to if I have a fence and I have a dog, and the dog gets out of that fence,” said Vince Penar, the president of the Snug Harbor Homeowners Association. “Even though I have a license and I’m allowed to own that dog, if he goes and bites somebody, who is responsible? That’s the issue: D.R. Horton will not accept responsibility, and at this point, we’re having issues with getting anyone to say it’s their responsibility.”
As Tarrant County’s rapid growth continues to spill into Azle, the actions of developers could have larger consequences than hurting boat enthusiasts, Penar added.
“This lake is in the chain of drinking water for all of Fort Worth, and if contractors come in and continually are allowed to do what D.R. Horton did to us, it cuts down on the capacity of water (to reach the lake),” Penar said. “Now with the expansion into the northwest, the way people are moving here, the way homes are being built, it isn’t going to be too long before the population is going to outstrip the water source.”
‘Recreational’ or environmental issue?
D.R. Horton is no stranger to criticism from Dallas-Fort Worth residents and city governments concerned with how it follows environmental and stormwater regulations. In 2018, the company avoided a $1.5 million fine for clearing hundreds of trees in east Fort Worth by agreeing to plant more replacements than required by the city’s preservation ordinance.
Tom Muir, Azle’s city manager, said D.R. Horton is “no better or worse” than other developers arriving to build homes and businesses in the expanding suburb.
“There’s been times we’ve had to get ugly with them about their stormwater practices just like any other development,” Muir said. “That’s not unlike any other city that’s working with homebuilders. It’s not an alarming action to have to take.”
Muir, city staff and officials from the Tarrant Regional Water District also argue that there’s not enough evidence to prove that D.R. Horton is at fault for the lack of water moving through Snug Harbor’s sloughs, especially when it comes to the buildup of sediment.
In his report, addressed to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Duvall cited studies by state agencies showing there “has not been a significant accumulation of sediment in the Snug Harbor slough area.” Duvall wrote that Eagle Mountain Lake’s depth has fluctuated several feet since January 2018, which could have adversely affected the depth of the slough and made it more difficult to get boats in the water.
The 27 inches of rain that hit Azle in September and October that year also caused “very unique and challenging situations” for the city and developers, he wrote. Dirt from D.R. Horton’s development certainly left the site and affected adjacent neighborhoods, Duvall wrote, “but how much is unknown.”
“The issues raised by the Snug Harbor Village HOA are legitimate concerns,” Duvall wrote. “However, the concerns cannot be substantiated to the level for the action the residents are requesting based on studies conducted by (the Tarrant Regional Water District) and other professionals that have routinely studied the lake.”
David Geary, the reservoir manager and chief of law enforcement for the water district, called the sediment in Snug Harbor “more of a recreational issue” that did not have an environmental impact on the lake. Siltation, or pollution caused by too much sediment in the water, is a natural part of the reservoir’s life cycle and usually clears out over time, Geary said.
“Sedimentation issues are not an unusual issue, especially when you look at the volume of rainfall you had that year,” said Woody Frossard, the water district’s environmental director. “It is a major issue to the people living in Snug Harbor because it directly impacted them. … You go to other coves around the lake, and you see the same issue has occurred.”
There are few avenues the city can pursue, especially because Eagle Mountain Lake is under the purview of the water district, Muir said. However, according to Geary, the water district does not have a role in this case because Azle is responsible for regulating development within city limits.
“We can’t go in there and dredge it or make D.R. Horton dredge it,” Muir said. “I don’t see where the city is in a position to do that, and I don’t see where we’ve got an obligation to do that.”
Neighbors seek accountability from developer, city
As local and state agencies distance themselves from the dispute, Penar points to water district surveys, completed in early 2018, that showed slough levels were at least five feet high before D.R. Horton’s construction of Harbor Parc. There is now less than two feet of water in some parts of the cove, he said.
Residents previously spoke with D.R. Horton representatives about erosion issues, but that dynamic has shifted as Snug Harbor enlisted legal counsel, Penar said.
“D.R. Horton is going to have their expert witnesses and I’m sure … that they will come up with some plausible, possibly legal, reason for this to have happened to us,” Penar told Azle City Council members at a Dec. 15 meeting. “We understand that the contractor is responsible because of negligence and possibly because regulations were not in place to protect us.”
Without the intervention that residents seek from city or regional officials, Snug Harbor will have two options: to pursue a legal solution against D.R. Horton or to collect the money to clear out the sloughs themselves. The latter option would involve hiring a contractor and seeking a permit from the water district to carry out the removal.
Penar, who has already raised thousands of dollars from members of his homeowners association and residents in nearby Oak Harbor to consult a lawyer, does not want to contemplate the possibility of spending more money to resolve the issue.
But homeowners say they won’t back down in their battle to regain access to the lake, which was the reason why Julian Escamilla bought his home in Oak Harbor, across the cove from Penar’s dock, more than four years ago.
“It bothers me that here you have a company, D.R. Horton, that boasts on building communities and is willing to destroy a smaller one,” Escamilla said. “A lot of us put a lot of time, money and effort in our homes just to have it destroyed like that, and without any accountability, whether it’s from the city, [the water district] or D.R. Horton. We need help and we’re not getting it.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
