Safety concerns with this road in far north Fort Worth could kill proposed development
A proposed housing community along a far north Fort Worth road known for speeding has hit a bump in its development process.
The Fort Worth zoning commission recommended denying a requested zoning change Wednesday after hearing from neighbors who expressed fears about traffic and safety.
The 61-unit cottage community from Boise, Idaho-based developer Conger Group would be at 5819 Bowman Roberts Road, northwest of Marine Creek Reservoir.
It will have 16 one-bedroom units in eight duplexes and 45 detached two-bedroom homes, said Mary Nell Poole, Conger Group’s agent helping the firm navigate the city of Fort Worth’s development process. All 61 units will be for rent.
Conger has been working with neighboring residents for a year, and has made several concessions to help the property better meld with the community, Poole said.
While acknowledging that some residents would prefer the land be developed into single family homes, Poole said the 5.6 acre plot is too narrow to accommodate that kind of development.
Bowman Roberts Road already has problems with speeding, according to residents who spoke at the zoning commission meeting Wednesday. The stretch is a narrow, two-lane, tree lined street with no shoulder and a bend some refer to as “dead man’s curve.”
Like many roads north of Loop 820, it was not built to accommodate dense housing. The city has been trying to catch up with far north Fort Worth’s rapid growth, but Bowman Roberts Road is not on Fort Worth’s long term plan for road improvements.
Sara Davis, who lives just west of the property, said she’s become desensitized to the blinking red lights from the police cars responding to traffic accidents.
She organized a petition opposing the project that had 617 signatures as of 2:50 p.m. Wednesday.
In the past five years there have been seven accidents on this stretch of Bowman Roberts Road, Poole said, citing data from the Fort Worth Police Department. Five have been in the curved section, but none have resulted in fatalities, she said.
The developer has committed to adding stop signs at the development’s entrance, and to give up three feet of its property to add a sidewalk, which will help to calm traffic, Poole told the commission.
Kim Easton, a 21-year resident of the Greenfield Acres development to the south of the property, pointed to two developments along the nearby Ten Mile Bridge Road, which she argued will add traffic to an already over burdened area.
Problems with the road are a major impediment to development, and adding more roofs won’t help that, said zoning commissioner Jacob Wurman.
He asked Poole whether the developer had looked at ways to improve the road. She responded any widening would only happen in front of the property and wouldn’t fix the overall problem.
The City Council will decide the project’s fate at its 10 a.m. meeting on June 27.
This story was originally published June 14, 2023 at 4:06 PM.
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