New Arlington townhomes? Groups, historians say project could hurt those downstream
A privately owned lot in Arlington has environmentalists and historians worried as a developer pushes to rezone the property to build townhomes.
City Council members will decide Tuesday whether Peyco Southwest Realty can construct housing according to its plans, which involve upending hundreds of trees, installing drainage channels in place of a stream and creating a detention pond near the property’s edge. The plot spans nearly 9.5 acres along 1001 W. Mayfield Road. Sandwiched between office spaces and assorted businesses, developers claim the townhomes will breathe life into nearby parks and shopping centers.
However, Alicia Gray, Heart of Arlington Neighborhood Association president, said residents downstream are concerned uprooting trees will open neighborhoods downstream to increased flooding.
“The city has pretty much used that property for last 35 years, maybe longer, as a detention pond,” she said.
Gray’s organization represents the neighborhood between Collins and Cooper Streets and below Border Street and above Pioneer Parkway.
Attention surrounding the proposal has ballooned in recent weeks as residents downstream question whether uprooting vegetation will worsen floodwaters. The city received around a dozen opposition letters from residents, including one from Gray on behalf of the association.
“Any covering of that surface with impermeable surface, we felt was going to have a significant impact to us downstream,” Gray said.
The development would create 64 townhomes, a private dog park, a picnic area and walking trail. The property, including roads and amenities, would be maintained by a homeowners association. Two nearby property owners wrote the city letters in support of the development, which they claim will breathe life into the area.
In a letter to city officials, Jim Maibach, president of Peyco Southwest, said the development would “fill the expanding needs of a growing community.”
“The need for quality (and) low density townhome ownership is in demand,” he said.
Maibach did not return requests for comment.
Grace Darling, a former association president and Arlington Conservation Council board member, said development would total part of a vital ecological system. She has asked the city to seek advice from third-party experts and delay the vote until the city can explore other options to preserve the verdant space. Among those possibilities, she said, include a green space or conservation area comparable to the recent purchase of Broadcast Hill by the city of Fort Worth.
“We could do something like this if we had the time,” Darling said. “We could find out what it would take for the developer to give up this, the city could do the negotiations, and we could try to raise money to help the city buy it as a nature preserve.”
Local historians have pointed to the site as the former spot of an old inn that stagecoaches and other travelers used while traveling between Fort Worth and Dallas. The Daughters of the American Revolution chapter placed a historical marker near the land to memorialize the stopping point.
“I’d just hate to see it destroyed for the development of townhomes,” said Steve Barnes, president of the Arlington Historical Society.
The proposal was held over at from last week’s meeting at Peyco Southwest’s request.
Council members will decide whether to create a term limits committee and create an isolation shelter for COVID-19 patients through a partnership with Fort Worth officials. City council meetings are hosted online only in observance of social distancing guidelines.
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 6:03 PM.
