Benbrook City Council says no to Mary’s Creek floodplain rezoning
Many in Benbrook are celebrating a victory after the City Council voted unanimously to deny a request to rezone a portion of the Mary’s Creek floodplain for residential development at its Aug. 21 meeting.
Council member Larry Marshall, Place 3, said opposition to the proposal was “overwhelming.” He made a motion to deny the rezoning request with prejudice, which means the applicant, real estate developer Corey Waldrop, cannot resubmit the same request for at least a year.
Over the past month, Mary’s Creek, a tributary to the Clear Fork of the Trinity River, has become the focal point in a back-and-forth between Benbrook residents and Waldrop, who hoped to build a single- and multifamily community called Rowan Ranch in the creek’s floodplain.
Before a capacity crowd at Thursday night’s meeting, Waldrop provided engineering studies supporting his assertion that he could safely remove a significant portion of the property from the floodplain before constructing residences. It was similar to the presentation Waldrop gave on July 10 to the Benbrook Planning and Zoning Commission, who recommended approving his rezoning request to allow development to move forward. That recommendation was subject to City Council approval.
A handful of people, including Waldrop’s mother, spoke in support of the Rowan Ranch development on Thursday, but many more spoke passionately against it, with a large number of those opposed wearing “Save Mary’s Creek” buttons on their chests.
Along with Benbrook residents, a spokesperson for Texas Rep. John McQueeney, R–Fort Worth, shared the lawmaker’s opposition to the development. Kyung Lee, a Houston attorney representing plaintiffs who forced Waldrop into involuntary bankruptcy in April, enumerated accusations of fraud and financial mismanagement that have been leveled against the developer.
In addition to the Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, Waldrop’s former company, Trinity Design and Build, has been the defendant in at least seven civil suits dating to 2021. In March, Waldrop was arrested by Parker County Sheriff’s Office deputies on suspicion of theft and misapplication of funds. Four felony warrants were issued in response to complaints from two building contractors and a Weatherford homeowner for whom Waldrop was constructing a new residence.
Some in Benbrook over the past month have questioned why the city’s planning and zoning commission recommended rezoning the Rowan Ranch property in the first place, but as Benbrook City Planner Doug Howard previously told the Star-Telegram, there is nothing that says a floodplain can’t be zoned for development. It’s rare, Howard said, for a city to declare a property off-limits, even if it’s in a floodplain, since that would likely require the city to purchase the property.
All a rezoning approval means is that the developer’s proposal aligns with the city’s comprehensive plan. Rowan Ranch did that, Howard said, which is why the planning and zoning commission made their recommendation. But even with the required zoning in place, a development in a floodplain would be subject to much scrutiny and oversight, said Howard. For the Rowan Ranch project, that would include planning and engineering approval from the cities of Benbrook and Fort Worth as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees floodplain administration nationally.
Ultimately, though, the City Council heard resident concerns and decided to go against the planning and zoning commission’s recommendation.
This story was originally published August 22, 2025 at 6:14 AM.