Hurst residents not open to new apartments

A developer wants to build a 120-unit apartment complex in Hurst and the plan is already generating opposition.

Builder Gardner Capital, wants to build at 263 Bedford-Euless Road on 9.72 acres, west of Miguelitos restaurant. The acreage, at the southeast corner of Bedford-Euless Road and Valentine Street, includes an almost vacant shopping center that would be torn down as part of the revitalization plan in Hurst.

The City Council will decide during its 7 p.m. meeting Tuesday whether to allow the apartment complex.

John Palmer, senior vice president of business development at Gardner Capital, said the company is investing $25 million in the project, which would include apartments that will rent at market-value rates and units that will be available for affordable housing.

Palmer adding that Gardner Capital doesn’t sell its properties, but focuses on investing and maintaining them.

Palmer also said tearing down a property that has been on the market since 2012 would encourage other businesses to invest in Hurst.

But some Hurst residents already are weighing in, saying they opposed the project because of what they see as a saturation of apartments there and in nearby Bedford.

Missy Saunders, who moved from Arlington to Hurst almost five years ago, said she and her family chose the city because it offered affordable housing and a better school district.

She worries that the apartments would be built along fencelines and that those who live in the three-story structures would be able to see in to people’s back yards.

“Our neighborhood was built in the heart of Hurst, and surrounding it by apartment complexes lining our major roads and thoroughfares gives the wrong impression of this great city,” Saunders said.

Kim Duke, who bought her home on Valentine Street 15 years ago to escape apartment living for a quieter neighborhood, said she will be directly affected if the new complex is built.

She said she is concerned about declining property values and overcrowding in schools, and already lives near another apartment complex.

“I also feel that we were not given proper notification in an appropriate amount of time to attend and oppose re-zoning meetings and meet with council members,” she said.

But Palmer said that the three-story buildings will be located facing Bedford-Euless Road.

Gardner Capital also is the builder of Gala at Oak Crest Estates, a senior living apartment complex that will open early next year in Euless.

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Hurst residents not open to new apartments."