Affordable housing won’t be coming to a popular neighborhood near downtown Fort Worth
Developers hoping to bring affordable housing to a trendy neighborhood near downtown Fort Worth will have to rethink a plan that drew ire from nearby homeowners who worried the complex was out of character for Linwood.
The Fort Worth City Council on Tuesday with a 3-6 vote rejected necessary zoning for Azalea West, an 80-unit complex on the edge of the neighborhood near the bustling West 7th entertainment district.
The narrow strip of land at the northwest corner of Carroll Street and Azalea Avenue has been the subject of a conflict between developers and the Linwood neighborhood since early this year, but it also represents a battle for how Fort Worth will meet housing demands.
Neighbors rallied around concerns over traffic and parking while proponents, who mostly live outside Linwood, said Fort Worth needed to increase housing density in the urban core.
Developers Saigebrook Development and O-SDA Industries had proposed an apartment complex there and received initial support from the council for an application for a 9% state housing tax credit. At least 10% of the units would be set aside for households making at or below 30% of the median household income. In order to receive the affordable housing credit, developers needed the zoning change denied Tuesday.
But in June, a different zoning change failed to win the needed votes from the council. More than 20% of the surrounding property owners opposed the zoning, requiring a super majority. The same was true for Tuesday’s vote, though the zoning request had been tweaked.
Half of the site, across Carroll Street from the Montgomery Plaza Target, is vacant while the other half has four, small single-family homes. The developer pitched a different zoning plan for just the four lots, but the council delayed the vote last week after Mayor Betsy Price left the meeting to attend a press conference with Gov. Greg Abbott.
This time around the property owner asked to rezone the four lots to urban residential, which allows for denser housing. The zoning change would bring the properties in line with the surrounding block and matches what residents previously said they wanted. It also matches the city’s long-term plan for the area, which calls for developing higher density housing and increasing walkability in neighborhoods near downtown.
More than two dozen people signed up to speak Tuesday on the Linwood project, with speakers split basically 50/50 in opinion. All of the those opposed appear to live in the neighborhood, while all but one in favor lived outside Linwood.
Fearful of traffic congestion, Linwood residents have fought the project along the way, arguing the neighborhood’s narrow streets couldn’t support greater density. Critics have said they are not opposed to affordable housing, and at earlier meetings pushed the council to support apartment complexes planned in other neighborhoods for the housing tax credit.
Speakers against the project Tuesday repeatedly said they worried about the total number of people the project would bring and how they would move in and out of Linwood.
Stacy Shores criticized the Austin-based developer, saying she thought they had been disingenuous about their plans for the property. She urged the city council to reject the plan and work with a Fort Worth developer.
“I’m all for affordable housing but these projects are changing the character of our neighborhoods,” she said.
David Dodson said the project was less about affordable housing and more about profit for developers. Saigebrook has applied for a $1 million loan from the Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation, a city program that helps finance residential development for low and moderate income residents. If developers truly wanted to introduce affordable housing, the number of units shouldn’t matter, he said.
“That is what’s driving this project today, money,” he said.
Proponents argued it was time for Fort Worth to welcome denser housing, both as a way to keep homes affordable, but also to meet market demand.
Michael Maxvill, who lives a few blocks from the proposed complex, said he wanted Linwood to be accessible to all incomes.
“A nice, convenient, walkable place to live should not be exclusive to $400,000 condo owners like myself and my neighbors,” Maxvill said. “Everybody, regardless of income, should be able to live side-by-side.”
Megan Lasch, President of O-SDA Industries, told the council she believed she proposed “a good project on a good site.” She said she had made many concessions to meet the neighborhood’s demands, but had never met opposition like she faced in Linwood.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” she said.
Councilwomen Ann Zadeh, Gyna Bivens and Kelly Allen Gray, who all appeared via video, voiced support for the concept during Tuesday’s meeting. None of the council members voting against made comments, except Mayor Betsy Price who thanked people for patience through the process.
Zadeh said the Linwood project was the be best change to build affordable, workforce housing in an area that would not require a car. Groceries, entertainment and jobs are all within walking distance, or a bus ride, from Linwood.
Ultimately their eagerness for the project wasn’t enough as Councilmen Dennis Shingleton, Carlos Flores, Jungus Jordan, Brian Byrd and Cary Moon joined Price in voting against Azalea West. Shingleton had previously said he believed the city had done a poor job for of planning the West 7th district and saddled resident there with too much density.
Linwood is a small neighborhood in Fort Worth’s popular Cultural District to the west of downtown. Homes there were heavily damaged by a tornado in 2000, but in the past few years it has seen a boom in residential redevelopment, growing from about 150 housing units to more than 600, according to a neighborhood association assessment.
The neighborhood is bound by White Settlement Road to the north, West Seventh Street to the south, Carroll Street to the east and University Drive to the west.
The city’s planning staff has repeatedly voiced support for the project, calling it “ideal for affordable housing” and noting its compatibility with the long-term plan. At 80 units, the complex would generate about 50 vehicle trips during a peak hour, according to a city report.
About 20,000 vehicles use the nearby West 7th Street a day, but White Settlement Road is expected to reopen by the end of the year. Three bus lines also stop within two blocks of the complex, including one immediately on Carroll Street.
Like much of Linwood, the site is with in a floodplain and would the developer would be required to account for any increased stormwater runoff.
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 9:58 PM.
