New development is proposed near a quiet Fort Worth neighborhood. It’s not for houses.
A developer wants to put an office building on a vacant piece of land on South University Drive between TCU and the Fort Worth Zoo.
Cowtown 109 LLC is petitioning the city of Fort Worth to rezone the nearly 2-acre parcel from A-5 single family to E neighborhood commercial, according to a city filing.
The lot is at 2401 S. University Drive, south of Colonial Parkway and just north of Park Hill Drive.
The plan is to build a 35-foot-tall office building with an adjoining parking lot, according to the filing.
The developer says the traffic on University Drive makes the land undesirable for home development.
The property backs up to the Park Hill neighborhood, but the topography of the lot makes it so the top of the building would be below nearby homes, according to the filing. This means homeowners wouldn’t have to worry about office workers looking into their backyards, according to the filing.
The building would be used in the daytime and be vacant at night, meaning neighbors wouldn’t have to deal with noise from other possible commercial uses.
The office will be a 16,000 square foot split level building with spaces for 42 cars, said Michael Bennett, who’s representing Cowtown 109 LLC in the city’s development process.
A lot of the details have yet to be worked out, but Bennett said he’s already reached out to the nearby neighborhoods including his own neighborhood on the opposite side of University Drive.
“We want to do this the right way,” Bennett said. The developers are applying for restrictions that will prevent the parcel from being used as a gas station or restaurant.
The earliest Fort Worth’s zoning commission could take up the case would be at its June 14 meeting. The commission will release its next meeting agenda June 9.
This story was originally published June 6, 2023 at 4:13 PM.
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