Fort Worth wants to make it harder to build hotels near schools following outcry
Fort Worth leaders are advancing reforms to the city’s development codes in hopes of restricting hotel construction near schools.
The tweaks, if approved by the City Council later this month, would require prospective hospitality projects built within 1,000 feet of any K-12 school to apply for a special zoning category before moving forward. The proposed changes come on the heels of tense discussions surrounding plans to build a motel across from an elementary school in far north Fort Worth.
The change, requested by council member Charlie Lauersdorf, would spare hotels in central business districts, high intensity mixed-use neighborhoods, and any sections of the city subject to “form-based codes” already allowing hotels (like the Stockyards and Near Southside).
Existing rules require hotel developers to secure special zoning permissions if their projects sit less than 1,000 feet from areas of single- or two-family residences. Restrictions on alcohol and tobacco sales near classrooms abound.
Efforts to throw up more land use barriers around schools surfaced in late February. Plans for a Studio 6, part of the Motel 6 chain, on the western edge of Basswood Elementary School mobilized opposition from hundreds of parents and nearby residents.
They feared the motel and other discount hospitality brands would cater to unsavory crowds, inviting crime, vagrancy and other activities incompatible with early childhood learning.
“We’re here in support of these families right here that are impacted by this. We do not want a hotel next to Basswood Elementary,” Keller Superintendent Tracy Johnson said during a town hall hosted by Lauersdorf Feb. 22. “This is an exceptional school with exceptional families and exceptional kids and staff members. So we feel as passionate as you do about this.”
By then, the motel’s developers had already received the city’s blessing to begin construction. Lauersdorf, with unanimous support from his fellow council members, had approved a zoning change to move the project forward the previous October.
With few legal avenues to stall or sink the motel’s construction, the Keller school board voted in late April to buy the property outright for an undetermined amount, with unspecified plans for the land’s future.
Lauersdorf and his colleagues hope the proposed ordinance change will head off similar tangles with subsequent projects. The council member also proposed removing the property’s industrial designation, opening the door to other, less intense uses.
The five existing hotels, motels and inns near schools will become “nonconforming” with city codes if the revision passes, but they won’t have to cease operations.
This story was originally published August 6, 2024 at 2:19 PM.
