Fort Worth delays a huge redevelopment of this shuttered golf course off I-30
Fort Worth city leaders Tuesday evening pumped the brakes on a massive overhaul of an abandoned golf course in the Woodhaven neighborhood, instructing the developer to seek more input from residents.
Crescendo Development, a small Fort Worth real estate outfit, has spent months formulating and selling its vision to replace the shuttered Woodhaven County Club with stores, apartments and homes. The company’s plans have earned the endorsement of the neighborhood community development organization, Econautics, a local growth nonprofit, and many Woodhaven residents, who felt the project would bring a long-awaited economic jump-start to the area.
Mayor Pro Tempore Gyna Bivens, the neighborhood’s council member, shared that optimism and commended the effort’s lead developer, Will Northern. But Northern’s outreach, she felt, hadn’t gone far enough.
“I don’t care where you live, what area that you’re developing in; when you file that paperwork to get a zoning change, they give you a list of those groups, and for me, meeting with those groups is required,” Bivens told council. “I can tell you: all of Woodhaven is excited about what’s to come, but they do need to have the clarity that only meetings that focus on zoning, not vision, can bring.”
Altering a property’s zoning designation can require exhaustive public engagement. All property owners within a 300-foot radius of a site undergoing a zoning change are notified of its transition; the city sends alerts to major community organizations within half a mile.
City zoning staff provides a list of these groups to zoning change applicants and instructs them to reach out. There’s an expectation, if not a strict legal obligation, that applicants engage with the groups and property owners around them and court their support; many cases flounder because zoning commissioners or council members feel developers haven’t taken enough time to talk through their plans with their neighbors.
The city notified five community organizations of Northern’s plans to rezone the golf course for residential and commercial use: Trinity Habitat for Humanity, Streams and Valleys Inc., the East Fort Worth Business Association, Woodhaven Community Development Inc., and East Fort Worth Inc.
Crescendo representatives told zoning commissioners last week that the developer’s team had presented their plans in-person to hundreds of Woodhaven residents over the course of three public meetings. They’d also engaged with Woodhaven Community Development Inc., the East Fort Worth Business Association, and the Woodhaven Neighborhood Association, and a a golfing interest group, according to their slideshow.
The only Woodhaven resident to publicly oppose the project during city meetings was a Woodhaven homeowner wary of more apartment developments. City planning staff deemed the project a sensible use of the property, and the zoning commission unanimously endorsed Crescendo’s plans.
Bivens did not specify which stakeholders had yet to be consulted on the project before proposing that council postpone its vote until next month. Eight of her colleagues agreed to do so. Council member Elizabeth Beck, who didn’t chime in during the discussion, voted against the delay; council member Michael Crain, who co-runs a real estate firm with Northern, recused himself.
Northern purchased the property at a foreclosure auction for $8.5 million in May. The latest blueprint for his vision, presented to zoning commissioners Jan. 8, envisions 62.4 acres of half-acre lots on the eastern portion of the property and 24 acres of apartments to the west, bridged by a 41-acre plot of mixed-use development in between. Around 22 acres of floodplain on the old course’s westernmost edge will be set aside as green space.
The country club welcomed its first golfers in 1972. The course was the centerpiece of the fledgling Woodhaven development, a real estate venture unveiled by Fort Worth business moguls Sid and Perry Bass and Gov. John Connally. Financial pressure compounded by the pandemic forced the club to close in 2021.
