Private property rights pivotal in Fort Worth council’s Stockyards vote

In the end, the rights of private property owners proved pivotal in the City Council’s vote Tuesday night to set boundaries for a historic district in the Stockyards that is much smaller than many residents had hoped for.

And in deciding whether to impose historic designations on four buildings outside the proposed boundaries for the historic district, eight council members also voted along property owners’ wishes not to be included. One case was postponed until next week in another effort to reach the property owner.

The city’s Historic and Cultural Landmarks and Zoning commissions recommended that the individual properties be designated.

“We don’t own the Stockyards and we walk a very fine line with government regulating your property and your business, but yet having just enough regulation to still preserve and still impact things,” Mayor Betsy Price said.

The council also voted down a proposal to designate a cattle run north of East Exchange Avenue and a scale house nearby as historic. The owner, Fort Worth Heritage Development, plans to tear down the features as part of a planned $175 million development on land it owns in the Stockyards.

The council did designate as historic the 900-foot wall that runs along Northeast 23rd Street and a staircase at the Swift & Co. property. Heritage wanted to tear down a portion of the wall.

So many residents filled council chambers Tuesday night that the overflow crowd was moved to another room in City Hall where the meeting was broadcast on TV monitors. Many wore yellow buttons saying, “Stockyards Go Bigger,” meaning they supported a larger proposed boundary for the historic district.

 

 

The council’s 8-1 vote set the limits of the historic district that essentially takes in what the public perceives as the core of the Stockyards, members said. It includes both sides of Exchange Avenue, and on the east and west sides of North Main Street.

Councilwoman Ann Zadeh, a former city planner and former chairwoman of the Zoning Commission, favored the larger historic district.

The city’s Historic and Cultural Landmarks and Zoning commissions recommended adding areas beyond those boundaries, and Historic Fort Worth wanted an even greater area.

It’s rare that governmental bodies initiate designating property as historic; rather, that’s typically left up to the property owner, Price said.

“The heart of what tourists and you see as the Stockyards is deep inside either boundary,” she said. “We must weigh out what’s best for the city.”

Doug Harman, a former Fort Worth city manager and longtime historian of the city, called the council-initiated boundary “deeply flawed” and “politically gerrymandered” and said it “appears to be designed to benefit the developers.”

Fellow preservationist Kip Wright of Fort Worth also called the council-initiated boundaries “a political district. The small district is a joke, but not a funny joke.”

Revitalization effort

Economic factors also figured into the vote.

“There’s another factor here at work and this is central city revitalization,” Councilman Sal Espino said. “The Stockyards lies in the heart of the near north side of Fort Worth, an area of town that is central city. The Stockyards is in need of major infrastructure investment and a serious infusion of cash flow” to keep it going.

Councilman Cary Moon said the council’s decision ensures smart development.

“Everyone here has the goal to protect the Stockyards; to protect it culturally, to protect it economically,” Moon said. “The measures we take … are the measures that we need to get this development.”

A partnership between Fort Worth’s Hickman family, which has owned about 70 acres in the Stockyards for decades, and California-based Majestic Realty Group plans a $175 million project to develop the property.

Gary Brinkley, general manager of Stockyards Station, who is responsible for the Hickmans’ properties, told the council that the Stockyards have seen “tough days” and need a developer to come in to preserve what’s there. They were unsuccessful at attracting developers in the past to redevelop the area where the Swift & Co. packing plant was, he said.

“Every dime we made was invested in the property or programming,” Brinkley said. “We tried to make it work. I could not create enough cash flow to preserve all those buildings. We cannot protect what we have with the current cash flow.”

Councilman W.B. “Zim” Zimmerman said he fears that if Majestic pulls out, no other developer will step forward.

“This is the first developer, the only developer, who has come along to have a chance to do anything,” Zimmerman said.

“Rather than worrying about what’s going to bad, let’s try and focus on making this right, making it another gem in the city. It’s going to take all of us pulling the wagon in the same direction.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Private property rights pivotal in Fort Worth council’s Stockyards vote."