Tuesday the council (Mayor Bicycle Betty was MIA) voted to turn the corner of Northside Drive into an apartment complex. This has been a complex issue that the residents of Oakhurst and Riverside have been dealing with for months. This is the same piece of land that the architect said the Tarrant Regional Water District gave him a portion of. The district then of course said they will lease it.
There are many questions and concerns about this site - traffic, conflict with the zoning plan, the fact that it lies in a floodplain (the renderings show cars parked under water). We were sent an email that the council received. It has many good points, we are sharing some of them with you below.
Not to worry though, it's not the only place in Fort Worth they are throwing zoning to the wind. They also voted to sell liquor near schools. All this in a town that is running out of water and you sit dead stopped on the highway for hours (you can't call it a freeway anymore, not with what it's going to wind up costing you). WHEN are the residents of Fort Worth going to say enough already?
The project site is a difficult site to develop (witness the change in zoning on the site to accommodate a hotel and restaurant project which failed). It is a floodplain site which will require extensive planning, permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Tarrant Regional Water District, and significant investment to deal with the drainage issues at the site. In an April 5, 2013 story on the project in the Fort Worth Business Press, there is the following quote: "That’s a difficult area to develop," said J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, referring to the site’s ability to handle flood water.
Fort Worth Weekly of Feb. 6, 2013 in a story on the project included this information: "If they get everything approved and pay for the extension of the drainage into the river, we have tentatively agreed to lease our property for parking," water district spokesman Chad Lorance said.) What is the cost of extension of drainage into the river? Would a developer really agree to add that to the cost of the project?
It should also be noted that the artist’s beautiful color rendering of the apartment project features a marina and sailboats in the river. The river at the site is presently not deep enough to accommodate sailboats. Who will pay to deepen the river to accommodate these water craft? The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers? Tarrant Regional Water District? The project developer? Is a marina truly a reality at the site?
There are questions about environmental issues near the Trinity River if this apartment project is built. Within the last couple of years, the Zoning Commission had strong reservations about relocating the City’s auto pound at a site near the river – both for beautification reasons and for issues involved with runoff from automobiles (oil, etc.) into the river. What is different with this proposal? Five hundred apartments with 840 required parking spaces would put a huge number of cars (and attendant runoff) right at the river.
There are other questions about the requested waivers which would allow a five story building at the river’s edge, creating a great view for apartment dwellers, but blocking the view for the general public.
The benefits to the City and the possibilities for preserving this part of the Trinity River greenbelt have not been explored and should be before a final decision is made to encourage this kind of development right on the river in the floodplain and in the greenbelt.
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