"The city has an excellent gas ordinance"

Said no one ever.

Okay, maybe a paid representative from the gas industry who doesn't live in the city, let alone the state.

Last night actual Fort Worth residents packed the Fort Worth City Council concerned about THEIR property, neighborhoods and quality of life.  Isn't that what the council is there to protect?  Come election season, some should be reminded of that instead of this - Bob Manthei of XTO Energy told the council, “We need language that protects our investments.”

Residents of Fort Worth should thank their lucky stars for women like Mary Kelleher and Libby Willis.

Mallard Cove residents triggered the ordinance review after it fought off an industry attempt to locate a compressor station on agriculturally zoned land in their neighborhood. The city’s ordinance currently allows compressors on agriculturally zoned property by right.

Mary Kelleher, a Mallard Cove-area resident who recently won an upset election to a seat on the Tarrant Regional Water District board, reminded the council residents have been “begging” the city for two years to act on the compressor issue.

“We’re tired of begging in three-minute increments,” she said.

Libby Willis, chairwoman of the gas drilling committee of the Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations, told the council that the league favors the 1,000-foot setbacks and opposes compressor stations by right in any district besides industrial.

Did that just happen?

We hear the Fort Worth City Council unanimously voted down the Cheseapeake Compressor Station command center on Randol Mill Road near Mallard Cove.

We also heard talk of letters sent to the residents saying the request for the 15 compressor station site had been pulled, and there was no need to attend the meeting.  If the request was pulled, why would the council vote?  WHO knows, it's the Wild West.

Kudos to the citizens involved in protecting their neighborhoods.  The rest of you could learn a thing or two from these folks.

It's coming...

December 6th.  Be there.

Dear Sirs:

 

Thank you for you article dated October 16,2011.  In a recent zoning committee meeting, the committee unanimously voted to deny Texas Midstream Gas Services application (ZC-11-098) at 7429 Randol Mill Road.  This was a huge victory for the neighborhoods who surround this area – Lakes of River Trails South (LORTS) , River Trails, and Mallard Cove.

 

With a small group of volunteers, we have canvassed our neighborhoods, and between LORTS and River Trails, we submitted a petition that consisted of over 1,000 signed petitions of opposition.  According to Jim Bradbury, a consulting attorney in this matter, such a petition against a gas compression station was unheard of in his history in environmental law.

 

But the fact remains that a gas compression station comprised of 15 gas compression stations at one location is unheard of in this country, according to Chesapeake’s gas representative at a recent meeting at River Trails Elementary School.

 

What remains to be seen is how the City Council of Fort Worth determines the outcome should be December 6, 2011.  Will they listen to the staff report that say this application is “inconsistent” with the already existing comprehensive plan and that it is “incompatible” with land use.  What concerns me most, however, are comments made during the November 9^th Zoning meeting by Bill Dolstrom, the attorney who filed the application, , there are “no other sites available” and that “according to the information we’ve receive, and the studies we’ve done, there is no other site available.”  Mr. Dolstrom continues, “As far as the inconsistency with the comp plan, the comp plan calls this as agricultural district.  This (ZC-11-098) use is permitted by right in an agricultural district, so I submit to you there is consistency with the comp plan.”

 

Will City Hall agree with its staff and Zoning Committee and deny the application, and if so – will Texas Midstream Gas Services and Chesapeake just build anyway???

 

Thank you for hearing me – please keep informed of the upcoming December 6^th meeting.

Standing Ovation

For the residents of Mallard Cove.

See what a community can do, if they do something.

Bravo.

Read about the Mallard Cove Compressor Stations being unanimously denied by the Fort Worth Zoning Commission in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Bravo to the Fort Worth Planning and Zoning Commission.  Good to know not everything goes the Fort Worth Way.

Where will YOU be December 6?  Trust us, it's better than must see TV and who knows, you might even save your neighborhood.

Read the comments from THE PEOPLE too.

The site at 7429 Randol Mill Road covers more than 40 acres near the Trinity River in a semirural area east of East Loop 820 and north of Interstate 30.

The vote was met with a standing ovation from residents of the Mallard Cove and River Trails neighborhoods, who had packed the city's council chambers.

The zoning request will now go before the City Council on Dec. 6.

Texas Midstream asked for a continuance, but the commission voted against it and then denied the zoning request.

Commission member Ann Zadeh expressed frustration with the company's stall tactics and suggested that it was trying to "wear down" the opposition.

Commission member Charles Edmonds, whose district includes the proposed site, said he received 137 pages of e-mails in opposition to the zoning request. He told Texas Midstream officials that a delay would do little good.

"You have a high barrier. It's not compatible and not consistent with the comprehensive plan," Edmonds said. "In this case, you have the additional barrier that you have a very well-organized, very articulate group that is opposed to this specific site. I don't think extending this conversation any further is going to do any good."

Mallard Cove Update

The compressor stations on Randol Mill have been generating a lot of noise and they aren't even there yet.  People are waking up.  What happens when sheep get pissed?

The Fort Worth Weekly and the citizens that comment, give you the update.  YOU can't afford to miss it.

The Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods is urging the Fort Worth Zoning Commission to deny a rezoning request that would pave the way for an industrial site with up to 15 compressor stations near Randol Mill Road and East Loop 820. Mallard Cove residents have already been battling an adjacent sand mining operation (“Dust-Up,” July 28, 2011) and now they’re facing the prospect of living in a nightmare situation a la DISH, the little town north of Fort Worth that got so littered with compressor stations that residents began getting sick from fumes.

“I have looked at the zoning of the immediate area, and what I see is all residential [zoning] or neighborhood-friendly business [zoning] and no heavy industrial,” said homeowner Jim Ashford, adding that the zoning change “is not in the interest of the health and well-being of the neighborhood either financially or from a health and safety stand point for the citizens.”

UPDATE - Mallard Cove Zoning vote here.  

UPDATE - Mallard Cove Council Meeting December 6, 2011 here.  

Collect Call from District 4 - Fort Worth

After the post concerning Danny Scarth (credit belongs to the Fort Worth Weekly, we just share the word) we received an email from one of his constituents.

Seems the voters don't like being sold down the river.  Or to the gas drillers, whatever the case may be. 

They ask good questions too - WHY didn't anyone know before the election?  Welcome to the team, Mallard Cove Resident.

Another neighborhood needs help.  They probably thought it couldn't happen to them either.  WHO's next?  YOU?

Dear Editor,

I am so happy to read your website which uncovers what Danny Scarth has done and I am so regretted about not reading it before the election. He is now our District 4 councilman and he is very likely to vote yes on building a large scale gas compressor station right next to our Mallard Cove neighborhood at Randol Mill Road in Fort Worth. I feel so unfortunate that our district representative does not represent us.

Barnett Shale will hold a open house meeting on Sept 27 (Tue) from 6 to 7:30pm at Comfort Suites Hotel (643 Northeast Loop 820, Fort Worth, TX 76118).

Zoning Commission Hearing will be held on Oct 12 (Wed) at 10am at FW Council Chambers at City Hall.

City Council Meeting will be held on Nov 1 (Tue) at 7pm at City Hall.

I hope your team will cover this matter and stop greedy council men from destroying the Fort Worth.

Mallard Cove Resident