City leaders restrict trucking activities in southeast Fort Worth neighborhood
Fort Worth leaders on Tuesday night unanimously backed two efforts to curb trucking activity in the city’s southeast, rallying behind a vocal coalition of homeowners and environmental advocates.
City councilmembers denied a permit for a new truck lot and rezoned an existing one for residential use about 1 mile west. The cases add to a steady string of recent zoning victories for Echo Heights residents and their allies, who’ve long lobbied their representatives to rein in industrialization in the neighborhood.
“We can’t fix the sins of the past; they’re history, they’re there,” said Lon Burnam, a member of the Greater Fort Worth Sierra Club. “But we can prevent sins of the future.”
The Fort Worth City Council’s first step involved sinking plans for a 4-acre truck lot situated just off U.S. 287 and a minute’s drive east from a deeply rooted residential community. The property, boxed in by other trucking warehouses, had housed semitrailers in apparent violation of city ordinances. The developer sought the city’s blessing to construct a larger (and authorized) truck site.
Nearby residents bristled at the develper’s proposal.
“This isn’t a monopoly game. This company is affecting people’s lives,” said Chris Jones, vice president of the Echo Heights Neighborhood Association. “Remember: you don’t live here,” he continued, addressing the property owner. “You don’t have to breathe the air for too long. You can hop in your car and drive 30 minutes away to clean air.”
Jones and his neighbors have sounded the alarm about the detriments posed by their industrial neighbors for years.
“It increases pollution; pollution exacerbates existing health conditions, and that is well known. And it diminishes residential property values,” said Patrina Newton, a former Fort Worth city planner who grew up a few minutes north. “This community wants to thrive, and we need the city’s assistance to do that.”
A representative of the property owner attempted to co-opt their concerns. He noted that the site houses two live gas wells whose emissions, he wagered, presented a bigger health threat to nearby residents than a prospective truck lot would; capping the wells, he said, would require revenue, and trucking was the best way to generate it.
“We wouldn’t be able to do anything with the site without the income,” he said. “That’s the harsh economic reality.”
Councilmembers, unconvinced, unanimously shot down the project.
Later in the meeting, with similar uniformity, they approved a city-initiated proposal to re-designate a 1.8-acre truck yard along Parker Henderson for single-family housing.
The property, managed by freight firm Abram Expedited, shares a long fence line with homeowners along Tahoe Drive. For years, Abram’s neighbors have complained about the noise, fumes and road damage caused by Abram’s vehicles. Fort Worth city councilmembers, responding to their concerns, voted unanimously in June to begin rezoning the property for residential use.
“I cannot enjoy my backyard; I cannot have my grandchildren go in my backyard,” said Letitia Wilbourn, a local environmental activist whose back window gazes up at the tops of Abram trailers.
The zoning change wouldn’t force the company to cease its operations; the property would only lose its industrial permissions if it remains vacant for at least two years.
Still, Wilbourn and her peers stress the steps are positive ones.
“Y’all can not continue to use these areas as dumping grounds,” she said.
