Does Fort Worth have too many apartments? Council members want moratorium on rezoning
As Fort Worth’s population grows, a group of City Council members are calling for a moratorium on some new apartment developments, citing concerns the city has become over-saturated with multi-family housing.
The heart of the issue is whether Fort Worth has jeopardized future commercial growth by giving in to developers who request rezoning for apartments.
Councilman Dennis Shingleton at a recent work session called on the council to block new zoning changes that would allow apartments and townhouses on property that isn’t currently zoned for dense housing. Council members Gyna Bivens and Jungus Jordan joined him in asking city staff to study the number of multi-family developments in progress in Fort Worth and determine if rezoning land is in the best interest of the city’s long-term plan.
“When’s enough, enough?” Shingleton asked during a recent interview with the Star-Telegram. “I don’t want a glut of apartments but I don’t want too few of them either.”
The concern mimics anxiety residents and council members voiced nearly a year ago, before the coronavirus pandemic. North Fort Worth residents worried the city’s growth outpaced street projects, while Bivens wondered if Fort Worth had been too cavalier in its attitude toward development.
City planning staff are currently analyzing the ratio of single-family to multi-family housing dating back to the 1990s as well as the ratio of employment to housing units in job centers, said Assistant City Manager Dana Burghdoff. She anticipates briefing the council on the analysis and a look at Fort Worth’s population projections through 2045 at a council retreat Feb. 9.
Shingleton said he’s worried developers who had plans for commercial ventures, like a grocery store or some other kind of retail, won’t move forward with the coronavirus pandemic cutting into in-person shopping and dining business. Those developers may see apartment complexes as a quick way to turn a profit on vacant land, he said, but he’s not convinced that’s smart for the health of Fort Worth’s growing suburban neighborhoods.
Shingleton represents the rapidly growing far north, where residents have complained that many two-lane roads have not been modernized to handle increased traffic. The councilman said more apartment complexes clog roads quicker and further strain the infrastructure.
Recently a land owner came to Shingleton with a request to rezone property near the corner of Willow Springs and Bonds Ranch Road for an apartment complex. There were discussions about developing the property into a H-E-B, Central Market or some other grocery store, he said.
Shingleton said no to the zoning change.
“I’m not at war with them; I’m a developer guy,” Shingleton said, adding that he wants developers to stick with the city’s comprehensive plan. “If it’s zoned commercial, it’s going to stay commercial until I get a handle on how many apartments we need.”
Bivens, who represents east Fort Worth, said she agrees. Increasing housing density in areas away from services like bus lines and grocery stores may do more harm than good, she said. She said she wants the city zoning staff and council to look more critically at zoning changes.
“I tell developers when they’re looking at District 5, if you buy property and build what it’s zoned for, you will have no problems from the constituents,” Bivens said. “It’s when you want to change it to something that disrupts life, you know, as people know it, that’s where the rub comes from.”
Between Oct. 1, 2019 and Sept 30, 2020 the city permitted 484 new apartment buildings for a total of just under 7,000 new units citywide, according to the city’s Development Services Department. It’s unclear how many of those buildings are on property previously zoned for something other than multi-family.
During that same time, 8,058 new residential units, including 6,377 new single-family homes and 112 townhouses were also permitted.
Though staff haven’t completed the study of Fort Worth’s housing stock, Burghdoff said the city’s long-term plan calls for denser housing in the form of both single-family and apartments near major job centers, like the Alliance area of Shingleton’s district.
Burghdoff said the planning department doesn’t have enough staff to ensure all of Fort Worth’s 350 square miles meets the comprehensive plan. Some pockets may have outdated zoning or the zoning may need to evolve with market demands, she said.
Between 80-85% of council-approved zoning changes are in line with the comprehensive plan, which Burghdoff called a guide, not an ordinance or legal obligation.
“I think if we were 95 or 99% consistent with it, then it almost becomes a regulatory document, which it’s not supposed to be,” she said.
Rusty Fuller, president of the North Fort Worth Alliance, a band of homeowners associations and neighborhoods, said he has doubts that the annual permit report fully captures the amount of apartment units planned in the north.
The North Fort Worth Alliance studied apartments in an area straddling Interstate 35W bound by Golden Triangle Boulevard in the north, North Tarrant Parkway in the south, Riverside Drive to the east and Harmon Road to the west. In the roughly four-square-mile zone, Fuller said, nearly 4,000 apartment units exist or are under construction. Three proposals, which require rezoning, call for an additional 1,764 units to be built in the coming years. Large portions of that land are currently zoned for commercial use, he said.
Fuller said his association has approached the city with three questions: Are apartments the best use for commercial land and should they be concentrated in one area? And if so, what will the city do to ensure the complexes are maintained at high standards?
Besides congestion, Fuller said his association is worried apartment complex owners and tenants won’t maintain properties as well as nearby single-family homes in homeowners associations.
“There’s nothing to hound, so to speak, the apartment dweller or the complex to keep things up to snuff other than economics,” Fuller said, later adding that a high concentration of apartments in one area may lead to vacancies and later blighted apartments.
Neighborhoods in the booming far north are not alone in concerns about apartments.
The John T White neighborhood remains one of the last pockets of quasi-rural living in far east Fort Worth. The area south of the Trinity River just west of Arlington is known for large lots and old-growth oaks, some of which are more than 100 years old, said Dave Fulson, a director of the neighborhood association and one of the community’s de facto spokespeople.
Fulson said longtime residents are worried the housing boom will ruin John T White’s unique feel. In 2018 residents blamed two major developers — D.R. Horton and LGI Homes — for clear cutting trees and causing flash flooding, particularly along Randol Mill Road.
In an area south of the river and north of Interstate 30 between Cooks Lane and Randol Mill Road, Fulson said, there are roughly 1,800 apartment units and 165 townhouses. Hundreds of single-family homes are also in the works in the same area.
While the density may jeopardize far east Fort Worth’s country feel, he said, the John T White neighborhood wants developers to consider commercial uses that would bring a mix of restaurants, retail and housing.
“We have all the apartments we need, and we’re going to fight like hell to keep that rural feel,” Fulson said. “We have over-extended our utilities and our roads. We are just over-saturated with development.”
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