Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations

The second meeting of 2020 was held on-line on June 25, having been postponed from June 4th.

The League was honored to have its newest board member, Reverend Michael Moore, present a program entitled “Racial Reconciliation”. He was joined in a panel by guest speakers Reverend Kyev Tatum and Mr. Luther Perry.

It was a very special time to be able get the thoughts of these well-known and highly respected leaders. A synopsis of the meeting and a link to the video will be posted shortly.

The last 2019 meeting of the League of Neighborhoods was held on December 5th at University Christian Church.

The program was an update on what is happening to ease Homelessness in Fort Worth and we were grateful to have three experts share their experiences with us in a panel discussion. Flora Brewer, of Paulos Properties, has attacked the problem head-on by redeveloping a property to use for low-income housing. Tara Perez, with the City of Fort Worth, is the Manager of Directions Home which uses City funds and works with community partners to reduce homelessness. Tammy McGhee, the Executive Director of Tarrant County Homeless Coalition, coordinates with over 50 organizations to provide services to those at risk. This was a great opportunity to get the latest information on local homelessness from the people that actually work on the issue every day.

The annual election was held, and the following officers and directors were elected for 2020.

The League thanks the Nominating Committee: Julie Alexander, Peggy Carr, Susan Urshel, and Fred Fernandez and their consultant, Rita Vinson, for preparing the slate of candidates for 2020 Board of Directors.

The September meeting of the Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations was held on September 5 at University Christian Church.

The program was titled Revitalization of Neighborhood Associations and was presented as a panel discussion with League members sharing their experiences. The moderator was Belinda Fenter, our League Secretary and Program Director, who also offered her experiences within the Ridgmar Neighborhood Association. Joining her was Peggy Carr, VP of Western Hills North Neighborhood Association and a League Director, and Rita Vinson, Past President of Brentwood-Oak Hills Neighborhood Association and Past President of the League.

The panelists shared their motivations for organizing their Associations. Often the impetus was an event or crisis, frequently a crime or a zoning issue or an incompatible development. They covered outreach, geographic divisions, board size and organization, by-laws, meetings, events, and enticements. Many contributions were added by a large and involved crowd. Some really good ideas were shared like signs advertising meetings, popular gatherings and events, communication methods, welcome packets, and recruiting volunteers. The session was very informative, and everyone undoubtedly learned something they could apply in their neighborhood. It was encouraging to see the high level of involvement and passion demonstrated by this group of our city’s neighborhood leaders.

In addition to the program, we had nominations from the floor for the 2020 Board of Directors. Gayle Davis of Crestwood was nominated. A nominating Committee will be elected by the Board this month to prepare the slate for the December election. Also, the Board welcomed Kris Reynolds of Eastern Hills who was elected to fill one of the three vacancies.

Finally, we invited Bruce Miller to introduce a plan for an Independent Citizen Redistricting Commission. He and two members of their committee came to enlist the support of the League in an effort to get the City Council to commission a citizen group to redraw our eight council districts into ten after the census results are available.

The June meeting of the Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations was held on June 6, 2019, at the University Christian Church. Our distinguished guest for the evening was Dr. Paul Geisel.

Dr. Geisel helped found the Institute of Urban Studies which is now known as the School of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington. He retired from UTA in 2005 after 35 years on the faculty. Later that year he was named professor emeritus.

Dr. Geisel’s talk was called “Why Fort Worth Needs Strong Neighborhoods and Associations: A Conversation.”

We talked about Fort Worth’s rapid growth. He explained neighborhood life-cycles and the challenges of newer subdivisions where all the houses are the same age and so are the people. Too many newer developments are completed ahead of the necessary infrastructure, primarily transportation in and out.  History and topography define a neighborhood, but critical events like natural disasters can have life-changing impacts. For Fort Worth, the flood in 1949 and the tornado in 2000 were those events.

He said that a neighborhood needs a sense of place and identity to flourish; neighbors need something to share to encourage involvement. People should learn about their neighborhood and their neighbors and walking is the best way to do that. Neighborhoods diverse in income, race, and age have the best chance of survival. He also warned that doing nothing was a form of action and that most problems affecting neighborhoods need not be surprises.

Dr. Geisel gave us some good ideas and interesting things to consider. Everyone enjoyed the evening and learned a lot from Dr. Geisel and we are really grateful that he spent time with us.

The Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations had its first meeting of 2019 on March 7^th.

 Matt Oliver, the Director of Communications for the Trinity River Vision Authority was our speaker.  His topic was an update on the Trinity River Vision Project. He gave us a detailed review of progress on bridge construction and a great description of flood control and water features. He talked about the design guidelines for development to put people near the water. There was considerable interest in the topic as evidenced by the questions and spirited discussion at the end of the program.

The FWLNA had its last meeting of 2018 on December 6^th at University Christian Church.

The League is grateful to Stacey Pierce, Executive Director of Streams and Valleys, for a wonderful summary of the recently released Confluence, The Trinity River Strategic Master Plan.  Streams and Valleys had partnered with the City of Fort Worth and the Tarrant Regional Water District to produce this plan, but it took a multitude of individuals 24 months and more than $450,000 from fourteen funders to bring it to completion.

Confluence is a comprehensive, detailed, and thoughtful integration of dozens of smaller, local projects designed to make our river a bigger and better part of our lives. The ten goal areas used to score projects in this plan are Community, Connectivity, Economic Development, Education, Flood Control, Health, recreation, Sense of Place, and Water Quality. It was great to hear about all this from such a knowledgeable and passionate advocate for our hometown river. You can review the plan and keep up with updates on progress at Streams & Valleys.

We also held our annual election of officers and directors. The following people were elected to be the League Board of Directors for 2019:

The next membership meeting will be March 7, 2019.

The Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations held its quarterly General Membership Meeting on September 6, 2018, at University Christian Church.

The topic of the meeting was “The Zoning Process and Neighborhoods” covering Fort Worth zoning districts and rules, the city zoning staff, how the change process works, and how neighborhoods participate in the process. Our guest speaker was Jocelyn Murphy, Planning Manager for the Zoning and Land Use Section in the Planning and Development Department of the City of Fort Worth.

Jocelyn reviewed with us the current zoning districts and explained the relationships of the Comprehensive Plan and the Future Land Use Map. She told us about overlays and we had lively discussions and many questions about the JRB Compatible Use Zone and the TCU Residential Overlay.  She went through the urban village concept and the move to increase density to allow growth in existing areas and reduce sprawl and dependence on automobiles. She reviewed the differences between the two mixed-use districts and the urban residential districts. She showed some examples of pedestrian-friendly areas that exemplify proper use of these districts. She showed an example of a Planned Development for a cottage community which fills a gap between single-family density and the higher density of apartments. Everyone was really interested in Conditional Use Permits and appreciated hearing about that topic. Jocelyn finished with an overview of some text amendments she is working, such as multifamily design standards, monotony clarification, and industrial buffering.

It was an excellent program and a great evening! The League is most grateful to Jocelyn for spending this time with us to make us more knowledgeable citizens and neighborhood leaders. For those of you that would like to review the material or for those who could not attend, Jocelyn was kind enough to send us a this link to her presentation material.

The Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations held its quarterly Membership Meeting on June 7, 2018, at University Christian Church.

The title of the program was “The Tarrant Transit Alliance & The Future of the Trinity Metro” and our guest speaker was Jeff Davis.

Mr. Davis is a member of the Board of Directors of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority and is on the Board of the Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth. In 2017, he helped found and is the Chairman and President of the Tarrant Transit Alliance, a coalition advocating increased funding for public transportation.

Mr. Davis explained the mission of the TTA. He described efforts to educate the community in support of transit and transit-oriented development and to advocate for dedicated funding for transit. He showed the differences in service and funding between Fort Worth and other major Texas cities and discussed how that affected Fort Worth’s attraction to businesses offering good paying jobs. We also discussed the changing demographics and the transportation challenges to citizens in moderate to the lower income brackets.

We all learned a lot and it was evident how much interest the neighborhoods had in the topic by the number and quality of questions Mr. Davis fielded. A copy of his presentation can be found at this link.

The Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations  had its first General Membership Meeting of 2018 on March 1 at University Christian Church.

The topic of the program was Street Light Maintenance in the City of Fort Worth. Marisa Conlin, an Engineering Manager in Transportation & Public Works, was our guest speaker. She gave us an overview of her street light team and their responsibilities and challenges caring for the 66,000 lights in the city. Marisa brought two examples of LED lamps and we learned a lot about the system. There were many good questions from the group and Marisa left us with a handout and contact information. Frederico Hernandez from TxDOT attended as a guest and answered some questions relating to the state’s relationship with the city and the street light system. It was an interesting and informative evening.

We were pleased to have some new and returning neighborhoods represented and it was nice to meet some new friends.