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.