Post by houseodessey on Jun 29, 2007 22:08:11 GMT -5
OK. I've been absent for a while and really missed this place but there's a good reason. I live in a section of Fort Worth (4th fastest growing city in the US) that has been ignored for years. We have 2-4 acre lots on this section of my road and never had a problem. No one over here has ever payed attention to the zoning classification as we're not a hot area of the city due to the substandard schools. Anyway, we're zoned A5 (5000 sq. ft. lots) That's the default zoning in our town so it's not uncommon. The smallest lot over here within a 2 mile radius is 1/2 acre. I live at the N. end of 6 large lots. The person who lived at the lot 4 houses south sold to a developer. Said developer filed a preliminary plat to put in 18 houses on 50 X 100 lots. ZING!! Since the zoning is already in place, he only had to go to the plan commission. Said commmission is only governed by one document, the Subdivision ordinance. This document is essentially written by lobbyists in Austin and is very pro developer. I've been working for weeks to prove that this development will go against 1 of 3 of the SubD ordinances rules. It will adversely affect stormwater runoff and create sewer problems. Come to find out that the commission doesn't even require plans to be presented prior to approval of preliminary plat by the commission as they have to approve or deny w/i 30 days of application. The city rubber stamps whatever "plans" are submitted (most times they rubber stamp their empty desk as there are no plans) and tells the commission to approve it. If they don't approve it, the city's legal dept. tells them that they're on their own if the developer sues and that they will require private representation. Therefore, no PP is ever denied. There was a storm water survey done in 2004 in our area that called for 2 million in bond money to fix existing problems but the engineer in charge of it wasn't aware of that, as it hadn't been scanned into the city's system and the last info he'd looked at was from 1957!!?!?!?!? It took one of our neighbors calling him and pointing this out for him to put a provision in the application requiring a detention pond on site to handle runoff. Accountalility, HELLOOOOOO?
They are going to cut down over 100 live and post oaks (for a price, we have a decent tree ordinance) and put 18 houses in where they are totally inappropriate, drive out one large lot owner at a time, build 18 houses/lot until they get to me. Our councilman is rezoning the area but it still won't stop this development and I worry that my neighbors will fight even that now that they have to live next to a mini-city. We are working to foil this privately but have no idea if it will work. At any rate, everyone, please check your surrounding zoning and initiate either a city council or neighborhood based petition to zone it appropriately if it's not already suitable to your area. People here actually make a very nice living exploiting overlooked inappropriate residential zoning. This is the biggest pile of manure I've ever encountered. I'm fighting it and we're going to try to keep annoying the developer with extra costs like the detention pond and tree ordinance until he hopefully goes away, but I'm terrified that my neighbors will get tired, give in and sell out. I am tired, disgusted and extremely angry. Luckily, I have a RE attorney who won't represent me as he doesn't want to piss off his bread and butter (developers) so he's helping for free and while on vacation, to boot!!!! I really think that we can get this guy on sewers (ours are over capacity and 70 years old already) as he'll have to fix the problems in order to tie on, but that's still an "if". Anyway, if I post something stupid or act a little jiggy, please understand that I'm under a lot of stress right now and need someone like Z-man to take it out on. Frances, where are you, damnit! I need a punching bag.
They are going to cut down over 100 live and post oaks (for a price, we have a decent tree ordinance) and put 18 houses in where they are totally inappropriate, drive out one large lot owner at a time, build 18 houses/lot until they get to me. Our councilman is rezoning the area but it still won't stop this development and I worry that my neighbors will fight even that now that they have to live next to a mini-city. We are working to foil this privately but have no idea if it will work. At any rate, everyone, please check your surrounding zoning and initiate either a city council or neighborhood based petition to zone it appropriately if it's not already suitable to your area. People here actually make a very nice living exploiting overlooked inappropriate residential zoning. This is the biggest pile of manure I've ever encountered. I'm fighting it and we're going to try to keep annoying the developer with extra costs like the detention pond and tree ordinance until he hopefully goes away, but I'm terrified that my neighbors will get tired, give in and sell out. I am tired, disgusted and extremely angry. Luckily, I have a RE attorney who won't represent me as he doesn't want to piss off his bread and butter (developers) so he's helping for free and while on vacation, to boot!!!! I really think that we can get this guy on sewers (ours are over capacity and 70 years old already) as he'll have to fix the problems in order to tie on, but that's still an "if". Anyway, if I post something stupid or act a little jiggy, please understand that I'm under a lot of stress right now and need someone like Z-man to take it out on. Frances, where are you, damnit! I need a punching bag.
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