17 replies to this topic

[elpingüino]

The original post was in the Tandy Hills thread, but a separate thread makes sense since the overall program is more widespread.

Luke Ranker has lots of details about both the Tandy Hills plan and the city's long-term program to prioritize and preserve other properties still in their natural state.

https://amp.star-tel...e240732566.html

Here's a follow-up article.
As concrete sprawls, Fort Worth plans to spend millions to save land from development

Fort Worth officials are moving forward with plans to identify and potentially acquire natural areas for preservation before developers buy up the land. The Open Space Conservation Program bought Broadcast Hill this summer and now the City Council can spend up to $16 million from the oil and gas fund for natural area acquisitions.

Open Space leaders are seeking public feedback through an online survey that will close at the end of November. https://web.tplgis.o...orth-openspace/

[NThomas]

Has anyone heard of an update on this initiative? The TPL link above still has a June 2021 release date for the policy report (as of the end of August).

[Urbndwlr]

Would like to learn more.

[elpingüino]

The city has been awarded a $150K grant to build a trail at Broadcast Hill and connect it to paths at Tandy Hills. Fort Worth Report, https://fortworthrep...broadcast-hill/

[JBB]

This is a little off topic, but what's the status of the old studio at Broadcast Hill?  The city owns it and I had heard it was going to be used as office space for the police department at one time.  Images in Google definitely show that it's being used for something.

[John T Roberts]

It is being used as office space for the City of Fort Worth.  The City does own the property, but it won't be sold off when City Hall relocates to the Pier 1 Building.  The City's former Designation Committee tried to get it designated as a City of Fort Worth Historic & Cultural Landmark before we were the victim of budget cuts.  The elimination of the committee came right after the nomination form was submitted to the Preservation Officer, but we didn't have time to press the City to pursue the nomination, so it fell through the cracks.

[Stadtplan]

Dana Burghdoff / Asst. City Manager gave a presentation today discussing FW Open Spaces Program.  Two of the more interesting recent acquisitions occurred over on the east side of town near the Rose Hill Memorial Cemetery (where Lee Harvey Oswald is buried, FYI).
 
The first was is called Nosilla Street, is about 3 acres and was discovered after some influential bird sightings got the attention from the city and Autobahn Society, this group of undeveloped residential lots (owned by one person) was recently purchased by the City for the Open Spaces Program.  
 

 

 
 
The other acquisition is called Patino Road and is just east of the Rose Hill Memorial Cemetery, pretty close to the border of FW and Arlington.
This is 23 acres and includes a small pond or lake and is very secluded.  Interestingly enough, amongst the numerous gas drilling sites, there is a massive tilt-wall distribution center going in next door to this site.  I would take this purchase by the city as a pretty big win, perhaps atoning for them looking the other way while another project clear cut many acres of untouched and wooded land. 
 

 

 

 
The third acquisition mentioned but still in the works as far as I can tell was an area on the west side of Lake Arlington around and north of Eugene McCray Park.  This was a pretty large area from what I could tell and would look to possibly expand the park's footprint and also open up access to that side of the lake.  I don't know if I've ever driven back that far along the west side of Lake Arlington, maybe did and just turned around and left.  
 

[Crestline]

I got curious about how the purchased land will be improved as a park, if at all, and how public access will work, and found a few links:

 

https://web.tplgis.o...orth-openspace/

https://www.tpl.org/

 

The 3-acre Nosilla Street parcel above could be a really great neighborhood park, but I'm guessing this program doesn't install public car parking, playgrounds, etc., right?

[Stadtplan]

I believe Nosilla St is intended as a bird sanctuary. Im sure public access will be welcome at some point but not your typical playground and picnic bench setup, probably some groomed dirt walking trails. Probably for the better IMO.

[Stadtplan]

My buddy did a barn clean-out a few years back on a property just north of the Nosilla site.  He called me to come over and grab some of the high quality lumber stock leftover before it got tossed.  This was a large 2+ acre property around the 7200 block of Craig St and I remembered asking about these large fir trees in front of this property.  He pointed out that there's a grove or possible interconnect grove of these trees that travel north from this site at 7200 Craig St all the way up toward the YMCA on Sandy Lane and Brentwood Stair near I-30.  I grabbed a few Google Streetviews images traveling north from Craig St, but these trees are massive, almost 50% taller than the surrounding oaks.  Not sure if they are super common in our region, but would be curious if they have a hand in attracting any sort of special bird varieties?

 

Grove of interconnected fir trees:

 

Interesting blog post.  I've heard that some variety of trees like fir and birch can actually be one interconnected organism, even sharing a fungal communication network for seeking nutrients.  It may not be a coincidence but I was told by my friend that there's a lot of naturally-occuring springs along this same path, perhaps the water table pushing up toward the surface as it travels in toward Lake Arlington.  

"Do Trees ‘Talk’ To Each Other? Yes, they do. Sorta." https://inexpensivet...log/trees-talk/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RD Milhollin]

 

Grove of interconnected fir trees:

 

Interesting blog post.  I've heard that some variety of trees like fir and birch can actually be one interconnected organism, even sharing a fungal communication network for seeking nutrients.  It may not be a coincidence but I was told by my friend that there's a lot of naturally-occuring springs along this same path, perhaps the water table pushing up toward the surface as it travels in toward Lake Arlington.  

"Do Trees ‘Talk’ To Each Other? Yes, they do. Sorta." https://inexpensivet...log/trees-talk/

Super cool, I have known this about aspen for years but never heard that it was common among other tree species.

[Stadtplan]

The city emailed me this Open Space presentation from the other day:

 

Interactive Open Space Map Tool:

https://mapitwest.fo.../OpenSpaceTool/

 

 

 

 

 

[RD Milhollin]

I hope this project is managed and maintained significantly better than the Community Arts Center, Heritage Park, etc. I can see these empty lots being filled with broken bottles and discarded tires if no effort is made to actively preserve the natural aspects. Small residential parks with limited access are probably difficult and relatively expensive to properly manage.

[Stadtplan]

In addition to Proposition E Bond Program funding, the City is also using a portion of gas well revenues (royalties) to fund the program. The other funding mentioned had to do with certain business development contributions into the program perhaps where exceptions were made for (not) preserving trees, but I will need to look into that one more so dont quote me.

[Urbndwlr]

I hope this project is managed and maintained significantly better than the Community Arts Center, Heritage Park, etc. I can see these empty lots being filled with broken bottles and discarded tires if no effort is made to actively preserve the natural aspects. Small residential parks with limited access are probably difficult and relatively expensive to properly manage.

Good point.  Park Dept had/has a policy of minimum park size supposedly because of maintenance labor efficiency to mow/maintain. 

Do we have a volunteer corps of any sort that does monthly or seasonal clean ups? 

I know there are the annual Earth Day triage efforts and Park Adoption program but dont know what sort of teams we have mobilized. 

Would seem like a great thing.

[Austin55]

This might be a good property for the program: https://www.loopnet....th-TX/28863929/

[Stadtplan]

This might be a good property for the program: https://www.loopnet....th-TX/28863929/

 

That is an interesting chunk of land.  I'd imagine the terrain and drainage have helped preserve it over the years from development.  This seems like a pretty decent sized hill where it is situated: https://goo.gl/maps/R43hGWoS7yWPDB967

[Stadtplan]

 

This might be a good property for the program: https://www.loopnet....th-TX/28863929/

 

That is an interesting chunk of land.  I'd imagine the terrain and drainage have helped preserve it over the years from development.  This seems like a pretty decent sized hill where it is situated: https://goo.gl/maps/R43hGWoS7yWPDB967

 

 

I was clicking around on streetview and noticed this zoning change request from April 2022 when the photo was taken: https://aca-prod.acc...ShowInspection=

 

Record ZC-22-059: 

Zoning Change

Record Status: Denied without Prejudice

 

Project Description:

Blacklock Storage Rezoning

Propose rezone 4900 Brentwood Stair St from A-21 to PD-E and A-7.5

Proposing to subdivide and rezone 7.17 acres of 4900 Brentwood Stair from A-21 to a Planned Development with a base zone of E to allow for office, retail, and self storage on Lot 1 and the remaining 9.43 ac to smaller, more accommodating residential lots on Lot 2 (A-7.5).