River Trails Homeowners Association

We can be sure the company that will install the natural gas compressor is already behind the scenes twisting arms and pressuring everyone connected with the city council about this.    The site they chose is the most cost-effective for them rather than adjacent areas which are already zoned commercial or industrial.   So we need to keep on emailing people with the city.

Actually, zoning is required for that particular stretch of land since it is zoned for Planned Development and they wanted to change it to Industrial (Light Industrial, if memory serves me correct).  Their application was updated prior to the last zoning meeting to request a variance to make it Planned Development-707 which meant "planned development with specific use".

There was enough opposition, and along with what the zoning commissioners saw with their own eyes (Ches asked them to visit their showcase sites), that the zoning commission denied the change (without prejudice-meaning they could reapply again later).  They presented pictures & maps at the commission meeting about stations (1-3 compressors only) near schools & apartments, however what they're planning for our area is 15!  Yes, 15, cancer-causing, stinky, loud, property-devaluing compressors...so many at one site that it currently doesn't exist in Texas (or possibly the nation).  The other sites in Fort Worth were either at existing industrial sites or near low-income housing or other parts of the city where there is higher crime, the neighbors do not talk to each other & do not organize.  As a result they probably felt we were the same and didn't care or would buy the propaganda without doing our own educated & articulated research.

Withdrawing the application is the good news...

Now to the bad news...They recently withdrew the application (before it went to City Council for Dec 6th) probably with the same concerns over opposition and issues that they currently have at their existing compression sites.  Their property valuation research covered homes near gas well sites (quiet sites with just a couple of pipes & valves coming up out of the ground), not compressor sites.

However, there are some other possibilities that we need to be concerned about, so it appears that the fight is not over.  More on this coming soon (Melissa will post more details shortly)...

For a full update, please visit our Facebook page and/or our i-Neighbors website (www.i-neighbors.com/RTUnited) and join (free on both sites).  We post most of the updates there and automatic notices go out when there are new messages there.

-Jim Roland

 President, RTHA