Residents want Fort Worth council to recognize ‘environmental racism’ in neighborhoods
On the night the Fort Worth City Council adopted the city’s controversial 2023 Comprehensive Plan, a dozen Echo Heights residents and other protesters showed up with signs stating “Fort Worth Must Have Environmental Justice.”
The residents and members of the Fort Wort Environmental Coalition of Communities, who in the past have made claims of racism against the city and saying they are victims of “zoning apartheid,” were at the meeting because they were concerned about the council’s decision on the southeast sector of the plan. Before Tuesday’s meeting, three votes on the plan had been postponed as the residents sought to stop further industrial and/or commercial development in the area.
The proposals approved at the meeting removed 109 acres of land from the Industrial Growth Center designation from the original plan.
Mayor Mattie Parker praised the work of the council and her colleagues for their work to revise the plan, even though she did not like some of what she heard from the Echo Heights residents.
“Unfortunately, some of the rhetoric included zoning apartheid, the return of Jim Crow, and a racist City Council. I’m here to tell you that is very far from the truth,” Parker said. “And I’m very proud of this council for making very significant changes.”
Letitia Wilbourn is a Echo Heights resident and part of the Echo Heights & Stop Six Environmental Coalition who have been vocal for years about environmental racism in their community.
She said the residents should be the ones upset because their community was industrialized.
“They get upset that we use the word apartheid zoning, exclusionary zoning and segregation zoning, and Jim Crow,” Wilbourn said. “They got upset because the truth hurts.”
In August, the Echo Heights & Stop Six Environmental Coalition, Northside Fort Worth Air, the Fort Worth Sierra Club, Sunrise Tarrant County, and Downwinders at Risk formed the Fort Worth Environmental Coalition of Communities to fight environmental racism in Fort Worth neighborhoods.
Echo Heights is a residential community south of U.S. 287 and west of Lake Arlington that has about 2,000 homes of mostly Black and Hispanic residents, according to the U.S. Census. The neighborhood is also home to dozens of industrial and commercial businesses. These businesses have been blamed by Echo Heights residents, but not confirmed by studies,
for illnesses, miscarriages, respiratory problems, and deaths.
The city of Fort Worth deemed Echo Heights and surrounding areas as an Industrial Growth Center through the Comprehensive Plan & Future Land Use plan that the city developed in 2000. The plan is a general guide for making decisions about the city’s growth and development.
Echo Heights was chosen as an industrial growth center because of the transportation access to different parts of the region, state and the country with quick accessibility to Loop 820, U.S. Route 287, and Interstates 20 and 30. This will help with economic growth through bringing in businesses, job creation, and reduce commute times to jobs according to city officials.
The next step for the coalition is to look ahead for the 2050 Comprehensive Plan where they can decide what they want for their community.
Mar’Tayshia James, president of Echo Heights & Stop Six Environmental Coalition, says she wants to improve her neighborhood in the meantime including installation of sidewalks, fixing street lamps, and bettering the livelihood of her community.
“We didn’t get everything that we wanted, but we got something,” James said. “So hopefully in the near future for the 2050 [Comprehensive Plan] they will actually help us with getting more industrial out of the area and not to have more come in the area.”
