Traffic clogs Fort Worth’s suburbs. How council candidates would fix the congestion

Far north Fort Worth residents know the scenario well: a two lane road surrounded by thousands of homes and shopping centers that rapidly gets clogged with traffic. Or a bottleneck where a wider road shrinks as drivers try to merge onto the highway.

Either way, living in Fort Worth’s suburbs north of Loop 820 often means waiting in traffic.

Traffic jams are a classic symptom of a rapidly growing city. More than 200,000 people now live north of the loop in Fort Worth. As the Star-Telegram pointed out in 2020, subdivisions have sprung up faster than the plans to widen old roads have come to fruition.

Retiring District 7 council member Dennis Shingleton told the Star-Telegram then that he thought pausing development was the only way for Fort Worth to catch up with the rapid growth in the far northern suburbs. But that’s unlikely given the popularity of Fort Worth. More than 20,000 people move to the city each year. Late last year he called on the council to pause to approving rezoning for multifamily developments, arguing greater density was adding to his district’s traffic woes.

“I’m at the point where, if it were up to me and me alone, I’d probably call a hiatus to any development up there,” Shingleton said in January 2020, saying then that getting a handle on suburban sprawl was the biggest issue facing the district, which stretches from central Fort Worth north past AllianceTexas and into Denton County.

Come May 1 it will no longer be up to Shingleton as large number candidates vie for his seat.

Generally those running think the city should require more of developers, according to responses to a Star-Telegram questionnaire. The race has drawn 10: Connie Cottrell, Morris Curlee Jr., Leonard Firestone, Lee Henderson, Joseph Lockhart Jr., Michele Stephens McNill, Zeb Pent, Irvin (Tee) Thomas, Jake Wurman and Miguel Zamora.

Thomas said there was no logic in allowing a developer to build “thousands of homes” on a two-lane road without first requiring the developer to widen roads and ensure access to the subdivision.

Wurman suggested developers and the city work together to build streets before housing developments are approved.

“If they want to build 2,000 homes in an up and coming area of the city, build the traffic nodes or other important infrastructure from the start,” he said.

Henderson was critical of the slow pace that bond projects are put out for bids. He drew a contrast between the rapid growth in the north and development in the Walsh area, a large suburban growth area in west Fort Worth.

“We need to establish rules that require developers to build adequate infrastructure in larger developments, in conjunction with city planning,” he said.

The city can charge developers for road and other construction in two ways.

Impact fees are assessed on the type of development. For a residential subdivision, a developer pays per lot. These fees are pooled and used for projects in the same geographic area, said Ty Thompson, assistant director of Development Services.

A second option charges developers for a proportional cost of a particular project. The fees vary based on on a formula that considers the type and size of the development.

The two pots of money can often be combined, but regardless projects typically require equal or greater investment from the city, Thompson said. That means work can sit while the city waits for additional funds, usually through a bond package.

Cary Moon, an incumbent running in District 4, which has also seen significant growth in the north, argued road projects could be done quicker if they were left up to the private sector. In response to the questionnaire, Moon said right-of-way acquisition, utility relocations and design could be “be removed from the desks of city employees and put on the desk of design builders in the private sector” to expedite the process.

Opponent Kristie Hanhart said the city needed to vet developers better to ensure the would pay for. their share of road projects.

Tara Wilson said the city should invest more in public transportation and modernize the bus system to increase ridership.

“This will reduce traffic on major roads, and is also good for the environment,” she said.

Jorge L. Chavez and Max Striker are also running in District 4 but did not turn questionnaires.

Sprawl has not come as quickly to the western portion of Fort Worth, but developments like Walsh are poised to add thousands of homes to District 3 in the coming years.

Candidates Daniel Fattori and Adrian Smith said the city had sided with developers and business interests too often. They argued for more input from residents about future development. District 3 candidate Michael Crain, the district manager for council member Brian Byrd, said the city planners and developers should work together to identify growth areas.

“The city’s comprehensive plan addresses such issues and should be evaluated and re-evaluated on a regular basis,” he said.