I’m an officer in my local neighborhood association  — Paschal Neighborhood Association. I’ve been an officer of the association since its inception in 2003.  We’ve worked to slow down traffic by adding those speed humps in the street and stop signs.  We worked towards a $1.2 million grant to repair homes and a six-block stretch of a well traveled street.  We finished second place in that grant competition.  Our association negotiated with Four Sevens Energy, an entity associated with Chesapeake, to ensure our residents signed a fair natural gas lease that included a nice signing bonus.  Every year we sponsor the Cowtown Cleanup and Neighborhood Night Out.  We also write a newsletter every quarter.  A unique thing about our neighborhood is that we are not a rich neighborhood surrounded by neighborhoods with higher property values.  We are in the best Fort Worth ISD school pyramid, two miles from downtown, and we have a future commuter rail line stop across Berry Street.  When we competed in that grant competition two years ago, we discovered that only about half of the residents own their own home and 15%-18% of the homes in our neighborhood are duplexes.  We’ve also seen neighborhoods around us change their zoning from duplex or two family housing to single family.  With the amount of investor-owned homes and duplexes already in our area, the neighborhood association felt we should get our zoning changed to try and encourage owner-occupied homes.

We began the process in April with a city sponsored workshop.  The neighborhood association mailed letters to every property owner and picked up the cost.  It was attended by residents, city staff and our District 9 Council Member, Joel Burns.  The proposed zoning map was decided at that workshop.  Fort Worth city staff then put our zoning case on the docket of the Zoning Commission in July and sent out a city notice.  At the Zoning Commission hearing, we won 9-0 and heard from those opposing the zoning for the first time.  The Zoning Commission only makes recommendations to the Fort Worth City Council.  A month later we appeared before the Fort Worth City Council and won 8-0.

The video below is edited for time.  The hearing lasted for 45 min, and I got it down to under 10.  I tried to be fair and get the essence of the arguments for and against the zoning change.  Jut about every council member in attendance spoke.  I didn’t include Kathleen Kicks or Jungus Jordan’s comments.  They supported the zoning change.

The best part of the expierence was that we had at least 60 people show up for the hearing at 7:00pm when the council meeting began.  They didn’t get to our case until around 10:30pm.  We had at least 30 people there at 10:30 and the council seemed impressed.  The important thing is that the people who stayed saw the city council listen to the neighborhood association and their attendance made a difference in the outcome.  It was a real power to the people moment.  I was thrilled to be a part of it.

Paschal Neighborhood Zoning Case from Adam Stone on Vimeo.

The official minutes from August 5th, 2008 are located here for a quick summery.  Our case number, ZC-08-107 begins on page 24.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram did a story on us a few weeks later. You can read it here.  Also, the TCU Daily Skiff student newspaper wrote a story located here.

The Paschal Neighborhood Association meets every quarter on the last Saturday in January, April, July and October at the Park Temple Baptist Church at 2832 Townsend Drive.

Photo by [[Neo]] on flickr.

This post is tagged City Government, City of Fort Worth, Paschal Neighborhood Association, Zoning Hearings are fantastic!