By Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX – Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1: Fort Worth already has a fairly detailed ordinance on historic preservation. And city leaders don't want to overhaul it. Instead, they hope to achieve what frequently eluded their grasp on controversial issues last year - public consensus on the city's priorities.
Fernando Costa, Fort Worth Director of Planning: Fort Worth has faced and continues to face a variety of issues that require us to balance historic preservation against other competing interests...
Sprague: Fernando Costa directs Fort Worth's planning department.
Costa: ...the need for affordable housing, economic development, and for that matter, the interests in protecting private property rights. And sometimes, preservation appears to conflict with other interest and we want to find good ways to balance those interests so that everybody wins.
Sprague: Talk of a new preservation plan surfaced last year as the Fort Worth Public Housing Authority tore down its oldest complex, Ripley-Arnold, and debate erupted over the Mistletoe neighborhood's historic designation. So Mayor Kenneth Barr is strongly encouraging residents to take an active role in the preservation plan. Barr told a group of about 100 residents last night that the issue was best illustrated by a story Councilman Jim Lane told him after a visit to Indonesia.
Barr: And he said, you know where they took us first when we arrived in Ben-Dung? They took us to the old part of the city, because they wanted us to know where they came from, they wanted us to know who they were. And I thought of that so many times because the history of this community is rooted in the land and in cattle and ranching and later in the aviation industry, but the roots run deep in this community and we need to be able to show people who we are
Sprague: To develop a preservation plan, the city appointed a 31-member steering committee that has been meeting since August. And they've hired several consultants. Ron Emrich is based in Dallas.
Ron Emrich, Preservation and Planning Consultant: This is a tremendous project because Dallas has no preservation plan and has apparently no interest in doing one so the fact that the city of Fort Worth has come together and is looking for this consensus to create a preservation plan is pretty terrific.
Sprague: But last night, residents urged Fort Worth to take even bolder steps. Judith Cohen suggested the city set an example with historic designations.
Judith Cohen, Art Historian: The thing that I would like to mention tonight specifically is for the city to be a good preservation partner and step forward to landmark their own city-owned buildings (clapping). For instance, Will Rogers. And to put it on the National Register. This is long overdue.
Sprague: Art Brender encouraged city planners to relax the rules and codes that he says discourage people with less money and no legal background from restoring their aging homes.
Art Brender, Attorney: And constantly going through the process of asking for adjustments and that sort of thing really isn't the answer. It's too frustrating for most people and time consuming and expensive.
Sprague: Most of the people at last night's public meeting strongly favored more city-sponsored efforts. There will be another chance for public comment in April, as the steering committee and its consultants come up with a blueprint for preservation. But advocates say the real test of the city's commitment is whether it will act on the steering committee's recommendations. For KERA 90.1, I'm Suzanne Sprague.
To contact Suzanne Sprague, please send emails to ssprague@kera.org.