As the Fort Worth City Council listened to a presentation on the city’s proposed urban forestry master plan, council member Gyna Bivens wanted everyone to understand why it existed in the first place.
Six years ago, dozens of east Fort Worth residents expressed outrage over developer D.R. Horton’s decision to clear more than 70% of the trees on a 51.5-acre site to make room for homes. The company faced as much as $1.5 million in penalties for violating the city’s tree ordinance, which required retaining 25% tree coverage. After admitting fault and agreeing to plant five times as many trees as it destroyed, D.R. Horton avoided paying a fine.
The incident left scars on the east side, said Bivens, who has represented the area since 2013. Her constituents want to know what the city will do financially — especially through penalties and fines — to prevent a similar outcome.
The current draft of the urban forestry master plan doesn’t go far enough to address those concerns or the history of why the plan is necessary, Bivens said, leaving her “uneasy” about adopting it.
“I do not want to have a perception out there that this council has not heard the people with significance,” Bivens said. “I’m just very, very paranoid about doing a wrong step that I know is going to get me flack from people who I trust and who I turn to.”
City staff brought the draft to council members during their Feb. 20 work session in hopes the council would vote on the plan during its Feb. 27 meeting.
But Bivens and council member Alan Blaylock, who co-chaired the committee that oversaw the planning process, said the final draft needs to be vetted by community members, developers and other people invested in preserving and expanding the number of trees in Fort Worth.
“We understand. It just means we got more work to do,” D.J. Harrell, the city’s development services director, told council members. “We’ll go back and we’ll follow up with you and those stakeholders to ensure that everyone understands what this work means for the city of Fort Worth, as well as where we’re trying to go.”
Residents expect action on developer penalties, Bivens says
The plan has been in the works since May 2022, when council members authorized the Texas Trees Foundation to create a road map for expanding Fort Worth’s tree canopy from 19% of the city to 30% by 2050. Fort Worth contributed $50,000 to the process, while the foundation raised $250,000 in private donations from companies such as BNSF Railway.
Using input from 2,300 residents, the Texas Trees Foundation developed 10 recommendations to expand Fort Worth’s tree preservation efforts. Those include:
- Conducting a comprehensive inventory of trees on public property.
- Developing and implementing changes to the city’s tree ordinance and other policies, including zoning, to support Fort Worth’s tree canopy and sustainability goals.
- Ensuring adequate staffing, training and integration of urban forest considerations into city plans and programs.
- Partnering with neighborhoods and developing a public communications and education plan on Fort Worth’s urban forest.
- Creating plans for tree planting and maintenance, as well as specific programs to address tree pests and recycling of wood waste.
- Identifying new funding sources for underfunded urban forestry programs.
LaShondra Stringfellow, assistant development services director, said the plan sets up what the city wants to accomplish. Conversations about specific changes to development policies, including the tree ordinance, will come later, she said.
“Once we get to the ordinance, everyone is going to be at that table,” Stringfellow said. “That will be much more than one presentation.”
Bivens described the plan as “flowery” and too focused on the process of city governance rather than policies to discourage developers from clear-cutting trees.
“What the public is going to want to see is not so much all of the process, but what are we going to do financially to keep this from ever happening again,” Bivens said. “Until I can read and make sure that I see penalties, fines, what have you, that are significant and meeting the expectations, I’m at a pause with this.”
Dave Fulson is a homeowner in Bivens’ district. He and other leaders of the John T. White Neighborhood Association would like a chance to review the plan before it’s adopted. The association previously protested tree clearing by housing developers and pushed for harsher penalties for companies who violate the city’s ordinances.
He appreciates Bivens’ efforts to protect east Fort Worth’s old-growth trees and believes she will be open to setting up meetings with neighborhood groups like John T. White.
“We would like a fair amount of time to look at the plan and to give our input, and that has not been afforded us,” Fulson said. “We would be very disappointed to have this in City Council without serious feedback from our area.”
City staff say urban forestry plan is ‘step one’
Adding more historical context to the plan about incidents like the D.R. Horton violation may “provide additional cover” for community members who are concerned, Mayor Mattie Parker said. City officials are not trying to gloss over the past, she said.
Charlie Lauersdorf, who represents parts of north Fort Worth, said the city must consistently consult with developers about any changes to ordinances that could have unintended consequences. The city doesn’t want an ordinance that is so restrictive that an affordable-housing developer determines that a project is not cost effective in Fort Worth and takes it somewhere else, he said.
City staff are looking for strategies to incentivize tree preservation by developers, Harrell said. Those options include offering waivers for development fees or stormwater credits to reduce a company’s water bill.
Following the recommendations of the master plan, the city would create a steering committee of developers, landscape architects and others to ensure all voices are heard before policy changes are implemented, Harrell said.
“This is just step one,” he said. “This work right here, it creates a meaningful step toward this area you would like to go.”
That’s not the argument that her constituents want or expect to hear, Bivens said. She will not support any plan that has not been thoroughly vetted, she added.
“I don’t care if it’s phase one, two or three. We’ve got to be sure that we’re not injuring ourselves by saying, ‘This is just phase one,’” Bivens said. “We can’t put something out there without looking ahead about how it’s going to be received by the public.”
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.