Changes appear to be coming to Fort Worth’s residential and commercial boards of adjustment — the two panels responsible for hearing and deciding appeals to the city’s zoning ordinance.
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Fort Worth City Council members in November will consider combining the two boards. In a presentation to the commercial board Sept. 17, LaShondra Stringfellow, assistant planning/development director in the city’s development services department, cited inefficient use of time and other resources as reasons for the merger.
This change would reduce the number of regular members to 11 appointed to represent each council district, plus four alternate members. Each board currently has 11 members.
Eight of the 11 members and all four alternates would be required to be from professional fields of architecture, real estate, law, property development, engineering, mortgage and financing, and planning, urban design and landscape architecture.
Also considered will be persons who have demonstrated civic interest, general knowledge of the community, independent judgment and understanding of zoning and planning.
Stringfellow, in a work session following the board’s public hearing, summarized the notional implementation schedule:
- Oct. 13 — Submit applications for board positions.
- Nov. 11 — City Council approves new board structure, rules of procedure and appointees.
- Nov. 19 — First meeting with the new board structure.
Board members who seemed surprised by the initiative expressed disappointment that City Council members had not reached out to them for input before putting this change in motion, with more than one member expressing feelings of being disrespected.
Board members shared several concerns:
- They’re unpaid volunteers, so they didn’t understand how combining the boards will improve efficiency, especially since the paid support staff already supports both meetings.
- The change will result in very long meetings, and it might be difficult to get volunteers to commit to spending that much time away from their jobs. As a result, there could be a significant loss of experience if current board members decide not to pursue the new roles.
- It would be premature to revise the board structure before enabling code changes are drafted and approved. This would require a different implementation schedule than the one presented, since it was agreed that the soonest any code changes could be approved would be January 2026.
- Making quorum will become more difficult. The commercial and residential boards are routinely challenged to achieve quorum now, and routinely have to pull members from the other board to do so, as was done for the Sept. 17 meeting. Cutting the overall membership in half will reduce the pool of potential alternates available.
- The combination will burden citizens who attend to represent their cases, as they will need to be available for the duration of a much longer meeting than they are currently.
Tony Perez, commercial board of adjustment vice chair, indicated he will approach City Council members to share the board’s concerns and will urge them to watch the video recording of the Sept. 17 session to hear the concerns directly. Perez also requested that staff be given an opportunity to provide feedback.
Stringfellow agreed to return to the commercial board’s next meeting on Oct. 15 to provide an update and review draft code changes.
In one of their cases at the meeting, the board approved three requested code variances that will enable the construction of a new Taco Casa restaurant in the city’s Northside.
The variances will allow drive-thru activity across the front of the property, a dumpster in the rear, and will facilitate planned parking.
As reported previously, the restaurant will be at 1901 NE 28th St. This case was continued from the commercial board of adjustment’s Aug. 20 meeting, to give time for the owner to discuss the planned operating hours with nearby neighbors.
Alex Srur from A.N.A. Consultants, an engineering firm representing the case, confirmed the intended operating hours as 8 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 8 a.m.-1 a.m. Friday-Saturday. Srur confirmed the owner had met with nearby residents along Schwartz and Oscar avenues and they had no opposition. He also provided comparable operating hours from a number of other restaurants nearby.
To view our Documenters notes from this meeting, click here.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at news@fortworthreport.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
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