Thomas and Carrie Reilly had poured the foundation for their Mistletoe Heights dream home — and amassed nearly $2 million in construction costs — before Fort Worth’s stop work order arrived last November.
Fort Worth staff and a city-certified inspector OK’d the home’s plans months before as code-compliant. But the front wall’s distance from the street, or setback, was less than allowable.
The Reillys paused construction for about three months, at one point fearing they’d need to spend over $1 million to demolish and rebuild.
Subsequently, Fort Worth officials are creating new accountability measures within the third-party inspection service that signed off on the Reilly building plans.
“We hired professional build teams (and) relied on their expertise to ensure compliance with all city requirements,” Thomas Reilly, a real estate agent, said at a Board of Adjustment hearing in January.
The board has the authority to grant exceptions to rules, or variances, when plans are not to code. Board members approved the Reillys’ request, but if they hadn’t, the couple would have had to tear up the foundation and redesign the home’s footprint.
Thomas and Carrie Reilly declined the Report’s request for comment.
Even as city staff cracks down on the inspection process, they worry that future state laws could strip local inspections of authority, making accountability measures meaningless.
Fort Worth’s Board of Adjustment ultimately granted the Reillys’ special permission for the 5,088-square-foot home. The structure has since taken its place on a picturesque row of mansions overlooking the Clear Fork of the Trinity River — to some neighbors’ dismay.
“The house is too large for that lot,” said Melanie Arrington Smith, who lives across the street.
Mistletoe Heights, which Smith wrote a book about, is a tight-knit community south of West Rosedale and bisected by Forest Park Boulevard that is proud of its preserved history. With some of the highest property values in Fort Worth, the neighborhood features many meticulously maintained front lawns and facades.
The 1-acre lot that the Reillys’ new home sits on was vacant since around 2001, when a former property owner tore down a 1925 home.
Residents’ reactions to the razing of that home sparked efforts to create a city-recognized historic layer of protection for the neighborhood.
But homeowners in the corner of Mistletoe Heights, in which the Reillys are now building, opted out of the historic overlay at the time.
If the Reillys’ lot had been a part of the overlay, their home plans would have required review by Fort Worth’s historic preservation staff and the Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission, per city ordinance.
Fort Worth city code requires that homes being built in an established neighborhood have setbacks equal to or greater than that of the neighboring house with the smallest setback.
About 35 feet separate the Reilly house’s facade from Mistletoe Drive — 12 feet short of the 47-foot requirement set by its neighbor.
The Reillys’ house is built along Mistletoe Drive on April 24, 2026. (Drew Shaw | Fort Worth Report)
“If you look at the house that was there before, they could have gone with that setback,” said Susie Mitchell, whose home is adjacent to the Reillys.
At its closest, the Reilly house sits 6 feet from Mitchell’s property line. She said the new home’s proximity and size obstruct her bedroom window view and give her privacy concerns.
For privacy, Mitchell spent over $12,000 to plant “the biggest tree we could afford” near her property line and said she plans to plant another.
Multiple errors cause headaches, prompt change
Fort Worth’s development services department traditionally handles permitting, plan reviews and inspections.
To handle high application volume, the city offers a third-party inspection program that handles the bulk of residential development inspections, Evan Roberts, assistant development services director, said during a presentation to City Council at a March 31 work session.
The city has certified about 10 companies to provide plan review and inspections in partnership with Fort Worth staff.
The Reillys paid North Texas Inspection Services to review and approve their architect’s plans before they broke ground, according to internal city documents reviewed by the Report.
Typically, the inspector should catch any setback violations in this stage. But the architect’s plans inaccurately reported the two neighbors’ setback as 20 feet on each side, said D.J. Harrell, development services director.
“It just wasn’t right,” Harrell said.
Nevertheless, the inspectors approved the plans in mid-summer 2025, and the Reillys broke ground by fall.
Throughout the construction process, the house was due for various inspections from both the city and North Texas Inspection Services, Harrell said.
Fort Worth did not require a “stakeout inspection,” in which a builder plants stakes where corners of the foundation will be and an inspector reviews the site before the foundation is poured. The Reillys opted out of having one, according to Harrell and property documents reviewed by the Report.
To prevent similar foundation mistakes from happening, Harrell said the city is now making stakeout inspections mandatory, instead of voluntary.
“None of that works if the inspector still misses it,” Harrell said. “But that does give us the ability to have some more awareness early on.”
Once the Reillys’ foundation was poured, another inspection was required. However, the Reillys’ construction appeared to have skipped this inspection and proceeded with framing the house before it was officially permitted, according to construction documents reviewed by the Report.
Harrell said that city staff have since questioned North Texas Inspection Services about why the foundation inspection was reported as missed.
The company told Harrell that they had conducted the foundation inspection as required, but inspectors neglected to enter their findings into the city’s system, “because they were waiting on additional information from the builder,” Harrell said.
The city is now exploring a potential fee for developers who miss inspections. There currently is not an effective penalty, the assistant development services director told council members at a work session in April.
He proposed charging such developers a fee of $200 per hour worked by city staff who need to go in and review the building’s engineer report.
After the Reillys’ framing went up, neighbors noticed and reported its proximity to the street. At that point, the city issued the stop-work order and required a Board of Adjustment hearing.
At the January Board of Adjustment, board members approved the Reillys’ variance request 10-0, with one member, Jim Whitten, abstaining. Whitten said he believed the Reillys’ architect and builder made the mistake, so they should absorb any cost and fix the issue.
“The people who first went out there and drew that first line … didn’t do what they were supposed to,” Whitten said.
Thomas and Carrie Reilly, who were expecting their second child at the time, told the Board of Adjustment members the whole situation was “very emotional,” as they intended the house to be their “forever home.”
Around 15 neighbors attended the hearing in opposition to the request for a variance. Leading them was Graham Brizendine, a real estate agent, homebuilder and vice president of the Mistletoe Heights Neighborhood Association.
Brizendine told the Report in April that the city’s construction requirements — from electrical to site plan — should be equally applied across the city. Certain neighborhoods should not be allowed to break them, he said.
The city has seen similar setback conflicts in the past, so Brizendine hopes the city patches up its internal systems.
“If we don’t look at ways to really rectify these issues … then honestly, what are we doing?” said Brizendine, who sits on Fort Worth’s Historic and Cultural Landmark Commission. “That’s how we get better. That’s the reason the city has code.”
Harrell attended the hearing in case board members or residents had questions for development services, he said. He said he could not remember if he had talked to the Reillys before the hearing.
“I feel for that situation,” Harrell said. “The Reillys … all the people in the neighborhood.”
D.J. Harrell, development services director, left, celebrates the Tree City USA designation during a Texas Arbor Day celebration Nov. 2, 2023. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)
The inspector of the Reillys’ plans, Stacie Hamby, declined to comment, referring the Report to her superior, Jeanna Barry.
Barry, director of the North Texas Inspection Services, said the home’s plans made for a “very hard inspection to begin with” because the house was being built on a curve.
Barry said the setback issue should have been caught in the initial review of the building plan, which she said the city was responsible for. She then said she wasn’t blaming the city, the builder or her inspectors.
“Not everything’s cut and dry. Streets are not straight. Buildings are not set where they should be,” Barry said.
Fort Worth adds accountability to third-party program, braces for state-level debates
The situation prompted development services staff to tell all certified third-party inspectors that they risk losing their partnership with the city if they repeatedly issue inappropriate permits and approvals, Harrell said.
Historically, the city has kept track of mistakes made by third parties, but disciplinary actions are not set for when inspectors have slip-ups, Roberts told council members at the March work session.
In light of the Mistletoe Heights situation, city staff is now working toward spot-checking 10% of third-party inspections, Roberts said.
Harrell said Fort Worth’s third-party inspection program has helped spearhead similar systems in cities across the state.
All such programs, however, could be made moot by a potential statewide third-party inspection law.
In 2025, Texas lawmakers failed to pass a bill that would have allowed any professional with industry-standard credentials to do inspections anywhere
in the state, with no requirement for oversight or city involvement.
Fort Worth opposed the bill, arguing that a city has more of a vested interest in taking care of its residents and developments than a statewide company.
The proposed bill was one of several that took regulatory power away from cities to make homebuilding more efficient amid Texas’ fast growth. Multiple such measures are now law.
Harrell said he expects the third-party proposal to return in 2027, and he plans to advocate again for the bill to include city involvement and local accountability.
“If you think this is bad, the proposed bill was taking away all of our ability to regulate third parties at all,” he said. “They wouldn’t even have to tell us that they were working on a project until it was already built.”
Neighbors adjust to new home
“It’s jutting out like a sore thumb,” said Valerie Ewing, looking at the wooden frame of the Reillys’ future home from the front porch of her 1919 house, which received a historic designation in 2025.
Ewing, Mitchell and Smith all said in separate interviews that the neighborhood will “get used to it” and try not to have tension with the Reillys, but they all wish the home had not been built as it was.
“I think everyone, including myself, will be absolutely cordial to them and polite,” Smith said.
“But I don’t think they will be welcomed quite as warmly as someone would be welcomed if they had built a house more appropriate for that lot in our historic neighborhood.”
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.orgor @shawlings601.
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