{"id":73852,"date":"2025-07-18T23:03:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73852\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T23:03:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:03:15","slug":"benbrook-residents-concerned-over-plan-to-build-home-on-floodplain-nbc-5-dallas-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73852\/","title":{"rendered":"Benbrook residents concerned over plan to build home on floodplain \u2013 NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Reagan’s backyard is a north Benbrook oasis, boasting plenty of plants and sitting about 40 feet above Mary’s Creek. <\/p>\n

For five years, he’s watched the creek ebb and flow with the rain. <\/p>\n

“I’ve seen it in the last five years come up at least 25 feet up this embankment. My neighbors and others have seen it even higher,” Reagan said. <\/p>\n

Some of his neighbors sent videos to NBC 5, showing the roaring waters as recently as July 6.<\/p>\n

“And that’s before any kind of development. Like, that’s how it is now,” said Sean Moore, who’s lived in the neighborhood for seven years. “That’s why I’m scared for it.”<\/p>\n

They’re worried that a proposed new development of more than 150 homes across the creek would cause erosion and increase the flood risk for everyone. <\/p>\n

“I just don’t want my neighbors getting washed out. I mean, we just saw a whole camp in Texas washed away. So I mean, to just be fudging with it is, it’s silly,” said Moore. <\/p>\n

The development would be called Rowan Ranch.<\/a><\/p>\n

Planning and Zoning commissioners passed a rezoning request last week, and it now moves to the city council for approval.<\/p>\n

Benbrook Assistant City Manager Ethan Cox said the land spans about 80 acres, about 55 of which are currently in a floodplain. <\/p>\n

\"\"This floodplain map from the City of Benbrook shows the city’s floodplain where part of Rowan Ranch falls. Green = 500-year floodplain Red = 100-year floodplain Blue = Floodway ()<\/p>\n

“So, what the developer is looking to do is to make improvements in the floodplain to redirect the water, pull properties out of the floodplain, allowing them to be developed,” Cox explained. <\/p>\n

The developer and landowner is Corey Waldrop of Motiv Ventures. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur plan is to widen the creek, and by widening the creek, it allows for better conveyance of water,” Waldrop said. “So, we\u2019re reducing what we call the water surface elevation in a flood event. We\u2019re also decreasing the velocities, and the studies show that we\u2019re increasing what\u2019s called valley storage.” <\/p>\n

Waldrop said he worked on his plan with a team of engineers, and it would not only ensure the safety of his homes, but also over 100 existing homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe modeled the creek in a way for us to reduce the floodplain not just for our property but for the adjacent homeowners on the other side,” he said. \u201cThe overall impact is 100% positive for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox said the city has not yet done any of its own studies, and that would come later, if the rezoning request is approved. <\/p>\n

“There will come a time to where we\u2019ll really dig and start looking at the engineering and what\u2019s going to happen with the floodplain and how that might impact surrounding properties,” he said. <\/p>\n

Video from another concerned neighbor, Daniel Call, shows Mary’s Creek rushing right after rainfall on July 6th. He said the water was even higher during the rain. <\/p>\n

Cox said many other agencies would also be involved besides the city of Benbrook, including the City of Fort Worth, FEMA, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to know what those improvements are, evaluate the engineering,” Cox said. \u201cThere can be no adverse impacts upstream and downstream. So, that\u2019s really the standard that we hold and that\u2019s something that\u2019s there to protect the community and the existing residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Reagan, Moore, and hundreds of others who have joined a Facebook group and signed a petition<\/a> are worried that approving Waldrop’s rezoning request will open the floodgates to building. <\/p>\n

“The city council has no obligation to vote for this. They can just keep it the way it is. It’s the way that he bought it,” Moore said. <\/p>\n

According to Cox, Waldrop can build homes on a smaller portion of the land that is not in the floodplain. <\/p>\n

While Moore isn’t worried about his home flooding because it sits on a hill, he’s worried about his neighbors. <\/p>\n

“The way in my mind that I see it, is it’s possible that all my neighbors don’t get washed away. Yeah, it’s possible if– when he does that, but that’s not a gamble I want to take,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m not anti-build. That’s not the point. But, I think manipulating a floodplain and a creek and moving all those things is dangerous and reckless,” Reagan said. “I think they’re putting our lives at risk. And for what?”<\/p>\n

Moore is organizing a community meeting for neighbors to discuss their concerns on Monday, July 21, at Redeemer Lutheran Church at 7 p.m. <\/p>\n

Benbrook City Council is set to consider rezoning the land at their Aug. 21 meeting. <\/p>\n

Ashlee Nave lives up the creek from Reagan and took this video of Mary’s Creek back in October 2018. She said heavy rain caused the creek to rise more than she had ever seen before. She is also worried about the impacts Rowan Ranch could have on flooding. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Reagan’s backyard is a north Benbrook oasis, boasting plenty of plants and sitting about 40 feet above…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,51558,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-73852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-benbrook","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fortworth","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114876737318725803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}