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Texas
From Junkyards to City Showcase: Fort Worth's Downtown Redevelopment Program Aims High
''Very few cities have so much underutilized land so close to downtown -- and so ripe for redevelopment'' as Forth Worth, writes Star-Telegram columnist Mitchell Schnurman, applauding the latest design for a $360 million project to reroute and reshape the downtown part of the Trinity River, convert the junkyards, used-car lots and vacant buildings on its north side into a ''showcase of waterfront properties,'' and make the whole area the city's centerpiece.
The price is high, but ''we put big bucks into highways and interchanges all the time,'' the columnist points out, urging readers to see it ''as the ultimate anti-highway improvement, a piece of infrastructure that will bring tens of thousands of people to the inner city and spawn hundreds of millions in investment.''
With the Tarrant Regional Water District already pledging $44 million, and more seed money expected from tax district revenue, Fort Worth U.S. Republican Representative Kay Granger is upbeat about her efforts to secure some $180 million in federal funds, saying, ''We're not doing this for tourists. We're doing it for the people who live in this community.''
Modeled after the famous Vancouver (Canada) urban waterfront, and designed under leadership of Vancouver-based architect Bing Thom, the columnist writes, the project features an elongated town lake and river-delta-type canals that ''will bring water to an area that could handle 834 acres of development,'' roughly doubling the downtown core.
Aiming at a diverse mix of young families, affluent professionals and retirees, the project's dense housing will likely include multifamily and row houses, while small city blocks and short bridges across the water will ''add to the human scale, making it more attractive for walking and lingering,'' especially since much of the area ''will offer unobstructed views of the water and the bluffs beyond.''
Noting that the lead architect is also consultant for the Tarrant County College plan to locate a campus along the river, the columnist also finds the project's fast-track launch and schedule impressive. The lake and the main canal could be finished in six to eight years, with private construction under way all the time, though the whole area may not be built out for 40 years. City leaders and the public, he adds, will be discussing the project over the next several months. -- Star-Telegram
6/20/2004
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