Published: April 25, 2008 05:09 pm            

Land use: The great balancing act

Steve Boggs, Democrat Publisher

The issue of growth was front and center this past week in the Weatherford area. Grappling with changes in zoning laws and the relentless march of the Barnett Shale left a couple of local city councils in the bull’s eye of local citizens.

Weatherford’s city council got an earful from Timber Creek neighborhood residents at Tuesday’s meeting. The subject was the strip of land between their neighborhood and I-20. The owner wants to develop the 11-acre site, and requested the zoning be changed from residential/agriculture to interstate zoning.

Those opposed to such a change filled the council chambers to make their voices heard. Ultimately, that issue was tabled ... for now.

In Hudson Oaks Thursday night, the city council approved a drilling permit and variance to allow a gas well to be drilled in a residential area south of I-20. There was opposition to it, but the request ultimately passed by a 3-1 vote. The Shale apparently knows no bounds.

Regardless of your opinion, these two issues are signs of things to come. Business development encroaching on residential areas, and small strips of land with I-20 access being utilized for more than homes ... it’s a familiar song in growing markets. There is no easy solution to such issues.

On the positive side, requests, the drilling permit request in Hudson Oaks, and the zoning change request in Weatherford, faced hurdles. That is a positive because zoning requirements did their job. They function as a stop sign to wild, unrestricted and unmanaged development. They ensure that someone can’t buy the property next to you and put in a hog farm, or a truck stop, or even a newspaper. At least not without a plan or without permission.

Sitting on the zoning board or city council in Weatherford, Hudson Oaks or Willow Park has to be the most thankless job in town right now, and for several years to come. One man spoke at the Weatherford meeting about a separate zoning issue on East Bankhead Highway. He said when he moved to Weatherford, there were only 8,100 people here. Thirty-five years later, he’s facing the prospect of having an industrial zoned business backing up to his once-rural property.

Yet, these types of situations will become more frequent and more widespread. It will happen not only in cities, but in rural areas, too. Many counties have taken action and established countywide zoning plans to protect rural areas and manage growth in unincorporated areas. Such efforts require a lot of cooperation between cities, large and small, and county officials.

It would be hard to classify the development in Weatherford and Parker County as the tip of an iceberg. That’s not it at all. It’s a continuing pattern of accelerated growth fueled by the relentless expansion of the Dallas/Forth Worth Metroplex. It’s not a boom, it’s a pattern.

And it’s not going to change. Clearly, zoning and land use management are among the most pressing issues facing Parker County’s future.

        

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