Friday, January 19, 2018

Fort Worth: Part 2. DR Horton's Dirty Drainage Deed


On December 19, 2017, I took this picture and sent it to the City of Fort Worth's Storm Water Management Division.....if you look at your water bill, we pay some pretty hefty fees for storm water drainage fees.

This is a photo of one of DR Horton's "retaining" walls located on the same property where DR Horton violated their Urban Forestry permit and destroyed over 100 mature, protected trees.  The "retaining" walls are supposedly designed to promote effective drainage of storm water.  I think the engineers may have underestimated the power of water.

Despite the recently cleaned out drainage ditches on Randol Mill Road, the storm water drainage overflowed DR Horton's "detention" pond and covered Randol Mill Road which made it impossible for motorists to tell where the road ended and the drainage ditches began. Very dangerous and a huge liability for the City of Fort Worth.

This is DR Horton's solution to their silt/sediment control problem.  Rocks.


What might be even more disturbing than DR Horton's solution to their storm water drainage problem is Fort Worth Storm Water Management Division's Assistant Director Greg Simmons' responses to my questions.

Were you aware DR Horton violated their Urban Forestry permit and removed more trees than they were allowed?   "Yes.  But, again, my e-mail wasn't about the permit."

How is it even possible for developers to obtain permits AFTER they have already done their dirty deed?  Who do I need to speak with about putting a stop to this?  "With regard to drainage issues, situations where a property owner starts work without a permit are handled on a case-by-case basis with the goal of ensuring the ultimate goal of our regulations still is met even though they got ahead of themselves.  I am not in a position to comment on how other Departments deal with such situations but I suspect it is similar."

Did DR Horton's drainage plan reflect that they would be removing all of the trees they did?  "Our drainage requirements, which are based on the regional standards, don't regulate tree removal and a developer's plan for leaving or removing trees has no bearing on their ability to meet drainage standards. The drainage plan is for us to verify that they have measures to mitigate additional flood or erosion risk regardless of the status of the tree stand, and there are ways to meet those standards with or without trees."

What will the City do to require the developer to reconcile the differences in the plan they submitted to the City but deviated from?  "The issues with their Urban Forestry Permit are not under my cognizance but I assume that the proceedings of the upcoming Urban Design Commission regarding this issue will answer this question."

Strike 2 for DR Horton.....but they'll probably get a walk....FW is the umpire.  


























2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seeing as the city of Fort Worth directly benefits from these homes and their future tax revenue.. It is highly unlikely you will see retribution/punishment or any significant fine for the recent wrong doing(s).

What seemed really petty was when you interrogated the FW representative Greg Simmons. Haha, that man is just trying to do his job and nothing he said appears disturbing or shocking. He even says in his first response that matter regarding the forestry permit isn't what he was emailing you about yet you continue to hound him on an issue he has no authority or oversight on.

Mary Kelleher said...

I agree with you that my interrogation seemed petty when reading it, but I failed to include what preempted it. In an effort to keep it short I realize now it was important to include. There’s a history of not answering questions directly and I really do appreciate Mr. Simmons’ responses.