Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Association

Council Revises Regulations for Front Yard Fences

The Fort worth City Council recently adopted revised regulations regarding the construction of fences in the front yard of residential and commercial properties.

Previous regulations allowed a fence, including one constructed of solid material and up to 4 feet in height, within the front yard of a property.

New regulations only permit open-design fences with a minimum of 50 percent openness or visibility, such as wrought iron or picket. Chain link fences and fences constructed of solid material are not allowed.

Open-design fences may be up to 5 feet high if agreed upon by the adjacent property owners and approved by special exception by the Board of Adjustment.

Owners must obtain a permit from the Board of Adjustment to construct a fence that will be higher than 5 feet or of a solid design.

Any fence constructed more than 6 feet high, regardless of its location on the lot, requires a permit from the Development Department. Fences more than 8 feet high are not permitted on residential properties.

The front yard is considered that part of the property located between the front wall of a house and the street. Under certain circumstances, the front yard will include the side of the house and the street. This area is a called a "projected front yard" and is created when the adjacent lot located to the rear of a lot faces the side street. The front yard of the adjacent lot then creates a front yard along the entire block face and on the side yard of the adjacent homes.

If you have questions or for more information, call 817-392-2414.

Make Sure Your Carport Meets City Requirements

The Fort Worth City Council has approved a grandfather clause regarding existing carports, providing owners a window of time to obtain a permit and make illegal carports legal.

Beginning Sept. 1, 2004, both the Code Compliance Department and the Development Department Inspection Division will issue notices and citations for any carports that do not have a permit.

Why do I need a permit?
Once a permit is obtained, your existing side or rear yard carport may remain regardless if it violates setbacks, placement and/or size.

However, should the carport be destroyed or removed, any new construction would have to follow current ordinance requirements.

The city encourages owners to know the latest requirements to avoid citations and expensive fines.

All Carports Constructed before January 18, 2003
·Owners must obtain a building permit by September 1, 2004, in order for the carport to be considered legal. After the September deadline, owners will be given a double penalty fee for building a structure without a building permit.

·Owners will not be required to go before the Board of Adjustment for violating any rear and side yard setback requirements

All Front Yard Carports
·Owners must go before the Board of Adjustment and request a special exception for existing and proposed front yard carports.

The special exception fee for existing front yard carports will be waived if the application is received before September 1, 2004. The special exception fee for proposed front yard carports is $150.

Reminder
All carports are subject to the city's building code requirements and may be inspected regardless of when the carport was constructed.

Residents should bring their carport plans to the Development Department to determine if the carport meets fire, building code and property-line setback requirements for the particular zoning district in which it will be built.

If you have questions or for more information about amendments to the revised carport ordinance call 817-392-2414 or 817-392-8029.

April 15th 2004, W.S.N.A. hosted the first Granbury Road Restoration Committee meeting.

Those who attended were Wedgwood Square NA President Tolli Thomas, Wedgwood Square NA Business Relations Director Russell Borgmann, Code Compliance Officer Jack Harris, Meadows of Candleridge President Jeff Menges, Fort Worth City Zoning Chairman Jungus Jordan, and The League of Neighborhoods Association President Eva Bonilla.

It was discussed at this meeting that we could begin small and start with planting. We could begin on Granbury Road at 820/I-20 and end at Wedgmont Circle. We will start by mapping the street and its assets, weaknesses, and characteristics. Then we will go to the city and ask for indigenous or native plants and trees to help dress up, cover up, and beautify the street. These plants will require some care for the next couple of years.

We are also going to look into zoning changes that may assist us in receiving financial aid and assistance from the city and other organizations.

This will be a long-term project and we will have to do some work and put forth some effort in order to be taken seriously enough to be looked at as a city initiative. The more volunteers and the greater our voice, the greater our success will be.

Our timing is good as many street and transportation improvements and developments are soon coming to the area and will touch this district and Granbury Road. Granbury Road is traveled on by tens of thousands of cars daily and those of us who do use it often know that it's physical and aesthetic condition are in serious need of attention.

This project is clearly not limited to Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Residents and Businesses. Any person(s) who travels on this road, who's business faces or is affected by this road, or any person interested in city improvement and betterment is welcome to attend meetings, provide ideas and comments, or provide assistance in whatever way possible.

This is an exciting project and now that it has kicked off, the momentum will build and build. Come meet with us, join us in restoring Granbury Road.

Fort Worth Code Compliance has begun a new program to empower citizens to better their communities and to create greater compliance officer accountability to encourage homeowners and other residents to take care of their property and to keep up their homes.

This program trains anonymous citizens for participation in reporting to compliance officers, violations that they see when out and about. These officers must then directly report updates and resolutions regarding the offenses to the Code Ranger Participants who file the reports of complaint. Code Compliance is shooting for 0-Tolerance.

To learn more, visit the link provided. http://ci.fort-worth.tx.us/codecomp/coderangers.htm

Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Association
To: Fort Worth City council
From: Tolli Thomas, President of WSNA and the WSNA's Residents
Date: 08/28/03
Re: CIP / Improvements to WSNA

Regarding A New Park:

Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Association requests a new park be built within our boundaries in the following area and for the following reasons:

The Park Hill Apartments are located on Wedgway, between Trail Lake Drive and Wonder Drive.

These apartments offer, in connection with the Catholic Charities, spaces to persons relocating to the USA from other countries such as Bosnia and Africa. These apartments also offer spaces set aside as affordable housing. These apartments are home to many children. Unfortunately, the charities, which assist some of these new residents in reaching the USA and in locating housing, do not seem to have any further involvement in providing recreational space. Additionally, no space has been provided for them to congregate or socialize. Therefore, the streets have become their playground and their "territory". These children come often from highly oppressive environments and are now relocated where there is little or no supervision. In combination with this, there is a complete lack of essential social and extracurricular common space. Because they have no suitable location for exerting their energies they are instead acting out in the following ways:

Refusing to move for cars attempting to pass them

Setting up destructive traps for cars using these streets that are designed to destroy tires

Throwing things at cars traveling on these streets, such as rocks and other items

Reacting belligerently to drivers using these streets, often yelling, cursing, and using other abrasive body language

Walking door to door on nearby streets and asking for money

Walking up to parked cars and looking into parked car windows one by one as they walk to and from their apartments.

Illegally or without consent, entering business properties, running up and down halls, vandalizing restrooms, disturbing business practice, and loitering in parking lots and atop dirty dumpsters.

Loitering in homeowner's yards looking around homeowner's properties and looking for "entertainment"

Our area is currently experiencing issues of high speed or speeding traffic, this is true for the streets that these children are playing in.

A park should not only be considered as a necessity for these and all children in our neighborhood for play, socialization, congregation, and free entertainment, but also as necessary to prevent possible tragedy in our streets. This location must be in walking distance, as many of these persons or families cannot afford more than one car to drive to a nice park and as it is too hot in Texas much of the year to walk a good distance. Our neighborhood has been and remains a highly taxed but low in public amenities area and this should not be so. A park would greatly assist in reduction of this general feeling.
There are several nearby locations, which may be suitable.

Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Association

To: Fort Worth City council
From: Mrs. Tolli A. Thomas, President of WSNA
CC: All council members
Date: 08/28/03
Re: CIP / Improvements to WSNA

Regarding Sidewalks:
Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Association requests sidewalks for the following streets:

1) Woodway
2) Trail Lake Drive
3) Wedgmont Circle North

Sidewalks on these streets would be beneficial to our area for the following reasons:

These streets have heavy pedestrian traffic.
These streets are heavily utilized pathways for school children walking to:
a) Bruce Shulkey Elementary School
b) Wedgwood Middle School
c) Southwest High School
These streets have unacceptably high traffic speeds and congestion for residential or pedestrian safety, without the presence of sidewalks.

Regarding Street Lights:

Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Association requests ample lighting be installed throughout our entire neighborhood.

Wedgwood Square has almost NO street lamps within our boundaries.
Nearly every street in our boundaries is completely void of street lamps or has inadequate lighting.

1) This lack of lighting presents traffic safety risks and concerns about the dark streets driven in night hours.
2) This lack of lighting presents concerns and dangers regarding crime and it's prevention for our more than 1200 homes, nearly 200 businesses, and numerous apartment dwellers.