Fort Worth council member gets involved with neighborhood's flooding concerns
A Fort Worth man's giant message about concerns over flooding near his home is now on pause as he begins to work with the city.
Mark Singletary put up a video board in his front yard to show the extent of recent flooding. His neighbors have similar concerns as neighborhoods expand around them.
The Trinity River Farm has been pumping out flood water for a week. On Wednesday morning, the neighborhood got more than an inch of rain on top of the deluge from last weekend. It’s a low-lying area of east Fort Worth.
“The problem is we get another big rain, refills the water retention ponds and water has to be pumped out all over again,” said property owner Julie Amendola.
But residents say the recent flooding is like nothing they’ve never seen before. People blame the additional runoff on two new housing developments going up next to them -- and they’re not alone.
Fort Worth City Council member Gyna Bivens has met with the developers and with residents.
“We haven’t gotten over the anger of losing all the trees and then you have another developer coming in so how much is too much? What do we need to do at city hall to protect our citizens the best we can?” Bivens asked.
Developer D.R. Horton said in a statement it’s complying with all storm water requirements and continues to work with the city.
Singletary’s sign is dark right now because he says at least the city has started a dialogue with residents.
“The plan should be to take the water and get it to the river without damaging other people’s property,” Singletary said.
Singletary met with a third housing developer Wednesday morning who plans to build homes right next door to him.
“He’s got some concerns and I think he should,” Singletary said.
Dirt eroded by high water fills the drainage ditches and city officials keep having to dig them out. Bivens said the developers say they’ll plant more sod and vegetation to try and prevent that from happening.