City Council Approves Comprehensive Plans, Considers Downtown Boundaries, and Approves Animal Ordinance

Don Purdum
Post Editor

December 3, 2008

Tuesday evening, the Forney City Council met to hear and approve a number of items, including the Comprehensive Plan, the Historic Downtown area, and a revision to the animal ordinance to include dangerous animals.

The council approved the Comprehensive Plan, which is the first revision since 2001.

A Comp. Plan is a tool that cities use to help manage future growth. The major items in the city’s Comprehensive Plan included transportation and future land use, capital improvements, and growth projections over the next five to ten years.

According to City Planner Peter Morgan, one items new in the Comprehensive Plan is the “Overall Mobility Plan” which includes a Northern Loop and Western Parkway.

“One of the major changes you will see on this plan is going to be the Northern Loop and the Western Parkway,” said Morgan.

These roads “will form an outer loop that feeds the connector roads and go into the core of the city. However, we don’t know if Loop 9 will be built anytime in the near future.”

If the Northern Loop and Western Parkway become a reality, the roads are intended to be six lanes.

Moving on, one of the legally binding documents is the “Future Land Use Map.”

“This map is used whenever someone requests a zoning change. The first thing we do when a request is made is compare the request to the Land Use Map,” said Morgan.

A Land Use Map helps the city determine what kind of businesses can exist in a particular area of the community.

For example, Morgan stated, “If someone is requesting apartments in the location that is in the outer loop, we are legally bound to recommend a “no” of that plan because it does not match the Land Use Map.”

After approving the Comprehensive Plan, the City Council listened as Joe Dan McBeth represented the downtown advisory committee, who has been working on developing a boundary that would define the Historic Downtown area.

“When we started, we were challenged to create a vision of what we want Forney’s downtown area to look like,” said McBeth.

He added, “We are working on creating a vision (for downtown) that is pedestrian friendly by widening sidewalks, allowing chairs and dining, and making it more viable to attract businesses and pedestrians, as well as be historically consistent and ensure it all ties in.”

According to McBeth, one of the major goals of the committee is the revitalization of downtown.

The Downtown Advisory Committee has created a proposed boundary map which can be seen on this page. The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the recommendation 8-0, with a name of “Forney Historic Town Center.”

Mayor Darrell Grooms expressed the Council’s gratitude for the hard work the committee has put into this effort. “Your guys have done a great job.”

The Council had some minor concerns. “We like the plan. However, we would like to ask you and your board to revisit (revise the plan) South of Trinity Street and west of Bois D’Arc,” Said Grooms.

The Council voted unanimously to send the boundary proposal back to the committee to consider tightening up the boundaries of the downtown area.

The council did hear about proposed changes to the animal ordinance that some council members felt was outdated. The ordinance has not been amended since 1993.

John Teel, Interim Director of Community Development, said, this ordinance “better defines dangerous dogs and gives the police chief, specifically animal control, a lot more authority when they find a truly dangerous dog, to do something with it before it injures or kills someone. That’s the key thing and probably the most important in this draft change.”

Councilman Rozell asked, “is there anything in here about mandatory or strongly suggested spaying or neutering?”

Teel answered and said, “no there is not.”

The ordinance passed unanimously.