FORT WORTH -- Could neighborhood residents successfully fight City Hall?
Could they stop construction of a combination community center and elementary school, even though it would be built on a park across the street from a gas well?
It seems so.
At first, council member Joel Burns thought he had good news for the Rosemont neighborhood in Fort Worth.
He favored a proposal for the city to partner financially with the Fort Worth school district, and build a combination community center and elementary school.
But then residents found out the site was on top of their neighborhood park.
"We have so little green space here in Fort Worth, I couldn't imagine anybody would want to take away the little bit of green space that we have," opponent Cristina Snoke said.
Worse still, the site was across the street from previously permitted gas wells, which only deepened opposition.
Robert Snoke, chairman of the neighborhood association, led opponents to canvass residents about the plan and told them to attend a public meeting last week. In English and in Spanish, dozens told city leaders the same thing: kill the plan.
This week, Burns announced he's rescinding his support of the project.
"Unfortunately, we weren't able to achieve all of the goals I wanted to see happen," Burns said. "It took up too much of our very limited park space, and in addition to that, it had very strong neighborhood opposition."
Burns said there's no backup plan, and that the $2.5 million set aside for the center alone won't go very far. That's fine with Robert Snoke.
"This (park) is our community center," Robert Snoke said. "And it's hands down a better community center than the city can invent. It doesn't require air conditioning. It just requires a responsible park department to clean it up."
The construction of the elementary school that was planned for the park site will still go forward, but on a different site. A previous plan called for it to be built next to a nearby middle school.
E-mail chawes@wfaa.com
