Fort Worth plans to demolish 2 duplexes for flood protection efforts in Arlington Heights

The Fort Worth City Council signed off Tuesday on a plan to allow Trinity Habitat to salvage materials from two Arlington Heights duplexes before the city knocks them down for flood protection.

It’s part of a larger plan to address flooding in an area where heavy rains have overwhelmed century-old storm drains.

Before the city knocks the duplexes down, Trinity Habitat will be allowed to go in remove appliances and building materials that it can turn around and sell at one of its four ReStore retail operations, said senior director Cody Hamilton.

Cabinets, light fixtures and water heaters are just some of the materials Trinity Habitat can salvage from the roughly 40 ‘deconstruction’ projects in undertakes every year, Hamilton said.

These salvage project can net Habitat $3,000 to $10,000 per home and help keep building materials from ending up in landfills, he said.

The duplexes are at 2209-11 Western Ave. and 2217-19 Western Ave.

The City Council approved spending roughly $640,000 to the purchase the properties at its May 19 meeting. A grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will cover $550,000.

The duplex at 2209 Western Ave. closed in early August, while the duplex at 2217 Western Ave. was delayed, city stormwater manager Jennifer Dyke wrote in an email to the Star-Telegram.

The city will mow the grass and could in future partner with one of the neighboring property owners to maintain the lots, Dyke told an Arlington Heights community meeting in May.

The most important thing is that nothing be built on those lots that would prevent stormwater from being absorbed into the ground, she said.

The city spent over $1 million between 2004 and 2016 to study the flooding problems in Arlington Heights.

It build a retention pond at Hulen Street and Bryce Avenue and built underground storage on Bryce, Western and Ashland avenues between 2012 and 2016.

These projects can retain about 5.5 acre feet of water, which is roughly 5.5 feet of water stacked on top of a football field, Dyke said during the May community meeting.

However, city studies determined Arlington Heights would need close to 24 times that amount to withstand a 100-year flood.

The city spent $3.8 million in 2019 and 2020 to purchase nine properties along Western and Carleton avenues that were most impacted by flooding.

It originally planned to convert them into retention ponds, but changed course after getting community opposition to the plan during a 2018 public meeting.

The city’s plan is to offer the nine properties up to a developer with strict instructions to raise the properties two feet above the flood plain in a way that won’t make the flood situation worse.

The city plans to issue a notice of sale sometime this month

Dyke said the city is also developing maps that would give residents a better sense of flood risk beyond what’s provided by FEMA.

Arlington Heights resident Carrie Richards expressed dismay during the May community meeting saying she was not made aware of the area’s flood risk before she purchased her home in fall 2021.

“It should have been disclosed to me and it wasn’t cause I never would have bought this house,” Richards said.

The city released preliminary flood maps in an Aug. 16 city council report, and is working on getting enough data to define those flood zones with the same accuracy as FEMA.

Communicating that flood risk is critical to helping residents make informed decisions about where they choose to live and how they choose to protect their properties, Dyke wrote.