President's Message
Dear EFWBA Members,
This coming May I will have spent 14 months as your President. When I began in January of 2002 I made myself and our membership a promise. That I would do everything within my power to make this Association more visible with it's membership and with the City of Fort Worth. Additionally, I vowed to support our community and the neighborhood associations in whatever effort they deemed that I and the East Fort Worth Business Association could be of assistance. I am proud to say that we, EFWBA and the residents of the Eastside have done precisely that. We have very strong support from our business community and with the help and support of all of our neighborhood associations we have been able to achieve more in a couple of years than ever before.
E. Lancaster Connection into Jones Street: This success story was a direct result of Neighborhoods of East Fort Worth, The Greater Meadowbrook News and EFWBA getting involved and letting TxDot and the City of Fort Worth come to understand that we would not allow this vital connection into downtown be eliminated.
Ad Hoc Mixed Use Urban Design Committee: We were active in this committee for quite a few months and our time culminated in a city-wide forum on Urban Design and living standards hosted by Mr. Alex Kruger. The forum was so successful that an additional forum will be planned in the near future.
Old K-Mart on E. Lancaster: Along with the West Meadowbrook N.A. and Central Meadowbrook N. A. we were able to successfully negotiate with the current owners for zoning and a site plan that will be very beneficial for our Commercial Corridor. The site plan calls for screening fences and landscaping that will make the site one that we can be proud of.
Mayor's Steering Committee for Historic Preservation: This committee was formed by Mayor Barr because he felt there was a need to define Fort Worth's historic character and review our efforts at historic preservation in the past. We are just about finished with the committee's portion of this process and we will be sending our recommendations to the City Council soon.
Fort Worth Development Standards Task Force: This task force was developed by the City Manager, Mr. Gary Jackson, in response to requests from the Commercial Corridors Task Force, the City Plan Commission and the City Council. This committee has the task of reviewing the City's development standards as they affect central city revitalization and other strategic goals adopted by the City Council. The purpose of this effort would be to assess the extent to which the City's development standards effectively implement the City's current development policies as reflected in the Comprehensive Plan and, on the basis of that assessment, to make appropriate recommendations for amending those development standards.
Finally, our May 1st general meeting will not include a keynote speaker. After I have given a report on the organization and where we are on various projects, there will be an opportunity to discuss any issues you wish to discuss regarding this organization or just about anything you wish to discuss except the elections. If you want to see how I will be voting and how I feel about the elections just read my column in the Greater Meadowbrook News on May 1st.
Additional subjects for comment could be as follows: Follow through on the demolition of the Cowtown Inn, Redevelopment/re-occupation of empty commercial buildings, East Fort Worth Business Association web site, Continued effort with the Oakland Corners Urban Village/NEZ
—Louis McBee