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Hold your hat, Trinity River Authority (TRA).
More than 100 residents of the west side of Farmers Branch descended upon the June 18 Farmers Branch City Council study session to tell the organization exactly how unhappy they were about its proposed plans to put a construction staging site on the southeast corner of Valley View Lane and Luna Road.
The organization listened.
TRA General Manager J. Kevin Ward sent an email to the city on Thursday, June 20, saying that in response to residents’ concern the organization has abandoned plans to buy the property.
“We appreciate the honest and objective direction given,” Ward wrote. “I have instructed my staff to cease all actions related to the purchase of the site.”
TRA provides wholesale wastewater services to the City of Farmers Branch. No one denied the need to replace 96-inch and 84-inch wastewater pipeline that lies hidden beneath Luna Road on its path from Carrollton to Irving.
But no residents supported the idea of placing a construction staging area at what Mayor Terry Lynne called a prime piece of real estate within the city.
He had strong words for Tom Davies, deputy executive manager of TRA, who presented the project to the city council.
“I’m sort of mad as hell that this is even happening in our city,” Lynne said as he watched residents erupt into the first of three rounds of applause at his words. “I understand the need. I understand the need. But when you talk about engagement and engaging the community, I don’t feel as though we were engaged with up front when this was initially planned. Maybe I wasn’t in office, but I just learned of this a few months ago and was not even certain of all the details. Even some of my own staff, excuse me, our staff, didn’t have full knowledge of the project.”
TRA planned to buy 12 of the 21 acres to house project trailer facilities on asphalt or gravel where inspectors would be located and a cement mixer truck.
Davies said there were no plans for a batch plant for this project because they create air quality and other issues.
Fire chief Daniel Latimer helps residents find seats before the June 18 study session.
(Photo by Kate Bergeron)
He called the site a “low-use office park” and emphasized that it would not be a construction site. He said it would be surrounded by an eight-foot privacy fence.
He said the work to rehabilitate and replace the wastewater pipeline was critical.
The slide he presented to city council showed five emergency repairs since 2021, including two near I-635 and Mercer Parkway on Luna Road.
“Some of these have been pretty dramatic repairs, especially the ones around 635 involving TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation),” he said. “We’re concerned about the integrity of this system and how that relates to public health.”
The project will start south of I-635 and the QuikTrip on Luna Road and will extend almost the entire way up Luna to Sandy Lake Road. Design started in 2020, and seven phases of construction are planned between January 2025 and April 2030.
It is estimated to cost more than $200 million in construction costs, Davies said.
Lynne continued his criticism of the proposed staging area, acknowledging that the property owner has the right to sell to whomever he or she chooses, but noted that particular property has been the focus of the city’s economic development department.
“It’s taking a prime piece of property that our city, our staff, our economic development department has been working hard to try to find appropriate tenants for so it could be developed to serve a retail purpose for the residents on the west side of our city, and now we’re losing that for at least seven years, if not more. That is an economic hardship on the City of Farmers Branch,” Lynne said.
All council members followed with criticism of the plans for the lot, lack of communication with the city and their own questions, but Councilmember Omar Roman, District 1, went into detail about the experiences of the residents on the west side, all of whom have moved there since 2018.
“We were sold not just a home, but more importantly, we were sold a community with appealing amenities such as vibrant parks, shopping, restaurants, trails and so forth. Instead, so far, we have a community pool that has been under construction for almost a year and a half and still not open, walking paths interrupted by constant construction, incomplete sidewalks, unsafe pedestrian crosswalks< Roman said. "Our city park has been delayed multiple times by no fault of the city. Our restaurant corridor is still incomplete. We have strange smells that diffuse in our community in the winter months that incept from Dallas … I think you get the picture. Moreover, in additional to these concerns, we pay additional levies to live in this area, that we agreed to pay for because of the promises that were made when we bought our homes.”
Tom Davies, deputy executive manager of TRA, presents the information about the seven-year wastewater pipeline project to a full house at city hall.
(Photo by Kate Bergeron)
Roman noted that the crowd was the largest to ever attend a city council meeting, an observation that was seconded by Fire Marshall Tim Dedear separately.
Roman also requested an executive session with the city attorney to discuss the matter. Councilmember Roger Neal, District 5, concurred.
Lynne received more than 49 speaker forms from residents who wished to speak on the matter. He allowed as many speakers as possible to speak before the 6 p.m. city council meeting.
The TRA is a government-owned corporation that was formed in 1955 by the Texas legislature to provide water treatment, distribution and wastewater treatment facilities. Farmers Branch was one of the original four cities part of the TRA’s Central Regional Wastewater System when it began operation in 1959. There are now 21 cities part of the Central Region Wastwater System.
