Inside the TRV - Neighborhoods

Kicking off a series of posts looking at the finer points of the Trinity River Vision’s Trinity Uptown plan, I’m starting today by examining the four neighborhoods of the TRV’s new urban district just north of downtown, and what each will be geared towards.

The Trinity Uptown district will be divided into four distinct neighborhoods - the North Neighborhood, the Southwest Neighborhood, the Southeast Neighborhood, and the Urban Lake Neighborhood. Each will feature a mix of uses, but each also mixes those uses in their own way.

The North Neighborhood

The North Neighborhood will feature some of Trinity Uptown’s most varied mix of commercial and residential uses. The North Main Street Corridor will be lined with buildings a minimum of 3 stories high and a maximum of 96 feet high, which will feature ground-level retail topped by office or residential uses. North Main itself will feature four travel lanes, two dedicated parking lanes, and wide 18′ sidewalks to encourage pedestrian activity in what will likely be the district’s most retail-heavy street and primary commercial corridor. Buildings will build to the property line for proper street wall creation (this is a rule that applies to the entire district). North Main will be lined with a double row of trees.

Once off the North Main corridor, the North Neighborhood falls into four different zoning applications. Streets in the North Neighborhood off of North Main will be very different in character from North Main, falling under the district’s Local Streets design designation. These streets will feature narrow 24′ 2 travel lane designs with two dedicated parking lanes, and sidewalks which will be a mixture of 11′ sidewalks and 9′ residential patios. Buildings are required to be built to their property line to maintain a proper street wall. Residential developments will feature street-oriented townhomes with raised patios on the sidewalks. All local streets will be lined with a row of trees.

Beyond Local Streets, there are Access Lanes which are even narrower and also tree-lined, and each block will have a mid-block Pedestrian Street devoid of cars.

Just off North Main will be the LaGrave Field zone, which will feature a mix of uses and feature buildings of a minimum of 16 feet and maximum of 72 feet in height. Activities in this zone will be tied to LaGrave Field in many ways. East and south of the LaGrave Field zone is an area designated N1. N1 will be primarily residential in character with ground-floor neighborhood retail where appropriate. Buildings in the N1 designation will be a minimum height of 3 stories and a maximum height of 72 feet.

West of North Main and along the bluffs on the northeast edge of the neighborhood, development is designated N2. N2 is another zone that will be primarily residential in makeup with ground-floor neighborhood retail where appropriate. N2’s minimum height is also 3 stories, but its maximum height will be 96 feet, enabling taller and denser structures here.

At the northern tip of the North Neighborhood is an area designated N3. N3’s minimum height is raised to 6 stories, and its maximum height shoots up to 288 feet. This is one of only a handful of areas of Trinity Uptown where towers are allowed.

The North Neighborhood features water frontages along the new Bypass Channel, the river on the east, and the interior canal system. The Bypass Channel will be fronted by terraced public walkways, leading from the water up ramps and stairs to patios and outdoor dining areas. The eastern river channel will feature flatter access with large public sidewalks and plazas and boardwalks. The narrow canals will feature public walkways, plazas, and pedestrian bridges.

Open space in the North Neighborhood will take the form of several parks and plazas. Three parks will be located near LaGrave Field, near the northern point of the neighborhood, and on its western bank with the bypass channel. Plazas (all plaza in Trinity Uptown front water) will be located 1) where North Main intersects one of the canals, and 2) at the neighborhood’s southwest point where it fronts the Urban Lake.

The Southwest Neighborhood

The Southwest Neighborhood will be at its core primarily a residential neighborhood, with a variety of housing types. Main commercial uses will be located along the new alignment of White Settlement Road as it winds through the neighborhood towards the North Neighborhood. The majority of the Southwest Neighborhood will be N2, with its southern and western points designated N3 for towers.

Major open space in this neighborhood will be a large plaza on the neighborhood’s eastern edge where it front the Urban Lake, five small parks scattered around its edges, and a large “Central Park” in its center. This central park will be surrounded by two canals and six-story buildings across the canals. At its northeastern end, this park will be capped by a new elementary or high school between the park space and the Urban Lake.

Streets in the Southwest Neighborhood will be of the narrow Local Streets design, with two exceptions - White Settlement Road will be a four-lane street with on-street parking during off-peak hours, with a sidewalk/patio arrangement like the Local Streets. Henderson Street will be a larger six-lane design owing to its being part of the State Highway System.

The Southwest Neighborhood will front waterways in a similar manner as the North Neighborhood, and will also include Urban Lake frontage in the style seen in the illustrations.

The Southeast Neighborhood

The Southeast Neighborhood’s character primarily comes from the new Tarrant County College campus. Development around TCC will be a minimum of 3 stories and a maximum of 72 feet. The northeastern section of the Southeast Neighborhood will be N1 for smaller scaled buildings.

Open space in the Southeast Neighborhood will take the form of a large central park on the canal border between this neighborhood and the North Neighborhood. This central park will also have a new elementary or high school associated with it. A plaza is located at the TCC site as well. Water frontage takes the form of the River Channel and Canal types.

In this neighborhood, the old river channel on the east will be significantly wider to allow for a large area of on-water activities, such as waterfront restaurants and houseboats.

The Urban Lake Neighborhood

Finally, the Urban Lake neighborhood will be a primary focal point of the district. It will be surrounded by a mix of uses including institutional and cultural. A large plaza and boardwalk is planned here alongside the old TXU power plant, along with boat docks and ramps. Another plaza is situated across the lake in front of the Radio Shack campus site. All development in the Urban Lake neighborhood is of a special UL designation, meaning a minimum height of 3 stories and a maximum height of 96 feet.

This concludes our first look into the details of the Trinity River Vision and the Trinity Uptown plan. I’ll be writing more of these in the near future, as we move closer and closer to seeing physical work commence on the project. Future installments will examine the Trinity Uptown urban design guidelines & standards and other aspects of the project, which will forever change Fort Worth’s character and central city.

Another note: much of what you’ll be seeing in regards to the urban design aspects of Trinity Uptown is the result of work by Fort Worth’s own Gideon Toal, the local architectural & planning firm which, for some reason, never gets the press they deserve on these matters. Consider these posts a way to rectify that.