Dec 3, 2009
Streetcar News
By: Kevin Buchanan
A couple of items related to the modern streetcar project:
First, our friend Dan McGraw in the Fort Worth Weekly has a great article about the progress that’s been made of late on the streetcar project, and about how quickly things are falling into place. Check it out at the Weekly’s site.
In other streetcar news, the city has created a new 20-member streetcar task force to work alongside the engineering firm in the design and funding of the streetcar system. The appointees for the new task force are:
- Nina Petty, Task Force Chair – Greater Fort Worth Real Estate Council
- Bob Parmelee – Fort Worth Transportation Authority
- Roy Brooks – Tarrant County Commissioners Court
- Joy Webster – XTO Energy, representing the TIF Board
- Scott Rule – Tarrant County Hospital District, respresenting the TIF Board
- Fran McCarthy – Central City Redevelopment Committee
- Phillip Poole – Associated Business of the Cultural District
- Andy Taft – Downtown Fort Worth, Inc.
- Johnny Campbell – Sundance Square
- Paul Paine – Fort Worth South, Inc.
- Andre McEwing – Southeast Fort Worth, Inc.
- J. D. Granger – Trinity River Vision Authority
- David DuBois – Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Adam Adolfo – Artes de le Rosa
- Janet Saltsgiver – neighborhood representative
- Rod Erakovich – Texas Wesleyan University
- Pam Minick – Historic Stockyards
- Jamie Terrell – local transit user
- Michael Morris – North Central Texas Council of Governments
- Carlos De La Torre – Oncor
Just a final reminder that those interested in the Tracks to the Future conference next Friday, December 11 have until Monday to register. The conference features over two dozen speakers, interactive panel discussions, updates on rail projects throughout the region, lessons learned in other cities, and more. Registration is easy at the link below:
https://lifelong.is.tcu.edu/wconnect/CourseStatus.awp?~~TFF09
Hope some of you can make it!
Mike Brennan
Fort Worth South, Inc.
Why on Earth does XTO have a representative on this board.
John,
Joy is there as a representative of the Downtown TIF board, just as Scott Rule is there representing the Near Southside TIF board.
What is TIF?
DC,
TIF stands for Tax Increment Financing. There are several TIF districts in Fort Worth, such as Downtown, Lancaster Corridor, and Near Southside. Basically, a TIF district allows tax revenues generated by new investments in the district to be used for funding public improvements within the district.
TIF money is often used for streetscape improvements, among other things. Off the top of my head, some of the things TIF money has been used for in the Near Southside include: Oleander Walk, Magnolia streetscape improvements, Magnolia Green parking garage, and West Leuda Park. TIF money is also likely to be a funding source for the streetcar.