In April, when the city broke ground on a $12 million underpass connecting the downtown business district to Hemphill Street, it looked like the momentum behind the Hemphill Corridor’s revitalization had gone from a gust to a gale force wind.
After all, the city was on the verge of approving an urban village project at the Hemphill/Berry intersection, new businesses were popping up all over the area, a city-designated task force was uniting the surrounding neighborhoods into a single strong voice, and street improvements were already in the works.
When the city announced last month that it was halting plans for the Hemphill-Lamar Connector because of rising costs, city officials and community leaders were stunned. Even Mayor Betsy Price called the premature groundbreaking “egg on our face.” The connector was funded by a bond package from 2013, when the cost was estimated to be $26.6 million. Because of stronger market conditions and rising construction costs, the adjusted price tag is roughly $45 million.
Some observers thought the sudden change in plans might slow the Hemphill area’s progress. David Cantu-Crouch, chairman of the Hemphill Corridor Task Force, a group that is guiding the development of the street and represents seven involved neighborhoods, said he would be disappointed if the project didn’t proceed. However, he said, his organization will continue to build on some of the strides the area has already made.
“We’ve thought that having connections to the central business area downtown would be very good for the street,” he said. “The city of Fort Worth passed bonds for this thing, so [the people] clearly want it.”
Cantu-Crouch and the task force have been working with a group that is redrawing the city’s master thoroughfare plan. One of the task force’s goals is to move the Hemphill Corridor closer toward the same kind of “complete streets” model used on the Near Southside. Next week, members of the group will make a presentation to the Fort Worth Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission that suggests adding more pedestrian-friendly elements like bike lanes, on-street parking, and a reduction of speed limit on Hemphill. Next year, the FWPBAC will send its entire plan to City Council for approval.
Ann Zadeh, the area’s council member, said the task force has already spurred a lot of positive changes to the corridor and using the Near Southside as a model will make Hemphill safer and more viable.
“They are talking about making it a complete street, and I think that makes sense, especially on a corridor that has a mixture of uses,” she said. “It’s not a street that should just have cars flying by. The speed limit is lower, but the context of the street allows people to go faster. The street needs to be a part of the neighborhood that it goes through, not just looking at how we can get traffic through quickly.”
Zadeh and others credit the task force with improvements that have already impacted the street. The group, she said, has become a strong stabilizing force for the area.
“I think a lot of the people who have been involved on the task force have recently been reinvigorated, and expanded their focus beyond just the commercial and property owners along Hemphill, and reached out to the neighborhoods around that corridor. They’re really making some strides.”
Vice chair of the task force, Richard Riccetti co-owns with wife Chandra one of Hemphill’s recently opened businesses. The Bastion catering company sits in a four-building compound that once housed the Edna Gladney Home for Unwed Mothers. The couple restored the buildings to their former glory and rent out part of the property as apartments.
“Hemphill would have restored naturally, just because [West] Magnolia [Avenue] and Fairmount have become too expensive for restaurants and independent business owners,” he said. “Our goal was to get in front of the redevelopment of the area. We put ourselves on Hemphill to say, ‘The street is really back.’ ”
Riccetti said one of the task force’s focuses has been to make the area more attractive to businesses.
“We’ve mostly been working on infrastructure,” he said. “It’s really getting all of the guidelines in place for how we and the neighborhood associations see future development. We want Hemphill to be a destination as opposed to a thoroughfare the way it has in the past.
“We’re constantly working with the various city departments to get small things done –– whether its repairing streets, getting signs put up … just the things that signify development is coming.”
Sections of the street fall within the city’s neighborhood empowerment zone program, which waives permit fees to qualifying projects in underserved areas. Members of the task force have helped reach out to people in the neighborhood so they can take advantage of the program.
Another way the task force hopes to fund some of its loftier improvement goals will be to create a tax increment finance district, which would mean surrounding businesses would have to dedicate incremental tax revenue generated by increases in property value to Hemphill projects. Riccetti said that the task force is currently working out the details of a TIF and will make a formal proposal to the City Council next year.
Members of the task force and Zadeh haven’t given up hope on the Hemphill-Lamar Connector.
“A lot of people want that connector to happen, and I’m definitely looking for a way to go forward with that,” Zadeh said. “I keep reiterating to people that it’s not just about creating connectivity for people in that small area of downtown and the Southside. It’s opening up the potential for residents on the Southside to get to downtown to work. It’s also for people to come from downtown to get to the Southside
“There are neighborhoods in the far south that have been waiting their turn,” she continued. The connector “would help with that.”
She believes it’s only a matter of time before Hemphill mirrors the success of the Magnolia area.
“I’ve had a few phone calls of people asking me, ‘Where’s the next hot area going to be?’ ” she said. “I’m not an expert it that, but I like to tout the areas that are doing well in District 9, and that’s certainly one of them.”
