Fort Worth Council Approves Smaller Stockyards Development Plan

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UPDATED 04/05/2016, 10:45 PM:

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - The Fort Worth City Council approved a historic preservation district around the Fort Worth stockyards after anger over developer plans to demolish 23 buildings.

But council members approved the smaller district plan.

Earlier council members listened to hours of discussion as 94 people signed up to talk at the meeting.

Most cities wouldn't think twice about bulldozing decaying, unused buildings like those found in the stockyards. But that's not the case for the people interested in protecting its past who don't like possible plans for its future.

Paul Sensibaugh is one of those people. He said he relives his family history whenever he walks through the stockyards.

"It was a big deal to my family," said Sensibaugh.

The 74-year-old worked, along with his father, grandmother and other relatives, at the now abandoned Swift meat packing plant. Fourteen vacant Swift buildings are among those designated for demolition under a stockyards redevelopment plan.

"It's just the heritage of Fort Worth," said Sensibaugh.

He alongside preservationists pleaded with the city council Tuesday night to stop demolition of 23 buildings, barns and water towers that are an important part of Fort Worth's past but in need of major repairs.

"It just breaks your heart they are going to tear it up," said Sensibaugh.

The developer behind the $175 million revitalization project already has permits for the demolitions. He has released the list of structures that will soon exist only in photos like the one Paul Hunter with the North Fort Worth Historical Society brought to city hall.

"About half of this picture is empty or bare ground and somehow it loses its historic context," said Hunter.

The stockyards were originally a destination for hundreds of thousands of livestock each year. Now it attracts that many tourists and a facelift could bring in a lot more.

But that means tearing down a lot of city's history and the place where three generations of Sensibaugh's worked.

"It's going to be a shame to lose it," said Sensibaugh.

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