Stand at the south end of Timberline Drive in Benbrook and look east, and you get a glimpse into the future. What was formerly open pastureland has been razed and graded for home sites. Streetlights stand where once there were oaks and mesquites. The cattle and horses are gone, moved to make room for a residential community called Trinity Estates Phase III in what is a picturesque corner of the city, not far from Benbrook Lake, where the Clear Fork of the Trinity River flows.
And once again, as was the case in August when a developer tried and failed to convince the City Council to let him build in the Mary’s Creek floodplain, Benbrook residents are pushing back against the planned community, fearing an increased risk to their homes once the builder has finished altering the Clear Fork floodplain
Two sides to the Trinity Estates debate in Benbrook
The 75-acre property between Timberline Drive and the Clear Fork where the new development is going has been zoned for single-family residential since the 1980s, though no one had gone so far as to build there until 2024, when the owner, North Richland Hills-based Sandlin Homes, began construction.
This upset many people, like Greg Clem, who has lived on Timberline since 2016. Drive by his house, and you’ll see signs in the yard opposing the Trinity Estates development. He says flooding was already a concern in his neighborhood, and the new community will exacerbate that. He also accused the city of greenlighting the project without sufficient oversight…