Westland fights to keep neighborhood charm as growth booms nearby

A zoning fight is brewing over a grassy field in a far west Fort Worth neighborhood that is seemingly stuck in time.

Residents and workers in the Westland neighborhood — located off a still-bustling section of Old Highway 80 now known as Camp Bowie West Boulevard/Spur 580 — are concerned about a proposal to allow a small-scale warehouse to be built at the road’s intersection with Longvue Avenue.

They know the area is booming, despite reminders of the past — charming 1950s-era roadside motels scattered on the strip, a vintage shopping center now used for television productions and popular comfort-food restaurants that draw locals from miles around, including the recently revitalized Fort Worth institution Margie’s Original Italian Kitchen.

Nearby, increasing numbers of new homes are being built on former farmland, a UTA West campus is planned a few miles west and a new Amazon warehouse opened a half-mile east down Highway 80.

“It’s a quaint neighborhood,” said Cliff Kubicek, manager for JD’s Hamburgers, a busy restaurant that serves items such as sandwiches, breakfast quesadillas and fried green tomatoes. “It’s got a good feel to it. A lot of people want it to maintain its somewhat rural charm.”

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As nearby property owners seek to establish a hub for their retail businesses, some are concerned that the neighborhood could become more industrial.

Havener Rupert Limited Partnership seeks to rezone about 2 acres of a nearly 20-acre tract at the southeast corner of Camp Bowie West and Longvue. While most of the tract is already zoned for industrial uses, the company wants to rezone a portion of its land currently earmarked for neighborhood commercial use.

The company plans to “develop a cohesive multi-building industrial warehouse complex on the 19.58-acre tract,” according to a filing by President H. Jill Havener with the city of Fort Worth.

Havener said the company plans to sell the property since uses are limited.

“It’s just progress,” she said, citing the building of other nearby warehouses. “I think they’re worrying about the wrong thing.”

The proposed zoning and land use adheres to the city’s future land-use plan and is compatible with the adjacent light industrial facilities already along Camp Bowie West Boulevard, according to the application.

A map filed with the application showed that Havener Rupert also owns dozens of acres adjacent to the Amazon warehouse, renovated in 2022 at a cost of about $56,691, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The proposed industrial complex would be next to the Amazon warehouse.

Several single-family homes, a garden center and Longvue Avenue Baptist Church are located across the street from the proposed development.

“That intersection is the heart of old Westland and needs to be kept in the current neighborhood style,” Ria Hendrix wrote in a Facebook post. “Many are working hard to rejuvenate the area by keeping the original buildings and updating them with restaurants, etc., for the benefit of the new neighborhoods that surround the area.

Wallace Worden, head of school at nearby All Saints Episcopal School, wrote to zoning commissioners that the area already has increased traffic from new restaurants, housing and other developments but that’s mostly from cars.

“However, a light industrial development will inevitably bring trucks from nearby I-30 and 820 closer and closer to our campus traffic,” Worden wrote.

A shopping center used for filming the “Landman” TV series attracts people to Westland in far west Fort Worth. (Eric E. Garcia | Fort Worth Report)

The 6-mile stretch of Highway 80, part of the older Bankhead Highway system, flourished in the 1950s and 1960s with several longtime restaurants before travelers were rerouted to new interstates to the north and east.

These days, many visitors stop at the strip’s restaurants for meals. Some are looking for the “Landman” stars as the TV series sometimes films at the Westland Texas shopping center on the northwest corner of Camp Bowie West and Longvue.

“Everybody drives by to see if they can see Billy Bob Thornton,” Kubicek said. “Sometimes they hang out in the parking lot to catch a glimpse.”

Westland Group, which acquired the West Side Cafe in 2023, also owns JD’s Hamburgers, 9901 Camp Bowie West Blvd., named for operating partner Gigi Howell’s grandfather, a truck driver who grew up in the area. The group also now owns Margie’s Italian Gardens restaurant, established in 1953.

The zoning case, first heard by zoning commissioners in August, was continued until this month. The case is expected to be considered by commissioners at their Sept. 10 meeting.

Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.