The Heavy Hand of NRH Government

by Ron West

Lucille Stevens, an elderly widow and resident of NRH for many years, began allowing RV owners to store their RV’s on her land in 1993. She and her husband contacted the city and gained permission to allow this use of one acre of their land which was zoned agricultural. (It has reportedly been confirmed by former Mayor Charles Scoma that such an agreement was in place but there is no paperwork to support it.) At the time they started doing this, their home and land was in the country section of our fair city. In 1995, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens were contacted by the City and told they couldn’t keep storing the units. Mr. Stevens, who has since passed away, visited City Hall and the matter was dropped. There are no records available to show why it was dropped.

In 1999, Tarrant Appraisal District discovered that she was allowing the storage of RV’s on this acre of land and reclassified it to commercial. They forced her to pay back taxes at commercial rates for the prior 5 years, i.e., back to 1994. The City of North Richland Hills has happily spent this increased tax income every year since without comment or thank you to Mrs. Stevens.

I need to add at this point that Mrs. Lucille Stevens in a very nice lady and is trying to cooperate with the city in everyway possible. After her husband passed away, she counted on the income of less than $1,000 per month from the storage of the RV’s to help her live. She is not a rich lady and cannot afford to pay an expensive attorney to fight the city. She did not ask that this article be written but she did contact most members of our City Council and the Mayor to seek help.

Now comes progress and the heavy hand of NRH Government to Mrs. Stevens. In mid November, Mrs. Stevens received notice that continued storage of RV’s on her property was in violation of City Zoning and she was given 30 days to remove all such RV’s. The notice was a direct result of a developer building new homes on the eastern boundary of Mrs. Stevens’ property. None of the homes adjacent to her property have been sold or are occupied by residents of our city – but the developer wants to sell them and he sure doesn’t want to have unsightly RV’s parked in a field behind their 6 foot fences. Never mind that the RV’s were there for 10 years before he started building. Never mind that the lady depends on the revenue from this storage to live. Just call Code Enforcement folks of NRH and put her out of business.

Let me refresh our memory about how zoning is enforced in NRH. The photo below is that of Mayor Oscar Trevino’s Cement Mixing Plant located for over two years on BISD land in an area where such zoning was totally prohibited. It was located there regardless of the opposition of residents who appeared before the P&Z Commission to oppose it. But as we all know, power has privileges.

Now lets look at what our Code Enforcement personnel just accomplished in the name of progress. Notice the nice – unoccupied homes for sale just to to the east of this property. The developer needs to sell them and this pastoral land is in his way.

Does the city care? It doesn’t seem so. JoAnn Stout did feel sorry for Mrs. Stevens so she is allowing an extra 15 days for removal of the remaining offensive RV’s as shown in the photo above. As I mentioned above, power has privilege in NRH and developers are running our city – even when it means running over the citizens.

Mrs. Stevens wrote to the city pleading to be left alone and even suggesting that she would agree to limit the use for RV’s on her property for the balance of her life and then require removal. The city seemingly cannot comply.

Oh, by the way, the city has not offered to refund all of her property taxes that were obviously obtained illegally since you cannot have commercial land in an agriculturally zoned area of the city.

Is there a solution? You bet. All that is necessary is action by Planning and Zoning to allow a variance for the rest of Mrs. Stevens’s life regarding this one acre tract. The variance should allow her to continue to store the RV’s just as she has since 1994 – without any beautification requirements such as paving or brick fences. Such variance would expire upon her death. This should not be hard for a city that allows the Mayor to locate an obnoxious cement mixing plant on public land without rent in an area where such a plant would be totally prohibited.

If you agree that Mrs. Stevens is being stepped on by the heavy handed city, then call your councilman or call the Mayor. Let them know that you think this is wrong – wrong – wrong!