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The Game Board Was Set: Horne Street, $35K in Public Money, and Lake Como’s Missing Deliverables

Updated: Apr 9

Lake Como did not arrive at the April 2 Horne Street meeting at the start of the conversation.


By the time residents walked into that room, the framework had already been built.


In 2019, the City expanded the Camp Bowie form-based district to include properties along Horne Street, as recommended in the Como/Sunset Heights NEZ Strategic Plan. In January 2025, the Fort Worth Local Development Corporation approved $35,000 to Camp Bowie District, Inc. (1) to provide "organizational and administrative support" to the Lake Como Neighborhood Advisory Council, including monthly meetings, reporting, at least one public engagement open house, and assistance reviewing development applications under the form-based code.



Then, in February 2025, the NAC chartered the Como Economic Development & Design Review Committee (2), stating that its purpose was to oversee current and future developments along Horne Street from Lovell Avenue to Vickery Boulevard. That charter also says the executive director of Camp Bowie District, Inc. serves as the committee moderator, writes opinion letters based on committee decisions, and represents the committee before public bodies including the Urban Design Commission, Board of Adjustment, Zoning Commission, and City Council.


So let’s ask the obvious question...

If the code framework existed, the support structure was funded, and the design-review committee was formally in place, why did residents still walk into the April 2, 2026 public meeting trying to piece the stakes together in real time?

That meeting did not present a small decision. According to KLCB’s observations, the department effectively left Lake Como stakeholders with two paths:

1) support a request for a variance to the Camp Bowie form-based code so the project could use a uniform back-of-curb sidewalk design and avoid eminent domain, or 2) keep the code as written and accept that eminent domain would likely be required along the corridor.


That is not a neighborhood being engaged early. That is a neighborhood being asked to react at the edge of consequence.


The City’s own April 2 meeting deck (3) shows this issue stretching across multiple years: 30% design in April 2023, 60% design and public meeting in January 2024, revised 60% design in May 2025, ongoing form-based-code discussion from September 2025 forward, and then the April 2, 2026 public input meeting. In other words: the public meeting was not the beginning of the issue. It was one more touchpoint in a much longer process.


That is why this is bigger than bike lanes.


This is about governance.


  • Who held the pen while the rules were being shaped?

  • Who got funded to support the work?

  • Who was authorized to speak and review?

  • And what, exactly, did residents receive in return?


The answer cannot simply be: a late-stage meeting, a difficult choice, and a room full of people trying to catch up.


KLCB’s role is not to tell residents what side to pick. Our role is to equip residents and property owners with the tools and knowledge they need to participate in revitalization outcomes. That means naming the structure, following the money, reading the charters, and making sure Lake Como residents understand the process that is shaping the future of the neighborhood.


This is exactly why Seat at the Table matters.


Not as symbolism.

As civic infrastructure.




Summary


The game board was set: who held the pen, who got funded, and what did Lake Como residents get?

This frame is supported by the record:

  • Horne Street was pulled into the Camp Bowie form-based district in 2019.

  • Fort Worth Land Development Corporation approved $35,000 in 2025 to Camp Bowie District, Inc. to support Lake Como Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC) with administrative and organizational work tied to development-control activity, meetings, public engagement, and application review.

  • The NAC chartered the Economic Development & Design Review Committee in February 2025 to oversee current and future developments along Horne Street from Lovell to Vickery, with Camp Bowie District’s executive director serving as moderator and public-facing representative.

  • Yet at the April 2, 2026 public meeting, residents were still dealing with late-stage tradeoffs around code variance versus eminent-domain risk.


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