The ordinance Council passed prohibits new auto businesses in the city’s declining corridors, which will limit the ability to get a grocery store or restaurants in these areas

HALTOM CITY, TX, February 14, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ — The members of Haltom City Council will tell you that business is booming on the northside where new restaurants are opening and new subdivisions are being built. Unfortunately, that is a tale of only one part of Haltom City. That same City Council recently passed a new ordinance that will not permit any of these new businesses in commercially zoned parts of Haltom City, not even with a variance, while at the same time stating that they are committed to bringing more businesses to the city.

On the south side and throughout Central Haltom City, sections have been declining for some time with large businesses such as CVS and Kroger that have left adding to the number of vacant buildings in those parts of the city.

Haltom United Business Alliance (HUBA) is committed to change in the city. The change that HUBA wants to see will make it easier to run a business and start a new business in the city. The business alliance has proposed several ideas over the last 18 months to accomplish these goals.

Unfortunately, none has been acknowledged or acted on by the Haltom City Council.

HUBA wants to make it easier for businesses of a variety of kinds to come to the city. In the last 12 months, the City and/or the council has turned down a snow cone stand, a daycare center, a barbershop and other kinds of small businesses mostly because of parking restrictions. Strong Towns cites parking restrictions as the single biggest factor in preventing redevelopment of aging inner cities.

Haltom City Council is aware of this, but for some reason, it has been unwilling to act to loosen parking requirements. HUBA wants to see as many kinds of small businesses as possible come to the city, although this press release highlights high-quality new businesses that have come to surrounding cities. Such businesses are right outside the city limits, where Haltom City residents now must go to spend their money.

These pictures were taken in our sister cities where their businesses did go and build brand new businesses, increasing ad valorem, taxes, employment and choices of goods and services for consumers. Ironically, most Haltom City residents must go to those nearby cities to patronize these new, tidy businesses.

Thanks to the restrictive ordinance recently passed, Haltom City will never have these businesses in its commercially zoned corridors:

• Driver’s Edge
• Take 5 Oil Change
• Discount Tire
• Firestone Automotive
• Pep Boys
• Meineke

HUBA understands that automotive businesses can be ugly and hard to manage and has proposed a series of ideas to clean up those businesses and make them more attractive and an asset to the city, but, again, the council has ignored all those ideas. Lumping automotive businesses all together and prohibiting them prevents new developments like those pictured above.

It’s always sad when a city wants to lamp all businesses together says HUBA Founder Ron Sturgeon. He has heard at various times that the city doesn’t want any more title companies or any more strip centers or any more of a number of different kinds of businesses.

“Cities should not be in the place of trying to change commerce or pick winners and losers,” says Sturgeon. Their zoning regulation in conjunction with their use matrix should dictate which businesses can come to which areas. Instead, cities like Haltom City continue to impose new rules or actually block tenants into not applying or not trying because they’re not exactly what the city wants.

Understandably cities want businesses that produce lots of sales taxes and there is not anything wrong with that as long as it’s done within the confines of the existing zoning or the use matrix and any changes, they choose to make to those. Haltom City could benefit from having a stronger business tax base which would be mostly businesses that are not automotive, and this would offer the potential to lower residential taxes.

Joe Palmer, Director of Communications for HUBA, says the city will never have a grocery store or new restaurants in these declining corridors. The current city Council has created the situation and continues to perpetuate these rules which restrict new development and uses they would like to see by imposing too many hardships and not being competitive with sister cities.

Palmer adds after Covid retail is going away yet Haltom City continues to say that it wants more retail. Regardless of what Haltom City wants, he adds, they will have to have a better offering including the reasons to open a business in Haltom City rather than in one of the nearby cities that Haltom City competes with for small business startups.

Without a better value proposition, Haltom City will continue to lose these businesses to nearby cities because it’s easier, quicker and less expensive to open elsewhere. “Our city has failed to understand that this is a competition, and Haltom City has been losing for decades,” says Palmer.

Sturgeon has started a campaign to bring small business back to the areas of Haltom City that most need them. To build support for revitalization, he has put up a billboard on 121 that says, “Make Haltom City Thrive Again; Time for a Change.” There, he lays out ideas to bring back the businesses that the city has run off over the last two decades.

Sturgeon has had many business successes since he started his first business in Haltom City. He still owns businesses here and is now committed to making sure Haltom City makes the necessary improvements in its governance to have an opportunity to bring prosperity back. He has a detailed plan to make it happen. Learn more by visiting MakeHaltomCityThriveAgain.com.

About Haltom City
Haltom City is a diverse, majority working-class city located between Dallas and Fort Worth in Tarrant County, TX. Haltom City is minutes from both the DFW Airport and Downtown Fort Worth with direct access to major highways including I-820 and SH-121. Due to an outdated and restrictive use matrix that discourages new business and deters growth, several areas of Haltom City have seen a decline in small businesses which provided goods and services and were a significant source of jobs, including the once-thriving automotive industry. However, Haltom City has the opportunity to reverse this trend and should prioritize development of inner-city land and vacant buildings, particularly in the major corridors close to the city’s center. The city is financially healthy with a capable manager and staff who would like to see diverse business development occur and need the support of the City Council to make it happen.

About Make Haltom City Thrive Again
The Make Haltom City Thrive Again website offers information and resources about its purpose and goals. For more on Sturgeon’s personal ideas and background, check out his book Keeping the Lights on Downtown in America’s Small Cities and watch the videos on his Facebook page. Ron is also the founder of the Haltom United Business Alliance (HUBA) which represents existing business interests in Haltom City and promotes growth of diverse businesses as well. HUBA is not a political action committee and does not endorse candidates. If/when Ron endorses candidates, he will do so on his own with the Make Haltom City Thrive Again organization.

About Haltom United Business Alliance
Haltom United Business Alliance (HUBA) is a group of business owners dedicated to representing existing business interests in Haltom City and promoting the growth of diverse businesses as well. Innovative strategies are needed to create a strong tax base and enhance quality of life for residents, city employees, and business owners. All Haltom City business owners are eligible to join HUBA. For more information, contact Joe Palmer at (682) 310-0591 or by email at [email protected] or visit the group’s Facebook page at Haltom United Business Alliance.

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