Gideon Toal worked directly with the Cultural District Development Initiatives, Inc. (CDDI), an organization made up of business and landowners within the West 7th Street Urban Village, to create the West 7th Street Urban Village Development Standards and Guidelines. The West 7th Street Urban Village, which was designated as a part of the City of Fort Worth’s Urban Village Program, is centrally located just west of Downtown Fort Worth and immediately adjacent to the renowned Cultural District. Surrounding the area are several established neighborhoods and new mixed-use developments.
Anticipating further redevelopment of the area, CDDI initiated the West 7th Street Urban Village Development Standards and Guidelines to ensure that the quality of new development reflects the vision set forth in CDDI’s West 7th Street Urban Village Strategic Plan, while ensuring the economic and social vitality of existing neighborhoods and businesses. Gideon Toal utilized this vision, as well as universally accepted urban design principles, to create standards and guidelines that are based on transects of development density, complexity, and intensity. Currently awaiting adoption by the City of Fort Worth, the West 7th Street Urban Village Development Standards and Guidelines will be administered by a Design Review Board as a zoning overlay district.