By Heather Buen
It’s sunset along the south lake of the Lakes of River Trails, and a gaggle of Canada geese look for grasses along the shoreline while the orange and purple hues of dusk dance along the treetops south of the community.
Located in East Fort Worth with easy access to I-820 and I-30, the Lakes of River Trails is a place I had always dreamed of living in, and I have finally found a place to call home.
In 2019, my husband and I were looking for a community with a big enough home to raise our blended family of six children. We were looking for centralization in my commute to Irving and my husband’s commute to work at DFW airport. We also wanted to live in a diverse community in a highly rated school district. We found all of those things and more in the community of Lakes of River Trails.
Lakes of River Trails census breakdown (census tract 1065.10)
Population: 8987
Male: 46.1%
Female: 53.9%
Race
White alone: 54.4%
Hispanic or Latino: 14.5%
Black: 14.5%
Asian: 14.8%
Other: 0.3%
Two or more race: 1.6%
Age
Under 19: 28.9%
20 to 44 years: 36.3%
45 to 64 years: 28.4%
65 and over: 6.3%
Median age: 34.6 years
Education
Less than high school graduate: 7.4%
High school graduate: 19.8%
Some college or associate’s degree: 35.2%
Bachelor’s degree: 28.3%
Graduate or professional degree: 9.3%
After graduating college in Hawaii in 2001, I took a job in telecom that brought me to North Texas. I have lived in Tarrant County since 2010, raising a family and experiencing life transitions. My previous field sales job included the entire city of Fort Worth as my sales territory, and I moved to Hurst in 2010, where I raised my children before 2019, saving up to purchase a home.
It was when I met my husband, Steve, and blended our “Brady Bunch” family that we went house-hunting in 2019. We were already raising our children in the highly rated Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District and loved the diversity and quality of the school district and wanted to live in a community to match. It didn’t take us long to narrow our neighborhood of choice to the Lakes of River Trails. With four community lakes, parks and playgrounds, community trails, and fishing docks, it is an ideal community where homeowners take pride in their homes and properties and enjoy many of the amenities.
The biggest reason we chose this community was for the school district. River Trails Elementary is a great neighborhood elementary school for the neighborhood kids to attend. Kids in the neighborhood walk to and from school, the Home of the Tigers, and parents participate in the PTA. Many of the teachers and staff also live in River Trails. It’s the kind of community where neighbors know who their children’s friends are, where kids play basketball at the school’s court and where First Baptist Church of Hurst-River Trails Campus will put on kids’ activities in the summer and host trunk or treats at Halloween. Our children’s favorite time of year is on Halloween. We attend the church’s Trunk or Treat, and neighbors go all out with haunted houses and decorations.
If you are raising a family, this is a great community to raise your family. Kids from River Trails Elementary feed into Hurst Junior High and LD Bell High School. The school newsletter is in English, Spanish, French and Arabic, demonstrating the diversity of the families who live here. The Homeowners’ Association is split into four different boards — North, South, East and West. Each HOA puts on activities for their families. These activities include Halloween games and activities, National Night Out events, Easter bunny visits, and food or ice cream truck visits. Some of the newest activities include a fishing derby and the development of a tot lot and little library on the north section of the community.
If you enjoy walking, running or cycling, the community maintains bike and jogging trails near the lakes and parks. These trails are private to the community and lead up to the Trinity Trails. You will see a lot of residents enjoying the trails and the wildlife along the way. The south lake backs up to a private ranch where you can watch cows and calves graze on grasses. Residents grab their fishing poles for leisurely casting for small bass and perch with a backdrop of fountains in the center of the man-made lakes from one of the creeks of the west fork of the Trinity River. Walking in the neighborhood is pleasant with maintained sidewalks and well-lit streets.
I feel generally safe in my neighborhood, and the community gets regular updates from our neighborhood police officer with the Fort Worth Police. Crime reports for the area are published weekly on Nextdoor and reports provided at the HOA meetings. There is also an opportunity for residents to be a part of the City of Fort Worth’s Citizens on Patrol. I do wish people would slow down a bit as there are usually kids at play and people walking their dogs. The City of Fort Worth Fire Station No. 27 is along Precinct Line Road next to the community.
If you are looking for a community where you can come home after work to relax with your family, then the Lakes of River Trails is the community you want to live in. When warmer weather hits, the smell of BBQ and home cooking wafts throughout the neighborhood. The Scissortail flycatchers, mourning doves and sparrows fly from rooftop to rooftop with squirrels and the occasional rabbit scurrying around front lawns. If you are looking for a neighborhood to raise your family, then welcome home to the Lakes of River Trails.
Heather Buen was the author of the column about her home and neighborhood. She is a senior analyst at a retail electricity and power generation company. She is also on the Fort Worth Report’s Reader Advisory Council. To tell the story of where you live, please send your essay to hello@fortworthreport.org and Managing Editor Thomas Martinez at thomas.martinez@fortwortheport.org.
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