Fort Worth · 76109
Westcliff is wide lots under modest 1948 houses.
The middle half of the houses here carry build years between 1947 and 1950, at a median of 1,852 sq ft. The median lot under them is about 78 feet wide and 158 deep. We measured all 1,203 single-family lots from the city’s parcel records, so you can see how much room the lot leaves before you buy here or build here. If a plan adds bedrooms, check the parcel against the TCU overlay before the drawings start.
Rather talk it through? Call or text (817) 631-9803
Every lot, measured
Room is not the problem on these streets.
About three quarters of Westcliff’s land carries A-5 One-Family zoning, which asks for lots at least 50 ft wide. Most lots here clear it by a wide margin. 55.9% of the 1,203 single-family lots measure 75 feet or wider, and 22.7% reach 100. The middle half run from about 64 to 97 feet.
About ten lots measure more than a foot short of 50. Another 5 read 49-and-change, which is how a 50-foot platted lot often looks when the width is taken from a mapped shape; we count those separately rather than call them narrow. Fewer than one lot in a hundred is measurably under the line.
Coral line: A-5 One-Family’s 50 ft minimum
- Under 50 ft
- 15 lots
- 50 to 75 ft
- 516 lots
- 75 to 100 ft
- 399 lots
- 100 ft or wider
- 273 lots
10 measurably under; 5 read 49-and-change
- Median lot
- 78 × 158 ft
- Typical house size
- 1,852 sq ft
- Single-family parcels
- 1,203
- Recorded pools
- 14.3%
10,950 sq ft on the record
One in four is below 1,421 sq ft
Westcliff and Westcliff West, one boundary on the city’s map
172 of 1,203 houses
The parcel gets measured before any sketch.
The build years
Built in the years right after the war.
781 houses here carry a 1940s build year, 65.0% of those with one on record, and 263 more a 1950s year. Half of the neighborhood sits inside a four-year window, 1947 to 1950. Arlington Heights, for contrast, spreads its middle half across two decades. A narrow window means a family of postwar plans, close in size and shape.
71 houses carry a build year from 2010 on. Read it as a record of assessments, never as a count of houses torn down: a new year can mean several things, and a gut remodel leaves the old year in place.
The date on the record says little about what the last seventy years did inside the walls.
On the Westcliff project below, the wiring behind the walls needed rebuilding, and doing it right cost the schedule time. So we open some walls up front and put the number together after that, not mid-demolition.
The TCU side of 76109
Next door, the lots are narrower and the houses older.
“The TCU area” is several associations, each with its own line on the city’s map. Read side by side, Westcliff has the widest lots and the youngest houses of the three we measured. Each row is its own place; we never add them together.
Westcliff & Westcliff West One city boundary for two associations
Width78 ft
Built1947–1950
Lots1,203
University West
Width60 ft
Built1930–1948
Lots334
University Place
Width60 ft
Built1926–1935
Lots135
Measured the same way, the same day, each inside its own city boundary.
The rule that counts bedrooms
On the city’s map, every lot here is inside the TCU overlay.
Test each Westcliff lot against the TCU Residential Overlay on the city’s map and all 1,203 land inside it. The rule it carries: a dwelling unit may house at most three people who are not related, unless its owner registered a nonconforming use on or before March 31, 2015. It has nothing to say about brick, windows or rooflines. It matters when a plan is built around how many bedrooms it adds.
We pull the parcel before a bedroom-driven plan is drawn, and we do not guess at anyone’s registration.
Single-family lots inside the overlay, by association
- Westcliff & Westcliff West 1,203 of 1,203, every one
- University West 334 of 334, every one
- University Place 135 of 135, every one
- Bluebonnet Hills 345 of 345, every one
- Colonial Hills 189 of 189, every one
- Tanglewood 495 of 663, about 75%
The overlay is drawn across the whole TCU side of the ZIP, so it does not set Westcliff apart; most of Tanglewood is inside it too. Counted by each lot’s center point on the city’s map.
Two ways to get the room: inside the footprint, or up
Out, back or up
On a wide lot, the question is which way.
Three directions, three different rules. Which one a house here can take depends on the block it sits on, the yard it has left, and how many bedrooms the plan adds.
Toward the street
A-5 One-Family’s table says 20 ft, 15 ft limited local. But once 40% or more of a block face has houses on it, the setback follows those houses instead of the district table, to no more than 50 feet (§ 6.101(d)(1)c). On a run of matching ranches, the front line is usually already set.
To the side or the back
With 5 ft side yards on a lot that is often 75 feet or more across, a one-story wing can usually reach sideways or back without a stair. The oaks, the drive and the 50% lot-coverage cap decide how far.
Up
A second story, within A-5’s 35 ft height cap, keeps the yard and changes the street’s skyline, so proportion matters as much as structure. Whichever way it goes, if the plan adds bedrooms, the overlay question comes first.
Our work here
One house reworked inside its walls, one taken up a floor.
The two answers this page keeps coming back to, built: a first floor rethought room by room in Westcliff, and a one-story near campus given a second.
Whole first floor
Every room downstairs, and a new pool bath
Entry, office, dining, living, laundry and a butler’s kitchen reworked, a pool bath added, and the old wiring rebuilt once the walls came open.
Second-story addition
A one-story house, grown up
A few blocks from campus: a full second story added to a modest one-story.
Best Home Builder & Remodeler
Fort Worth MagazineFort Worth Chamber Small Business of the Year4.7 stars from 91 Google reviews as of September 2026
Questions about Westcliff and the TCU area
Before you buy a 1948 house here, or build onto one.
Why are the lots in Westcliff so much wider than the houses on them need?
Because the houses were drawn small and fast. Most went up in a few years either side of 1948, at a median of about 1,852 sq ft, on lots that median close to 11,000 square feet. That leaves land on most parcels that a 1948 floor plan never used, which is the starting point for nearly every project we look at here.
How far forward can an addition come toward the street in Westcliff?
Usually not as far as the zoning table suggests. A-5 One-Family lists a front yard of 20 ft, 15 ft limited local, but on a block that is already mostly built, the houses on it set the front line, not the table (§ 6.101(d)(1)c). On a block of matching 1940s ranches, the neighbors decide the line. We read the block before we draw.
What does the TCU Residential Overlay change for a homeowner?
It governs occupancy. Tested lot by lot against the city's map, all of Westcliff's single-family lots fall inside it, and the rule there caps how many unrelated people one house can hold, with an exception for owners who registered before the 2015 cutoff. It does not review paint, windows or rooflines. If a plan is built around bedroom count, that question is checked for the specific parcel first; we do not answer it for any address in general.
Should we add on to a Westcliff ranch or buy a larger house nearby?
Price both before choosing. Our agents can put a value on your house today and on a bigger one in the same streets; our designers and builders can price the addition. Because both sides work in one company, neither number is guessed at by the other. Sometimes the answer is the house two blocks over, and we will say so.
Is Westcliff one neighborhood or two?
Two registered associations, Westcliff and Westcliff West, inside one boundary on the city’s map. Every figure on this page is measured on that single boundary, because the city does not split it. University West and University Place are separate associations and are measured on their own.
Going further in TCU / Westcliff
Home additions in TCU / Westcliff
Out, back or up on a wide lot, and where the block sets the front line.
Go →Whole-home remodels in TCU / Westcliff
Reworking a postwar plan from the inside, starting with what is behind the walls.
Go →All Fort Worth neighborhood guides
The other neighborhoods we have measured the same way.
Go →Start with the address
Send us an address, and we will show you which way the house can grow.
- 1 We measure the lot.
- 2 We read the block for its setback.
- 3 We look the parcel up on the overlay map.
- 4 We put a value on the house today.
Then you can weigh building against moving with real numbers on both sides.
Sources
Verified October 2026. Every parcel figure (lot widths, build years, house sizes, pools): the Tarrant Appraisal District’s tax-year-2025 parcels within the one outline the City gives Westcliff and Westcliff West together, read on October 1, 2026, with University West and University Place read the same way that day; lots crossing an outline are dropped, so totals run slightly short; width means the shorter side of a minimum bounding box drawn around each mapped parcel — not a plat or a survey — so it sketches the neighborhood and settles nothing about one lot; build years come from assessment rolls rather than permits, and gutting a house leaves its year untouched. One house’s assessment: the Tarrant Appraisal District. Overlay: the TCU Residential Overlay polygon from the City’s zoning map, checked against each single-family parcel’s center point on October 1, 2026 — a map check, not the ordinance’s exhibit, and no verdict on a particular property. Zoning standards: the ordinance text on American Legal Publishing, named as the official copy on the City’s zoning page — § 4.705 (A-5) and § 6.101 (yards), read October 2026. We publish no sale prices, no price per square foot and no days on market, which the listing sites refresh daily, and no assessed-value median either: an assessment is not a sale.