www.star-telegram.com/metro_news/story/982369.htmlFORT WORTH — The last homeowner standing in the way of a natural gas pipeline along Carter Avenue settled with the pipeline company Friday morning, shortly before a condemnation hearing.

The pipeline still faces a legal appeal from another homeowner and resistance from City Councilwoman Kathleen Hicks, who represents the area. But under state law, Texas Midstream Gas Services, which is a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy, can begin building the line while the appeal works its way through the courts.

Chesapeake wants to build the pipeline to connect two wells along Interstate 30 east of downtown. The line would run under the front yards of 44 homes and vacant lots. Company officials have said the line would be bored about 20 feet beneath the ground, but residents are concerned about the potential for accidents and the effect on home values.

A Chesapeake spokeswoman declined to comment because one case remains under appeal.

Five people who own property along the route were sued in Tarrant County courts-at-law. Three have had hearings and two settled.

The homeowner who settled Friday asked that his name not be published. But he said in an interview that he and his wife were concerned about the fairness of the legal system, which allows pipeline companies to condemn private land. He and his wife, both Vietnamese immigrants, paid off the house early.

"They send you a letter and all of a sudden you’ve got to go to court," he said.

He said he and his wife settled because "we don’t want to go to the hearing and get nowhere."

Neither the homeowner nor an attorney for Chesapeake would disclose the terms of the settlement. Other neighbors have received anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 for a 20-foot-wide easement.

Steve Doeung, a neighbor who is appealing his condemnation case, said Chesapeake never tried to negotiate with him in person. He said in his appeal that he learned about the pipeline from newspaper reports. The first time he heard from Chesapeake in writing was when he got a "final offer" letter in the mail in early August.

He also questioned why the company chose to come down Carter Avenue, which has smaller homes and several residents who speak limited English. A straighter line between the two wells would run down either Scott Avenue or Interstate 30, but the line would have to cross several large commercial properties. Hicks has opposed the pipeline since it was first proposed. She has tried to persuade Texas Midstream to run the pipeline down Interstate 30, only to learn that the Texas Department of Transportation refuses to allow gas-gathering lines in its freeway rights of way.

Chesapeake has to get permission from the city to run the pipeline. Hicks said in an e-mail that she thinks the company still needs to look at other routes.

"I think it is just plain wrong to go through the neighborhood," Hicks said in an e-mail Friday. "Clearly, the City of Fort Worth needs assistance from the state so that we may have more control over the routes."