As concrete sprawls, Fort Worth plans to spend millions to save land from development
The land development boom in North Texas has shown no signs of slowing down, even with the significant economic challenges posed by COVID-19. That’s why Fort Worth officials are moving forward with plans to identify and potentially acquire natural areas for preservation before developers buy up the land for housing and retail projects.
“We want to really protect these key areas for our future generations, since once it’s gone, you can’t get it back,” said Jennifer Dyke, a city stormwater program manager who has led Fort Worth’s conservation efforts. “We really feel that open space conservation can help the city be more liveable for our community.”
The Open Space Conservation Program, a partnership between the city and the nonprofit organization Trust for Public Land, was originally launched late last year amid growing concerns over Fort Worth’s loss of an estimated 2,800 acres of natural prairie per year to development, among other issues.
Using money from the city’s oil and gas trust fund as well as $64,000 in donations from residents, the program made its first purchase in June from energy company Total with the acquisition of Broadcast Hill, a 50-plus acre property near the Tandy Hills Natural Area in east Fort Worth.
Future acquisitions are likely to be funded through a mixture of revenue from grants, the oil and gas trust and Fort Worth’s 2022 bond program, Dyke said. Starting on Dec. 1, City Council members can vote on the disbursement of up to $16 million from the oil and gas fund for natural area acquisitions, she said.
For now, Open Space leaders are seeking public feedback through an online survey in English and Spanish that will close at the end of November, Dyke said. The group held its first public meeting last week and met virtually with leaders of environmental organizations and nonprofits across Fort Worth earlier in October.
Results from the survey, which asks Fort Worth residents about their support for a permanent preservation program and how they would like natural areas to be used, will inform the Trust for Public Land’s development of a tool that uses computer mapping and other data to help the city prioritize which properties it should pursue for conservation, Dyke said.
“They can rank the order of priority for those different benefits of open space, like flood control, ecosystem preparation, recreation, equity, community health, water quality,” Dyke said. “What the community has to say about what they feel is important will help us prioritize which parcels we think need to be conserved.”
When the program launched last winter, the Star-Telegram reported that three areas were being floated as the top candidates for preservation: the west shore of Lake Arlington, Sycamore Creek and parts of the Mary’s Creek watershed. The Open Spaces program has a list of potential properties, Dyke said, but leaders are not actively pursuing acquisitions while the Trust for Public Land tool is in development.
Jarid Manos, who founded the ecology-focused Great Plains Restoration Council in 1997, recently joined the group of environmental leaders providing feedback on the Open Spaces program. He hopes that the city’s newfound commitment to conservation may extend to his long-term project: the Fort Worth Prairie Park, a plot of 944 acres near Crowley, Lake Benbrook and Tarleton State’s new campus, which opened last year.
Having worked on the prairie park since at least the mid-2000s, Manos’ dreams for the area have evolved as developers and owners have bought parts of the prairie, including the Texas General Land Office’s sale of 2,000 acres to a developer in 2013.
The Fort Worth prairie ecosystem, made up of native tallgrass, is one of the most endangered in North America, Manos said, and he wants the city to take a more active role in ensuring that this small remnant is preserved.
“They say Fort Worth is where the west begins, and if we don’t see some of those big wide open spaces preserved, it will be where the concrete never ends,” Manos said. “There’s still a large section of this prairie left, so preserving this ahead of time with foresight would allow native wildlife and people to thrive.”
Open Spaces leaders plan to meet at least twice more with environmental leaders by the end of next summer, Dyke said. Eventually, once the prioritization tool is developed, the Trust for Public Land will pass on management of the data to the city’s IT department, and Fort Worth officials can use it to figure out future acquisitions over the next several years, she said.
The Trust for Public Land will also release a policy report next June providing recommendations on how to manage the program in the long term and examples from other cities that are preserving nature areas, including Oklahoma City and Charlotte.
“We’ll find out: How do we maintain these properties and manage them appropriately for the natural resources that are out there?” Dyke said. “Should the city have policies that incentivize open space conservation? I think, really, it will be up to the city to figure out: How do we want to move forward as a city?”
