Fort Worth residents to vote on spending $560 million for roads, pools, parks and police
The Fort Worth City Council made it official Tuesday, asking voters to approve five bond measures on May 7 that would allocate $560 million for everything from roads, to pools, to a new library and fire station.
$369,218,300, or approximately two-thirds of the funds, would go to improving roads with a major focus on the city’s fast growing north and northwest regions. Thirteen of the 14 arterial roads are located in those regions.
North and northwest Fort Worth residents have long complained that development has outstripped the city’s current infrastructure and pushed for a greater investment in the 2022 bond package.
The second largest pot of money, $123,955,500, would go to improvements to the city parks and recreation amenities. This includes a brand new aquatics center in Stop Six and a completely rebuilt Forest Park Pool.
District 9 council woman Elizabeth Beck pushed for a greater investment in the pool construction after getting public pushback to a design residents said would deprive the city of its only Olympic-sized public swimming pool.
Funds from proposition’s C would go toward improving library facilities including land acquisition for a brand new library in far northwest Fort Worth.
Funds from proposition D would go to improving police and fire facilities. About $21 million would be used to replace two temporary fire stations in Walsh and northeast Fort Worth with permanent facilities.
$18.6 million would go toward building a new Northwest Patrol Division for the Fort Worth Police Department.
The last chunk of money in proposition E would go toward land acquisition and for open space new parks. A slide show presented at Tuesday’s city council meeting showed most of this land would be in east Fort Worth, with highlights for areas around Tandy Hills and Oakland Lake.
The city plans to set up a series of public meetings to both promote and explain the bond package to residents. The city also hopes its efforts will raise voter turnout.
Roughly 18,000, or about 2% of the city’s population, showed up to vote in the 2018 bond election.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 9:59 PM.
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