Community support ‘low’ for special taxing district to address West 7th safety, city says
The city of Fort Worth is still trying to create a special taxing district to fund security improvements around the West 7th entertainment district.
The proposed district would charge an additional property tax on commercial property owners to address concerns about crime and economic development, according to a city report.
The city initially proposed a district that would include properties in the area roughly bounded by the Trinity River and Henderson Street to the north, University Drive to the west, Lancaster Avenue to the south, and the Fort Worth and Western Railroad tracks to the east.
However, “community support has been lower than expected,” according to the report, so officials are proposing new boundaries to exclude property owners who didn’t want to participate in the first place.
The new boundaries will use West Fifth Street as the northern border with the rest of the district remaining largely the same.
The city also plans to hire a consultant to work on outreach to property owners, and help with signature gathering for a petition to form the district. The city has only one staff member overseeing this project in addition to administering the 14 other special taxing districts.
Half of the property owners in the proposed West 7th district need to sign on before it can go into effect.
Efforts to establish the district picked up steam following the murder of TCU junior Wes Smith, who was shot outside a bar on the 3000 block of Bledsoe Street in September 2023.
The city established an ambassador program in 2024 similar to the one in downtown, using $315,000 from the Crime Control and Prevention District.
However, that funding only covered one year of the program, and there will be a funding gap between now and the establishment of the taxing district, a spokesperson for the city’s economic development department said in an email to the Star-Telegram.
Discussions are ongoing to find a short-term funding solution while the city works to establish the taxing district, the spokesperson said.
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM.
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