With some road projects years behind schedule, Fort Worth gets aggressive with landowners

Fort Worth’s rapid growth has made it hard for the city to keep up with the need for roads, water pipes, and sewers.

Residents living in areas that not too long ago were populated with more cattle than people are competing for space on country roads with no sidewalks and few streetlights.

In response, the city of Fort Worth has allocated over $850 million in the past decade to tackle the problem.

However, it’s a lot easier to get money for a new road or sewer project than it is to actually build it, said former Fort Worth city council member Cary Moon, who was an outspoken advocate for the city’s aggressive use of eminent domain during his time in office.

Some of the biggest obstacles have been getting land. While the city is usually able to negotiate a deal with landowners, some have struck a hard bargain and delayed projects for months and sometimes years.

Fort Worth’s solution lately has been a more aggressive use of eminent domain. This is the legal process in which the government can force you to sell your land for a fair market price.

The City Council has authorized the use of eminent domain 29 times in the past two years, the most the city has used the land grabbing tactic since 2013.

These road and pipe projects need get completed in a timely manner, and eminent domain is one of many tools the city is using to do that, a city spokesperson said in an email to the Star-Telegram.

Speeding up the process

Fort Worth used start acquiring land for roads or pipe projects once the design was 60% complete. Starting around 2021, it began to start the acquisition process when design was 30% complete.

Eminent domain is always the last option, but the city is using it earlier in the process after it reaches a stalemate with property owners, a city spokesperson said.

In some instances, eminent domain is being used to speed up long-stalled projects.

An extension of McPherson Boulevard between West Cleburne Road and McCart Avenue in southwest Fort Worth has been on the books since 2014.

The city has used eminent domain three times to get access to a little more than 23 acres of land to connect two stretches of roadway.

What’s being taken?

Most of the time the city used eminent domain for access for a construction project. Roughly 46% of the city’s eminent domain cases were for temporary construction easements, according to city data.

The city had been sensitive in the past to the negative perceptions of using eminent domain, Moon said.

“At first glance you say that’s wrong of a government to go in and eminent domain something, and I agree with that,” he said. However, the city never used eminent domain to take land from someone’s homestead or farm, he said.

Most of the landowners acknowledged the benefit of having better roads and sewer infrastructure in their area, but some of them were business people and wanted to see how much money they could get from the local government, Moon said.

“Finally we got less sensitive and said ... we’re going to take the property,” he said. The city would then get an appraisal for the property and move forward.

What’s being built?

Most of the eminent domain cases were used for water or sewer projects.

The Lake Arlington Lift Station project, which will help pump sewage from south of Forest Hill to just north of Lake Arlington, has needed to use eminent domain six times since 2020, according to city records.

The most important thing is that people feel like they’re being treated fairly, said Mayor Pro Tem Gyna Bivens, whose district includes Lake Worth.

She acknowledged the hesitancy some residents might have to letting the city build a sewer line across their property, but said the projects are needed to meet the public need.

The city also used eminent domain five times in 2022 to get a water main built along the west side of U.S. 287 between Heritage Trace Boulevard and Bonds Ranch Road.

Fort Worth used eminent domain 19 times in the past decade to completely take over land.

Most of those cases came in 2013 and 2016 on pair of flood control projects at the Loving and Lebow channels, and for the extension of Risinger Road from Crowley Road to McCart Avenue.

Why now?

Fort Worth is growing by 53 people a day, and this growth is fueling the need for roads and water lines.

“If we didn’t have this kind of population growth, we wouldn’t need to make these improvements,” Bivens said.

Roughly 70% of the city’s growth between 2010 and 2020 was north of Loop 820, according to data prepared for Fort Worth’s redistricting process.

Until recently those areas were largely pasture land, but growth has led to traffic jams and unsafe conditions for kids trying to walk to school.

The need to build up the city’s infrastructure to catch up with the growth is forcing the city to get more land, according to a city spokesperson.

While the city can and does use eminent domain to get these projects built in a timely manner, it’s not the city’s goal, the spokesperson said.

“It is the city’s desire to reach an agreement with landowners even after condemnation has been undertaken,” the spokesperson said.