Fort Worth will receive $1 million and give up a portion of its extraterritorial jurisdiction near Interstate 20 and FM 1187 under a settlement ending the annexation lawsuit the City of Fort Worth and the City of Aledo filed against the City of Willow Park earlier this year, according to Fort Worth City Council documents.
Fort Worth and Aledo issued a joint statement Tuesday night, Oct. 27, saying an agreement had been reached in that lawsuit.
“The cities of Willow Park, Aledo and Fort Worth are pleased to announce resolution of all claims involving boundary disputes between the cities,” the statement reads. “Final boundaries between Willow Park, Aledo and Fort Worth have been agreed upon and the lawsuit between the cities has been resolved. The cities look forward to a mutually cooperative relationship in the future.”
Aledo City Manager Candice Edmondson said the entities involved agreed to wait until the final judgement was signed by the court to release the terms of the settlement agreement.
“What I can say is that for Aledo the agreement reestablishes our ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction) and city limit boundaries at the center of Bankhead Highway. This has been our boundary since 2002 when Aledo and Fort Worth approved a boundary agreement for that area.”
Aledo Mayor Shane Davis posted on his Facebook page: “The City of Aledo didn’t enter this lawsuit looking for a fight. We entered it because some things are worth standing up for. Our northern border along Bankhead Highway is one of them. Our city limits matter. And the boundaries of Aledo’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ), established in 2002, deserve to be respected.”
The 321 acres of annexed land owned by Beall is earmarked as part of a $500 million mixed-use project that will include single- and multifamily residential, commercial and light industrial development. According to a previous report in The Community News, the development would “roughly double” Willow Park’s sales tax income.
Under the settlement terms outlined for the Fort Worth City Council, the Beall-Dean Ranch property at the southwest corner of Interstate 20 and FM 1187 will remain in Willow Park’s city limits permanently, without interference from any party to the lawsuit. The same goes for the northern half of East Bankhead Highway between Nu Energy Drive and FM 1187.
In exchange, Fort Worth is to receive two payments of $500,000. Beall-Dean Ranch Ltd. will pay its share within seven days of the judgment date. Willow Park will pay its $500,000 over time by sending Fort Worth half of the property tax revenue it collects from an approximately 15-acre tract at the northeast corner of the Beall-Dean Ranch development. Those payments are due by April 1 of the year after each tax year. The money will go into Fort Worth’s General Fund.
The agreement also sets boundaries that each city has agreed not to cross when expanding its ETJ or city limits:
“The city will publish boundary maps and have the full settlement available in the future,” Davis wrote on Facebook. “Our boundary remains the centerline of Bankhead Highway, running west to east from the western edge of Aledo’s ETJ to FM 1187. These boundaries matter, and we intend to make them clear.
“Yes, the City (of Aledo) has met with Robert and Logan Beall and determined that Aledo was not the right fit to serve them,” Davis wrote. “That decision doesn’t change the fact that Mr. Beall has long expressed a desire to build something that Willow Park, Aledo, and all of Parker County can take pride in.
“There’s room for progress in this county, but progress works best when communities respect one another and understand where their responsibilities begin and end,” Davis wrote.
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