The City Of Fort Worth Has A Plan To Protect Open Spaces

Officials say more open spaces will help grow the economy and make the city more livable.

By Michael Marks & Alexandra HartDecember 16, 2019 1:24 pm,

There was a time when people were drawn to Texas by the allure of wide-open space. Now, plenty of people are still attracted to Texas, but at least in the big cities, open space is harder to come by.

The scarcity of open space is at the heart of a new initiative by the city of Fort Worth that aims to help it acquire undeveloped land, and keep it that way.

Jennifer Dyke is the stormwater program manager for Fort Worth, and says that with 20,000 people moving to the city each year, it’s hard to preserve open space.

“We want this growth and development, but we want to make sure it’s smart and sustainable,” Dyke says. “So one of the ways to do that is to identify these key open spaces so that we can grow and develop around them, and save them from development.”

Dyke says the city doesn’t want to “become the largest landowner in Fort Worth.” Instead, she says it wants to channel growth around the spaces the city is protecting.

 

Written by Shelly Brisbin.