Fort Worth has nearly $180M in federal stimulus. Here are a few ways it might be spent

Fort Worth is getting about $180 million to help correct losses during the COVID-19 pandemic and boost efforts to fix longtime problems in neighborhoods across the city.

Fort Worth expects to receive a little more than $173.7 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, a nearly $2 trillion stimulus package passed in March. The Biden administration sent funds to state and local governments as a tool to offset the cost of battling the pandemic. Unlike a similar stimulus under the Trump administration, the money can be used for a broader array of things as a means to boost the economy and lessen the social impacts of the pandemic.

Other agencies and programs in Tarrant County received money, including nearly $40 million for Trinity Metro, $10.5 million for homelessness programs and $29 million for rental assistance.

“This helps us get ahead in some of those areas where we’d want to do it, but it wasn’t quite the next thing on the list,” Deputy City Manager Jay Chapa said. “Otherwise everybody is sitting around going ‘OK, these are great ideas. How do we get everybody to participate and put money into it?’”

Chapa said the city’s first priority is restarting projects delayed by the pandemic. Numbers haven’t been finalized, but he said those projects will likely be around $40 million.

The largest is an effort to expand and remodel the downtown convention center.

The total scope of the project involves replacing the saucer arena with a larger, more modern and more flexible space, realigning Commerce Street and building a second convention hotel. Work on Commerce Street was delayed and could cost around $25 million, Chapa said. Other Public Events projects put off during the pandemic amount to about $5 million.

The city had also planned work on streets, sidewalks, lighting and parks in minority neighborhoods. That work could cost about $10 million.

Though the amount hasn’t been finalized, that leaves about $130 million for improving the storm and drinking water systems, spurring growth in east Fort Worth and boosting minority and women owned businesses. The funds have to be committed to a project by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.

While specific information wasn’t available about each potential project this week, Chapa said city staff will be forming plans for the council to consider between now and the fall.

Evans and Rosedale

As the Near Southside continues to boom west of Interstate 35, a small pocket of the area, an urban village called Evans and Rosedale, on the east side of the freeway has lingered undeveloped.

In the 1930s and 1940s, before Interstate 35 cut through the heart of the city’s Black neighborhoods, the area was a mecca for entertainment and home to a number of prominent Black doctors, educators and business owners. There is little activity in the area beyond a library branch and city office annex.

Hoque Global, a Dallas firm responsible for several projects on the east side of the Metroplex, was selected in 2019 to develop a master plan for the area. Work slowed during the pandemic, but city officials are hopeful development will begin again.

The latest proposal includes an affordable housing concept, which would be eligible for city funding through the stimulus package, Chapa said.

Chris Nettles, the incoming council member for District 8, campaigned in part on revitalizing Evans and Rosedale as well as other parts of the district. That neighborhood is not only important to Fort Worth’s Black community because of its historical significance, it’s also close to the city’s hospital district.

“That was our Black Wall Street in a lot of ways and now there’s nothing,” Nettles said. “We don’t want to gentrify Evans and Rosedale, but we do want to revitalize it, so whatever development we do it needs to support the people living there.”

Minority and women-owned businesses

Fort Worth has done a poor job contracting with businesses owned by women or people of color, according to a study released last year.

Fort Worth spent nearly $659 million on contracts between 2013 and 2018, but 3% went to Black-owned businesses, while almost 78% to white, male-owned businesses, according to a report from San Antonio-based Colette Holt & Associates. Hispanic-owned businesses received 10%. The study found that there are enough minority and women-owned firms in Tarrant, Johnson and Dallas counties to increase contracting.

The city is looking at a number of ways to help these businesses, said Robert Sturns, economic development director. Often the only thing keeping them from expanding to a larger contract is a lack of funding needed to hire more employees or purchase equipment.

“They may be able to do the work, but they might have to rent the equipment and that can be a real challenge,” Sturns said. “So building their capacity really puts them in a better position.”

This could be overcome with a low or no interest loan program. Partnering with a bank or banks, the city could back loans with a fund created using stimulus dollars. Small, underrepresented companies can apply for the loans to cover payroll, using the additional revenue from bigger projects to pay back the loans later.

Fixing flash flooding

Dangerous flash floods have plagued parts of Fort Worth for years. It’s an issue that stretches from Arlington Heights, where the city bought up flood prone homes, to far east Fort Worth, where a 69-year-old man drowned in 2018 when his car was swept off the road by fast-moving high water.

City stormwater engineers have told the Star-Telegram the $1 billion problem includes aging infrastructure, rapid development and climate change. The city in 2019 found 300 potentially dangerous flood prone areas, but has a budget large enough to fix just 40. In the 2020 budget, the department created an $87 million plan to tackle part of the growing urban flooding problem.

At the time, stormwater staff said projects would focus on the arrears where rising waters are most threatening to people.

Chapa said a portion of the federal money could be used to increase the number of projects the city can get to in the coming years or quicken the pace they’re designed.

Improving drinking water

A similar issue exists with the city’s drinking water system.

Another $1 billion is needed to upgrade the city’s pipes, Fort Worth water director Chris Harder told the Star-Telegram earlier this year. More than 20% of the city’s nearly 3,700 miles of drinking water pipes are cast iron, the type most prone to burst.

During the epic winter storm in February, the department was swamped with more than 700 broken water mains, mostly cast iron pipes. The loss of water pressure put several hundred thousand people into a boil water advisory.

The department has about $66 million to spend annually on improvement projects, split between drinking and wastewater. That’s up from less than $50 million in 2012 and could increase to more than $80 million in the coming years.

Chapa said a boost of a few million dollars from the stimulus could prevent more water main breaks in the future.

Other projects

A number of other items could be funded with the stimulus dollars.

Though $10.5 million was provided specifically for homeless programs, Chapa said the city could contribute more to permanent supportive housing. Last year the city used part of the original stimulus to turn a former HomeTowne Studios extended-stay hotel off North Beach Street and Loop 820 into apartments for chronically unhoused people who need extra support, like medical or psychological services.

Programs to boost tourism could also benefit, including a soccer complex. Council member Cary Moon pitched a $150 million complex in his district last year.

The city also used stimulus dollars to provide free WiFi to five predominantly low income neighborhoods. Chapa said the city is looking at how much people use the service, but if it’s popular it could be expanded.

City departments will look to council and resident input in how best to spend the money, he said.