Fort Worth’s largest park has $8M for improvements. What do residents want at Gateway?

Looking over the nearly 800 acres of open space that make up Gateway Park, pastor Michael Moore can’t help but see the possibilities.

He grew up in southeast Fort Worth’s Stop Six community, watching as decades passed without significant investment in the city’s eastside. Now, as city officials chart Gateway Park’s first new master plan since 2009, Fort Worth has a chance to make its largest park a centerpiece of revitalization, Moore said.

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“I see hotels, I see restaurants, I see all of the other inequities that are now present in the eastside being fueled by the investment in this park,” he said. “We have an opportunity to do something to propel the eastside into the future for economic development.”

Moore was among the 30-plus residents who weighed in on Gateway Park’s future during a recent public meeting at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. Sitting near the intersection of Interstate 30 and Beach Street, the park attracts a wide range of users, including mountain bikers, disc golf enthusiasts and dog owners who can let their pets roam leash-free at Fort Woof Dog Park.

Thanks to last year’s bond election, city officials have $8 million to create a new master plan and make park improvements at Gateway. The funding comes as Frost Brothers Resources seeks a master developer to explore building retail, multifamily housing or a sports complex on 230 acres across the street from the park, according to previous Fort Worth Report coverage.

As they stuck colored dots onto posters to indicate their priorities for the park, residents expressed a mixture of hope and cynicism that the city will follow through on its promises to improve Gateway.

Outdated signage near the entrance of the dog park projects the construction of new boat launches, picnic areas and an amphitheater at the park. Few of those plans — drafted when the park became part of the Central City / Panther Island flood control project — came to fruition, said longtime eastside resident Cheryl Combes.

“They’re giving us a paper bag of peanut butter and jelly instead of all these big projects that they’ve promised us, that we voted to pay for,” Combes said. “Eastsiders have been used and abused for way too long. The city does not stop at (Interstate) 35.”

Combes and other residents would like to see more safety features at Gateway, including improved lighting along trails, security cameras at entrances and regular patrolling to ensure the safety of visitors at night. Homelessness remains an issue at Gateway as well, Combes said.

Rick Herring, a neighborhood association leader and former City Council candidate, said he is forming a Gateway advocacy group to ensure that the parks department follows through with the master plan this time around, pointing to missed opportunities in the 2009 master plan that were not funded in the city’s budget or bond program.

City staff are encouraged by the enthusiasm residents bring to Gateway, including efforts to form an advocacy group, said parks district superintendent Scott Penn. After the master plan is finished and design documents are drawn up, Penn expects the city to have about $6.3 million left over to actually construct improvements at Gateway.

The outdated signs will come down soon as officials move forward with the new master plan, he added.

“We showed how important Gateway Park is to the city of Fort Worth, and I think the citizens came out to express their concerns as well as their optimism for doing this exercise again,” Penn said.

People who use Gateway primarily for recreational sports have their own concerns about its future. Michele Kahne, president of the Fort Worth Mountain Bikers Association, said her members have invested thousands of dollars and volunteer hours into maintaining more than seven miles of bike trails.

A large portion of their westside trail system has experienced intense flooding, forcing the association to close part of the trail for five months last year. Kahne came armed with documents to show how the city could help address the natural elevation that causes their trail system to flood.

“While we understand it’s on a floodplain, it’s a solvable issue with the correct investment,” Kahne said. “It’s a bigger project than our little nonprofit can do.”

City staff have been receptive to requests and want to improve green spaces for residents, Kahne said. However, avid disc golfer Colin Wickstrom said the city should take a larger role in maintaining courses so that trash pickup and other improvements don’t fall completely on residents.

“We’re often just neglected, and the truth of the matter is sports like disc golf, even the mountain bikers, don’t cost that much money to really stand out,” Wickstrom said.

City staff shared some initial ideas for improvements to Gateway during the first public meeting, including:

Residents still have time to express their opinion on Gateway Park’s future. After meeting with stakeholders like the Tarrant Regional Water District on Sept. 7, the parks department will host a second public meeting on Sept. 23. After the parks and recreation advisory board hosts an Oct. 25 workshop on the master plan, another public meeting is expected in November.

Moore wants the final master plan, expected to be adopted by City Council members in early 2024, to reflect a larger vision for the eastside. The lead pastor at New Bethel Complete In Christ Church remains passionate about an amphitheater space at Gateway Park that could host festivals, concerts and other community events.

An amphitheater would pay for itself, and give east Fort Worth a public space to call its own, Moore said.

“It’s a diamond in the rough and now we’ve got an opportunity to bring that diamond to brilliance, to showcase it,” he said. “I think we should.”

Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at [email protected].

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by Haley Samsel, Fort Worth Report August 7, 2023

Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at [email protected]. Her coverage is made possible by a grant from the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman... More by Haley Samsel