The cities of Fort Worth and Aledo have sued Willow Park for alleged unlawful annexation of property. A recently enacted state law set the stage for the dispute.
Amanda McCoy
amccoy@star-telegram.com
Neighbor disputes can be sticky, and the one between Fort Worth, Aledo and Willow Park is no exception.
On Feb. 9, Fort Worth and Aledo joined to sue Willow Park, arguing the city unlawfully annexed 321 acres near Interstate 20 and FM 1187 that was rightfully owned by the two plaintiffs. It is further alleged in the lawsuit that Willow Park had no legal right to annex the property since it was not contiguous to Willow Park’s boundaries.
Spokespeople for Fort Worth and Willow Park declined to comment citing the ongoing litigation. An Aledo spokesperson, however, issued the following statement:
“The City of Aledo has brought suit to protect its sovereign municipal boundaries. It’s unfortunate that it has come to litigation, but Willow Park refuses to respect other cities’ municipal boundaries.”
The property at the center of the dispute is owned by real estate developer Robert Beall and is earmarked for a $500 million mixed-use project that will include single- and multifamily residential, commercial and light industrial development. The Weatherford News reported the development will “roughly double” Willow Park’s sales tax income.
In other words, it’s a potentially valuable piece of gateway land at the intersection of Fort Worth, Aledo and Willow Park. The question is, how did it come to be the subject of a multicity lawsuit?
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According to an interview he gave to WFAA last year, Beall acquired the property, which had been part of the 2,000-acre Dean Ranch, in 2022. At that time, Beall’s 321 acres were in Fort Worth’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, a zone of control that extends five miles past the city limits.
Following the 2023 passage of Texas Senate Bill 2038, which gave property owners the ability to leave a city’s ETJ, Beall successfully petitioned to have his land released from Fort Worth’s jurisdiction. In November 2024, Willow Park annexed the property into its ETJ at Beall’s request.
ETJ landowners don’t pay city property tax on their properties, so the decision to move from one ETJ to another comes down to reasons beyond taxation. In Beall’s case, he told WFAA that he preferred Willow Park to Fort Worth or Aledo because Willow Park could more easily provide water and wastewater infrastructure to his property.
“‘Who can make it work?’ is really what it came down to,” Beall told WFAA. “Willow Park was the best choice, we felt.”
Speaking to WFAA, Beall said he hoped to have tenants in his mixed-use development within 10 years of breaking ground, but it would have taken twice that long to extend his property’s infrastructure to connect with Fort Worth’s.
Beall did not return a message left with his office from the Star-Telegram requesting comment.
In a Fort Worth Report article from 2024, Fort Worth Assistant City Manager Dana Burghdoff characterized moves like Beall’s as “city shopping” and said it created competition between neighboring cities and made planning for the future more difficult for city governments.
An analysis published by the State Bar of Texas in 2024 said S.B. 2038 “has flipped bargaining power from the cities to the developers.”
According to a commentary written by St. Mary’s University law student Erica Martinez and published in the St. Mary’s Law Journal, historically, Texas municipalities had far-reaching powers to annex adjacent unincorporated areas, even without residents’ consent.
The Municipal Annexation Act of 1963 established the concept of ETJs, Martinez wrote. This gave cities the ability to regulate and provide services to unincorporated areas. The act went into effect, wrote Martinez, during a time of growth for Texas’ urban areas.
Under the law, cities can establish ETJs past their city boundaries based on population. On the low end, cities with populations of less than 5,000 can extend ETJs up to half a mile beyond their boundaries. On the high end, cities with populations of 100,000 or more can go up to five miles past their boundaries with their ETJs.
Commercial and residential properties within these ETJs are subject to some of the same regulations as properties within city limits. This, wrote Martinez, created tension between municipalities and property owners in ETJs, who can’t vote in city elections.
To alleviate some of that tension, in 2023 the Texas Legislature passed S.B. 2038, which allows property owners to petition to be released from a city’s ETJ, with only a few exceptions.
In areas with populations of less than 200, petitions require the signatures of more than 50% of the registered voters or more than half of the landowners. If a petition meets the legal requirements, a city has no choice but to release the land from its ETJ.
In areas with populations of 200 or more, petitions require the signatures of at least 5% of the registered voters, and an election is held to determine whether the land is released from the ETJ or not.
The State Bar of Texas 2024 analysis said Texas cities had sued the state, arguing S.B. 2038 is unconstitutional.
But at the heart of the issue in Fort Worth and Aledo’s lawsuit against Willow Park is the question of whether Willow Park had the legal right to annex Beall’s property, regardless of what Beall wanted.
The plaintiffs argue no because the East Bankhead Highway, with right of way owned by Fort Worth and Aledo, created a barrier between Willow Park’s boundary and Beall’s property line. According to the petition filed by Fort Worth and Aledo, a city can only annex land that is contiguous to its existing borders. Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges, when Willow Park included in its annexation the East Bankhead Highway and the adjacent right of way, it infringed upon the sovereign borders of its neighboring cities.
Fort Worth and Aledo’s lawsuit was filed in the 43rd District Court in Parker County. In the petition, the plaintiffs are asking the court to void Willow Park’s annexation. In the meantime, the plaintiffs want a temporary restraining order halting further development of Beall’s property.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Matt Adams is a news reporter covering Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas. He previously wrote about aviation and travel and enjoys a good weekend road trip. Matt joined the Star-Telegram in January 2025.