What should Fort Worth look like in 2050?
There are a million possible answers. The city is hoping to focus some of them into a cohesive one with Fort Worth’s new comprehensive plan.
The document will serve as a long-term vision for every facet of Fort Worth — from green space to transit to zoning — and guide how leaders allocate the city’s limited resources and design infrastructure.
“It really needs to address what this community wants to be — wants to do — going forward,” Eric Fladager, assistant finance director, told City Council members at a work session Tuesday.
The plan has taken shape by focusing on investing in dense, mixed-use, walkable, interconnected districts, said Jay Renkens, chief practice officer of consulting firm Moore Iacofano Goltsman Inc. The evolving vision for the city came from what Renkens described as significant public engagement efforts.
City Council paid Renkens’ firm $760,000 in 2025 to take over leadership of the comprehensive plan.
Fort Worth’s current comprehensive plan was created in 2000 and last updated in 2023. It’s due for a revamp, Fladager said, given that the city’s population has doubled in size since the first iteration of the plan was established.
Questions the comprehensive plan team is attempting to answer include:
Invest in public transit or car-centric roads?
Build out undeveloped areas, or focus more on density and redevelopment?
Concentrate businesses downtown, or spread them out into urban neighborhoods?
What is the comprehensive plan’s focus?
As of Tuesday, the team’s emerging vision statement for the comprehensive plan is:
“Fort Worth is a world class city of thriving and connected neighborhoods, innovative businesses and industries, and vibrant places that enhance quality of life and provide opportunity for all.
The city’s continued growth and evolution is guided by its frontier spirit, commitment to people and community, and thoughtful integration of green space,” according to Tuesday’s presentation.
Planners seek public engagement
Renkens said the team has engaged with over 9,700 residents through in-person forums and events. Public safety emerged as a top priority for 47% of participants. Multimodal transit and green space preservation were second and third priorities.
“I noticed staff in places that we don’t normally see,” said council member Elizabeth Beck, who applauded the engagement efforts. “Often we rely on our emails and our social media to get the word out, but we did a really great job of meeting the people where they were.”
For virtual engagement, an online survey asks residents 30 questions about their ideal Fort Worth. Those taking the survey can choose whether they’d prefer to drive to work or take public transportation; if they’d rather live in a dense downtown urbanscape or near nature.
“Through that series of questions, we’ve been able to discern things like, ‘What types of places do people want to live in? Where do they want to be able to go shop? What sorts of recreation do they prioritize?” Renkens said.
The quiz assigns respondents one of eight city visions based on survey answers. Envisioned cities include a tech-forward Fort Worth, a city focused on mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods, or one built around several major rail transit hubs.
Courtesy | City of Fort Worth
Of the over 1,200 online respondents, 25% desired a connected, walkable city. Another 24% related to a city built around public transit and 20% envisioned a city shaped by accessible parks, rivers and green corridors, according to Renkens’ presentation.
“People were saying that they felt as though a lot of the newer development, particularly as you get further from downtown, tends to be pretty homogenous. Meaning that you have a lot of single-family detached housing, or maybe even a lot of walk-up apartments, with not a lot of amenities nearby,” Renkens said.
Over 211,350 attendees encountered engagement efforts at events, he highlighted. Renkens’ team tracked over 232,200 website visits and emails during that time.
The comprehensive plan will continue to be fine-tuned over 2026 for a planned adoption in spring of 2027, Renkens said. Previously, city staff had said the target finish date was 2028.
Fort Worth’s attention on the comprehensive plan stands out from what some urban planning experts have described as a decadeslong divestment in long-term city planning.
Over the 2010s, as City Hall prioritized navigating tight budgets, cutting property tax rates and attracting development, its planning team shrunk and bounced between departments.
The team ultimately landed under the city manager in 2025 as the city’s planning division, which will be led by a new top city planner, a position practically nonexistent for nearly 20 years. Fort Worth announced the search last August, but has yet to make a hire.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
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