An image from Google Streetview shows the gate leading into the La Cantera neighborhood just outside the Fort Worth city limits. Tarrant County maintains the public Billings Road in the private community behind the gate.
Google Maps
Behind the gates of a community in Tarrant County sits a public roadway, maintained by the county but used exclusively by residents, raising questions about the legality of such an arrangement.
Billings Road runs north and south through a residential area west of Lake Worth. The road is less than two miles long, beginning at Nine Mile Bridge Road and ending at Orilla Lane. A portion of Billings Road south of Confederate Park Road is private and gated, but a roughly quarter-mile stretch beyond that is designated as a public road, even though it’s confined within the gated La Cantera neighborhood.
The road was labeled public and was included in a plat map when La Cantera’s developer turned over the land to the county in 2002. In October 2008, Tarrant County accepted responsibility for Billings Road, according to county map data.
Now, county officials are investigating, but as long as Billings Road remains public, Tarrant County is on the hook for any required maintenance.
This section of Billings Road, in blue, lies behind the gates of the La Cantera neighborhood in Tarrant County despite being designated as a public road. How this happened is a mystery. Tarrant County Geographic Information Portal
Google Maps satellite imagery shows La Cantera being gated as far back as March 2008, months before the county accepted Billings Road into its roadway inventory. Steve Simmons, a longtime La Cantera resident, said the gate has been up since at least 2003.
Simmons is involved in a lawsuit filed in 2023 against the La Cantera Homeowners’ Association over access to adjacent, non-HOA properties located off Billings Road. Among other things, the plaintiffs argue ingress via Billings Road should not be impeded or limited to La Cantera residents.
By Simmons’ count, 20 property owners use Billings Road to get to properties just outside La Cantera’s HOA bounds, himself included. He said he and others have had to appeal to the HOA for gate access.
Simmons wanted to know how the HOA could legally bar access to a road the county owned and maintained, and he provided a photo from 2023 showing a county crew doing what looks to be paving work.
“The taxpayers of Tarrant County have paid for the repairs of Billings,” Simmons said. “This is not a one-time deal. The road is reaching the end of its useful life and will continue to require taxpayer money to maintain it. The public has the right to use a public road.”
The La Cantera HOA’s management company declined to comment. Simmons, however, shared an email sent by the management company on March 18 that said the HOA was considering two possible options with regard to Billings Road: transfer ownership of the road to the HOA or make the private roads in La Cantera public and turn them over to the county, likely meaning the HOA would have to remove the gate.
Each would require homeowner and county buy-in.
A spokesperson for Precinct 4 Commissioner Manny Ramirez said his office is looking into the case.
“This stretch of Billings Road is something we were surprised to discover when we took office three years ago,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Based on how it functions today, it’s difficult to understand how it was ever designated as a public road in the first place. Quite frankly, it’s not a situation that should exist, and we share the frustration surrounding it.”
The statement said Ramirez’s office was working with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office to determine why Billings Road was made public all those years ago and what should happen with it next. In the meantime, the county remains legally obligated to maintain the road.
Lawsuits involving the La Cantera HOA, including the one Simmons is a party to, have complicated matters, but Ramirez’s spokesperson said the commissioner “has been engaged and is committed to helping find a path forward that is fair and legally sound. We understand the concerns being raised and agree that this situation needs clarity and resolution.”
According to Texas law, neighborhood associations that own property on which a public road lies can erect a gate as a barrier under certain conditions. The statute does not specify if that means unlocked gates that can be opened and closed at will by anyone, or if locked gates are allowed in some circumstances.
Last year, an attorney with the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University analyzed a scenario near Amarillo that was similar to the one in La Cantera. In the Amarillo case, a property owner was ordered to remove a gate that barred access to another landowner’s property via a public road.
“In the case of a public street, anything of a permanent nature, such as a fence, gate, building or wall, if it burdens the use of the street, is not allowed,” the attorney wrote in his analysis.
This story was originally published March 20, 2026 at 10:58 AM.
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.