When Mayor Mattie Parker heard that Oncor wanted to financially support an initiative of her choice, she spent a year determining which cause to champion. She wanted a project with staying power — an idea that future city leaders could get behind.
Green space, and the preservation of Fort Worth’s natural heritage, came to mind.
“Having been in politics for a long time, you see initiatives that get scrapped as soon as a ‘new person’ comes in, and I didn’t want that to happen to me,” Parker said. “No matter who’s mayor next or what the city looks like, I hope this is something that is politically neutral.”
Good Natured, announced during Parker’s October State of the City address, aims to preserve at least 10,000 acres of green space — including parkland — over the next five years. The initiative comes during a period of rapid population growth in Fort Worth, which loses about 50 acres of open space to development each week.
While the city already runs its own open space conservation program, Parker’s focus is on attracting more private investment to the cause. Her primary goal is creating a private land conservancy that could become the “third partner” in acquiring and caring for green space in Fort Worth. Oncor has donated $1 million to support the effort.
To move the initiative forward, the city has tapped Mark McDaniel to be Fort Worth’s first greenspace champion and signed an agreement with the Tarrant Regional Water District to further collaborate on green space policy. The agreement, approved by Fort Worth City Council members Nov. 28, commits both agencies to issuing an annual green space report and holding a yearly public meeting dedicated to the issue.
These steps may sound simple, Parker said, but they are crucial to measuring progress and ensuring green space remains a priority for government agencies.
“We think our shared goals should be aligned, and that may be in land use policy or that may be in preserving buffers in certain areas to protect the [Trinity River] watershed,” she said. “We believe this work is important and worthwhile, and that this will also help detail what Good Natured ultimately becomes as this coalition gets started.”
McDaniel previously led an overhaul of Fort Worth’s budgeting process and the consolidation of the city’s planning, data and analytics department into the new FWLab. Now, he has a new part-time role with a title that attracted jokes from city staff.
“There’s been jokes about ‘Where’s your green cape? Where’s your belt buckle?’” McDaniel, who served in local governments across Texas before becoming a consultant, said with a laugh. “I tell people that after being in city government so long, I don’t take things as seriously in terms of position and stature and all that.”
Over the next several months, McDaniel and high-level city staff will shape a strategic plan identifying how the city will fund, acquire, maintain and utilize green space over time.
McDaniel doesn’t expect the new vision to displace what city staff are accomplishing through the open space program, which has acquired land near the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, Lake Arlington and Tandy Hills Natural Area, among others.
“It’s not like we’re going a completely different direction,” he said. “We’re building on the work that’s already been done.”
The city’s existing open space conservation program, supported by $15 million in bond funds, is housed within Fort Worth’s stormwater department.
City staff worked with the Trust for Public Land to develop an open space strategy in early 2022. Fort Worth City Council members adopted the report, which included 35 proposed action steps surrounding funding and development regulations, but did not enact policy changes.
McDaniel’s role is to identify which of those paths the city will follow and how a nonprofit conservancy could assist the city in purchasing land with private funding. The mayor has hired Brent Brown, a consultant and president of the Dallas-based Trinity Park Conservancy, to help set up the land conservancy while McDaniel handles the government side of the equation, McDaniel said.
The parks department should have a larger role in the green space conversation, especially when it comes to providing amenities to residents, McDaniel said. During his twice-a-week tours of Fort Worth’s parks system, McDaniel said he recognized the need to “up our game” on maintaining existing parks alongside acquisition of new land. City officials recently increased funding for park maintenance and staff in the 2024 budget.
In addition, the parks department recently kicked off public outreach for its “Play Big!” master plan that will outline strategies for enhancing the overall park system and expanding recreational programs. Alongside that process, McDaniel will lead what he calls an “aspirational study” identifying areas where the parks system can reimagine amenities and improve visitor numbers.
Participate in the “Play Big!” parks master plan
Residents can fill out an online survey about their experience with Fort Worth’s parks system from now until Jan. 1. Data from the survey, available in English and Spanish, will be used in the “Play Big!” master plan. Residents can also sign up for email updates on upcoming public meetings on the plan, which the parks department expects to complete by fall 2024.
“It’s about how we position ourselves as a park department moving forward, so that we can take the things that come out of the master plan and take them to the next level,” he said.
Parker calls McDaniel “the perfect person” to push green space forward as part of City Manager David Cooke’s executive team thanks to his government expertise and passion for nature. If and when McDaniel decides to retire or move on, Parker is sure that the position would remain.
As Good Natured continues to take shape, Parker sees more opportunities for business owners, real estate developers and the public to learn about green space preservation. She doesn’t want plans related to parks and open space to “sit on the shelf.”
“I don’t think we’ve been progressive enough and ambitious enough, from an environmental perspective, around the protection of green space,” she said. “Just as a city, having a better focus on green space preservation will be incredibly beneficial when it comes to the private sector.”
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
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