Pate Trust vetting bidders for 471 acres in south Fort Worth; city continues zoning case

The Fort Worth City Council continued zoning and annexation cases again Tuesday on the 471-acre A.M. Pate Ranch at Bryant Irvin and Altamesa roads in the southern path of the Chisholm Trail Parkway, as the Pate Trust vets bidders for the property.

“They have several bids, and they’re trying to determine what’s in their best interests,” Councilman Jungus Jordan said in an interview. “It’s best to give them some time to solidify their contractual arrangements.”

The trust, which initiated the annexation case, asked for the continuances.

The council also voted unanimously Tuesday to move the planned southern extension of Bryant Irvin Road to the west. The extension, south from Altamesa, will form the western boundary of the planned, mixed-use Pate Ranch development.

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“It opens up more surface for development,” Jordan said.

The zoning case, recommended for approval by zoning commissioners, would zone the land for the first time. According to a land-use plan submitted to the city with the zoning case, the development will have 230 acres of single-family, an 83.5-acre “live-work-play” lifestyle center, 84.9 acres of mixed-use, 9.4 acres of general commercial, and a 7.2-acre neighborhood park. On its southeast side, it will have the eventual Summer Creek TexRail commuter rail station. The residential piece will include villas and “esplanade,” custom, patio, and traditional single-family homes.

The council plans to annex the site at the same time it approves the zoning case.

The developer Landeavor had the site under contract and worked with the Dunaway Associates planning, landscape architecture and engineering firm in Fort Worth to come up with the land use plan.

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Landeavor lost its major equity partner over an account in the national financial press about Texas’ exposure to falling energy prices, Jordan said recently.

That triggered a relisting of the property by the Pate Trust, and the council has continued the zoning and annexation cases several times. Landeavor executives have not responded to requests for an interview, and it’s not clear whether the firm is still interested.

Jordan has said he likes the proposed zoning, which was worked out with area neighborhood associations, and had considered moving forward with the zoning and annexation cases while the Pate Trust works through the property’s ownership situation.

“I would have liked to go ahead, because I think there’s been a lot of work done on it,” Jordan said.

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The site is bounded by Altamesa on the north, Bryant Irvin on the west, and the Chisholm Trail Parkway and Old Granbury Road on the east. It’s one of several major tracts south of Altamesa that have been opened to development by the parkway.


Another tract that’s in play will go before the city’s zoning commission for a second time Wednesday.

Legacy Capital is under contract to sell 30 acres at the northwest corner of Sycamore School Road and Summer Creek to Realty Capital, which plans a mixed-use development with 900 multifamily units called The Dylan. The zoning commission on March 11 continued a rezoning of the site.

Jordan says he wants substantially more mixed-use commercial/residential in the development, which would be supported by the new residential and nearby apartments and homes.

Tuesday, he asked for a staff review of the criteria for the city’s mixed-use zoning, saying during an afternoon council meeting there’s too much room for interpretation and “mixed-use is being used as another designation of multifamliy.”