Fort Worth will spend $500,000 to assess environmental contamination at sites across the city, including the former Butler Place public housing complex and the historic R. Vickery Elementary School.
The funding comes from the Environmental Protection Agency, which announced its latest round of grants for brownfields on May 20. Brownfields are land that has been abandoned or left undeveloped because of the presence of a hazardous substance or pollutant. Many brownfields were polluted by industrial users, such as factories or gas stations that formerly operated on the sites.
Fort Worth is one of 178 communities to receive funding this year. The money will allow the city to conduct 30 environmental site assessments, develop four cleanup plans, conduct two “visioning sessions” with community members and support other public outreach efforts.
City staff plan to focus their efforts on the eastside, south of Interstate 30 and east of Interstate 35, according to Fort Worth’s grant application. However, EPA funds can go to any qualifying project across the city, said city environmental services spokesperson Lola McCartney.
Environmental assessments typically examine the site’s history and how the land is currently being used, she said. If necessary, the city will also conduct a secondary assessment by collecting samples of soil, groundwater and building materials and sending them to a lab for analysis.
“Environmental assessments are typically the first step to any development project,” McCartney said by email. “They help to define environmental problems and to support solutions through cleanup plans and, ultimately, cleanup actions.”
The city’s application highlighted low-income and minority communities that “face disproportionate environmental threats,” especially on the eastside.
Butler Place, a former African American public housing site that has sat vacant since 2020, was among the sites named in the application. The triangle-shaped complex near downtown Fort Worth opened in 1940 and is now bordered by U.S. Highway 287, Interstate 35 and Interstate 30, effectively isolating the property.
Alongside property owner Fort Worth Housing Solutions, the city is conducting a study exploring ways to reconnect the area to the rest of downtown. Project partners recently hosted an open house to collect ideas and will later present a draft plan for City Council members to consider.
In addition, the city spots economic redevelopment opportunities for the former R. Vickery School at 1905 E. Vickery Blvd. The school building, which educated a generation of Black children from the 1960s through the 1980s, has fallen into disrepair and is often used as a shelter by people experiencing homelessness.
The building survived six fires last year, prompting Historic Fort Worth to name it as one of the city’s most endangered places. Members of Alpha Phi Alpha, a Black fraternity, plan to purchase the property and redevelop it through their nonprofit, the Livingston Community Development Foundation.
“I’ve seen the school building in its glory when it was still open and children were still going into the school,” Glen Harmon, the foundation’s executive director, previously said. “And it broke my heart to see that it’s turned to the condition that it’s in. And I want to make it my life’s work to inject new life into that building and have it as a resource for the community.”
The planned environmental assessments can also help properties move forward by assuring landowners and developers that there are no environmental issues that need to be addressed, McCartney said.
In addition to the new funding, city staff are spending a $1 million EPA grant on the removal of asbestos materials and other contaminants from the Fort Worth Convention Center arena as it undergoes a $701 million expansion.
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
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