The University of Texas at Arlington is planning a westward expansion that just got a big boost from the City of Fort Worth.
The new campus will be built in two phases, totaling 1.5 million square feet: Up to nine buildings with 12,000 students.
City Council members approved an interlocal agreement at their meeting on Tuesday, approving $4 million from the Economic Development Initiatives Fund for UTA's new West campus in Walsh Ranch.
In exchange, the university will be responsible for public services and utilities "consisting of associated water lines, domestic water meters and sanitary sewer lines; construction of an inner campus road, lighting, frontage road approaches and acceleration/deceleration lanes and installation of all franchise utilities including electric, gas and telecom," according to city documents.
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“We’re really excited about this next opportunity to expand our impact and bring educational opportunity to the west side of Fort Worth," said UTA president Jennifer Cowley during the meeting.
City Council member for the district, Michael D. Crain, agreed that the campus will expand access.
“I think when people look at the map of Fort Worth, they don’t understand how far west it goes. That would put another education campus right in the middle of what is a high-growth population area," he said.
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Crain said Walsh Ranch is one of many new developments in his district, and he thinks the campus will bring even more.
“As we talk to any sort of commercial businesses, other offices that want to relocate here, they’re looking at what talent exists, and so this is going to put more education, more talent in that area and more accessible across the board," he said.
But with the university's new frontier also comes some traffic concerns in the already high-growth area.
“Since you are there, close to the nexus of two major freeways, hopefully we can get some assistance from our TxDOT folks, and I hope [Fort Worth Transportation and Public Works] folks are listening, outreach to them so we can plan accordingly and see if we can make some improvements, especially to I-20, along the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway, to make sure that’s up to snuff to accept the upcoming universities," City Council member Carlos Flores said during the meeting.
Crain, who sits on the Regional Transportation Council, said they've already been looking at that, and this development will help re-prioritize west Fort Worth with TxDOT.
"I will actually see to it and there’s lots of pieces out there that we have to keep reminding them of," he said.
According to city documents, UTA's west campus will be constructed in two parts, the north parcel and south. The total estimated cost of the former is over $800,000,000.00 and it's expected to start enrollment in Fall of 2028.
The planned programs at the campus include engineering, social work, and economic development & workforce development.
UTA West will become the third UTA campus in Fort Worth, along with the UTA Fort Worth Center and the UTA Research Institute (UTARI)
