Fort Worth Report
by Marissa Greene
Fort Worth City Council members adopted a resolution Tuesday to seize land owned by North Fort Worth Baptist Church for the Cantrell Sansom Road Widening Project.
The resolution recommends the city council declares negotiations between North Fort Worth Baptist Church and the City of Fort Worth unsuccessful. David White, the education and administration pastor for the church, has negotiated with the city for two years, he said, about the potential impacts nearby road construction may have to the church’s septic system and the possibility of connecting the church to the city’s sewer lines.
“If our septic system is shut down due to construction related to the widening of Cantrell Sansom Road, we will have to close operations. We need a reasonable solution first,” White wrote in his comment to the city council on June 13.
Condemnation is the type of process to use eminent domain, which gives the government authority to seize private property for public use, according to Sriram Villupuram, an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Texas at Arlington.
“City council and others vote, and they agree that this [land] needs to be condemned, then, once that’s decided, they reach out to the owner, and they have to provide an offer,” Villupuram said.
The land is appraised, and then condemnation begins by making an offer, which is based on the land’s fair market value, or the price the property would sell for at the time.
Private property land owners have a right to hire an appraiser to see if they are indeed getting fair market value, Villupuram said. In some instances, if landowners are unsatisfied with the offer or question whether the condemnation of the property is fair, they have a right to a trial by judge or jury, according to The State of Texas Landowner’s Bill of Rights.
“It’s a shock for the property owner because they weren’t planning to sell, right, that’s the friction in the whole process,” Villupuram said.
White said it would cost the church a lot of money to connect to the city’s sewer lines and he’s waiting for the city to provide a financial offer to help the church to make the transition from a septic system and connect to city sewer lines.
Steve Cooke, Fort Worth’s director of property management, said that the city doesn’t take eminent domain lightly, though the city is on a time frame to complete the road widening project, which is projected to be completed in spring 2024.
“Sometimes it gets to a place where we can’t get the information we need. In this particular instance, we find ourselves on a time frame, we can’t just negotiate for two years,” Cooke said.
The city will acquire 0.0521 acres of the church’s land located at 5801 North Freeway for vehicles to have right-of-way on Cantrell Sansom Rd. So that drivers are connected to Cantrell Sansom Rd from N Freeway Frontage Rd and to Old Denton Rd., according to the resolution. The city will also use 0.0890 acres for public easement and adequate distance at the intersection, said Fernando Costa, assistant city manager of Fort Worth.
Though the resolution was adopted nearly a minute before the city council meeting was about to end, Cooke said that he plans to continue talking with North Fort Worth Baptist Church.
“We are some of the biggest fans of the City of Fort Worth, and we support the city,” White said. “We just want the city to help us resolve it fairly.”
The right-of-way acquisition is now in process, with utility relocation to begin after, according to the Cantrell Sansom Road project’s spring 2023 updates. Construction dates are to be determined after the right-of-way is complete.
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter at @marissaygreene.