Executive Summary

The Development Services Department within the City of Fort Worth is tasked with maintaining and managing some of the most complex functions within municipal government. Due to the nature of the projects, any delays in processing can result in substantial lost dollars through annual taxes, development fees and economic impact. Allocation of resources to the department for the purpose of increasing customer service, technology enhancements and ease of access will be quickly recovered through additional streams of revenue.

Fort Worth was the fastest growing large city between 2010 and 2020 and is now the 13 th largest city in the nation.

The Development Services Department employs 174 full-time positions responsible for fielding all development inquiries, including 40,000 walk-ins, 55,000 emails, and over 100,000 phone calls.

The population in the DFW Metroplex rose 8.5% from 2015 – 2020 meaning Fort Worth is competing with growth opportunities in other neighboring communities. Commercial and residential developers are seeking business friendly environments.

It is reasonable to assume that even ten weeks of delay on commercial development projects could result in a loss of over $496 million in project valuations.

The resulting loss could translate into lost/delayed taxes, economic impact, and fee revenue for the City of Fort Worth .