Council Members Stand Their Ground on Bridge Problem

Faced with what sounded like an ultimatum on the Lakes at Bird's Fort development, the City Council didn't blink.

Just when it looked like Arlington was finally approaching a "go" on development of the 1,950 acres of the Lakes at Bird's Fort area, up comes a potential snag.

The snafu involves a costly bridge, a future extension of Ballpark Way through the proposed development that would cross the Trinity River and a flood plain area. Many planners and politicos see the bridge as a crucial component of any future rail connection to the Trinity Railway Express line and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

Without it, a brand-new neighborhood of quarter-million-dollar homes would essentially be isolated from Arlington, their purchasing power diverted to other cities.

That sociological phenomenon is not of particular concern to Lakes at Bird's Fort developer Sam Ware of Lazarus Property Corp. To him, that's the city's problem. He wants a commitment from the city that his company or its successors will not be obligated to fund future Ballpark Way bridge construction.

Just how much such a bridge would cost is uncertain, but the most recent city thoroughfare plan pegs the figure at $37 million.

Normally the question wouldn't even come up. In Arlington's history anyway, private developers have never been asked to pay for public-works projects of this magnitude.

Trouble is, in exchange for turning what used to be a frequently flooded swamp and mishmash of gravel mines into an asset, Ware also wants the city to authorize tax increment financing. The city is amenable to the TIF, which would pay for construction of streets, waterlines and sewer lines, and other infrastructure costs within the development.

With a TIF, property tax money from new development is initially dedicated to paying infrastructure costs. This saves developers a bundle and encourages investment. Nothing approaching a TIF of such epic proportion has ever been tried in Arlington.

But if the bridge were included in TIF costs, a lot of money that would otherwise result in rapid development of the project might be diverted.

It's easy to see Ware's dilemma and also perhaps the psychology of bringing up this issue as a last-minute potential deal-breaker.

To their credit, council members hardly blinked - deal-breaker or no. Although the terms of the TIF agreement are yet to be negotiated, they refused to rule out the possibility of using some of those funds to build the Ballpark Way bridge. Why should they?

If this is a good deal for Lazarus, it'll be a good deal for somebody else. And at this point, the council and staff have picked up considerable expertise on the possibilities of both TIFs and the characteristics of an area with a unique history of shaping the region.

If this set of negotiations ends up being a practice run, the damage will be minimal - at least to the city. There's little point in new development if it brings additional costs to taxpayers that might conceivably take decades to recover.