Closed session: the Dean Ranch case, CV26-0175, is listed with the words Mediation Settlement Agreement; a second item lists City of Willow Park v. Halff & Associates

Executive session item 18, under Section 551.071, consultation with city attorney, reads City of Aledo, Texas and City of Fort Worth, Texas v. City of Willow Park, Texas, Beall-Dean Ranch and Parker County cause number: CV26-0175 in Parker County District Court, 43rd District; Mediation Settlement Agreement. The Aug. 25 agenda, reproduced in tonight's packet as item 20 of the minutes, listed the same case without those three words. Item 19 lists City of Willow Park v. Halff & Associates, Fort Worth Water Project. Two further closed-session items, 20 and 21, are listed under Section 551.071(2). The agenda says the council will reconvene into regular session to consider action, if any, on matters discussed in executive session.

How the case got here. The tract is 317 acres of the Dean Ranch at the southwest corner of Interstate 20 and FM 1187, along what The Community News called the main road into Aledo. On Feb. 11, 2025, Willow Park's council voted unanimously to annex it; the plans reported then were 35.3 acres of single-family, 91.7 acres of multifamily, 135.2 acres of commercial and 55.5 acres of light industrial, with an estimated value at full buildout of $500 million, and the city expected the development to roughly double its sales tax collections, per The Community News. The paper reported that Fort Worth had relinquished the property from its extraterritorial jurisdiction because it could not provide utilities. Since Sept. 1, 2023, Local Government Code Section 42.105 has let landowners petition out of a city's ETJ, and it says an area released that way may not be put in another city's ETJ or limits unless its owners ask.

A city's ETJ is the unincorporated area contiguous to its boundaries, one-half mile out for a city under 5,000 people and one mile for a city of 5,000 to 24,999 (Local Government Code 42.021), and it may not expand into area already in another city's ETJ except by written agreement between the cities (42.022). Fort Worth's council approved a resolution authorizing its city attorney to join Aledo's suit, the Fort Worth Report reported on Jan. 28, 2026; the Fort Worth staff report, as the Report described it, says Willow Park purported to move its ETJ boundary from Bankhead Highway at Nu Energy Drive to FM 1187 by a series of ordinances, that the northern portion of the Bankhead right-of-way is in Fort Worth's ETJ and the southern portion in Aledo's ETJ and city limits, that Aledo would seek a court declaration that the annexations were unlawful and void, and that Fort Worth expected filing fees under $2,500. The suit was filed in February in the 43rd District Court in Weatherford. Per the Weatherford Democrat, it challenges Willow Park's 2024 annexation of 321 acres and its February 2025 annexation of 7,313 feet of the Bankhead Highway, which the cities say was done to make the tract contiguous with Willow Park's limits; the cities asked Judge Craig Towson for a temporary restraining order halting infrastructure in the disputed area, to become a permanent injunction, and no money. Willow Park filed a general denial Feb. 18; a motion to disqualify its attorney, Andy Messer, was filed Feb. 20; developer Robert Beall joined on Willow Park's side. Letters attached to the petition refer to a boundary agreement Willow Park had proposed among the three cities; Aledo's attorney, Alicia Kreh, wrote that Fort Worth had declined that discussion and Aledo therefore declined it, and Fort Worth's letter said Willow Park had installed infrastructure along I-20 through Fort Worth's ETJ to serve the disputed property while the dispute was pending.

Since then: mediation had failed to produce a resolution as of The Real Deal's April 13 story, which also reported that Judge Towson was set to hear arguments on the restraining order and broader injunctions the following month; Willow Park's council approved the preliminary plat for roughly 317.7 acres on March 24, without making the plat public, while continuing utility work, per The Community News, and bidding had begun on a second phase of sewer service, per the Weatherford Democrat; Aledo's council voted June 4, after closed session, to add Parker County as a defendant, unanimous with Covington recusing, per the minutes; the county had posted Beall Dean Ranch Development incentive negotiations under Section 551.087 on Jan. 12 with no action, per its minutes; Aledo's council spent three hours in closed session on the Dean Ranch development on Aug. 10 and listed the case again Aug. 20. Tonight's Willow Park budget carries a TIRZ #2 (Beall) with $0 in captured appraised value. The Ledger has found no published ruling on the injunction.

What it means for Aledo and Fort Worth. As the Ledger's August brief put it, whichever city ends up with the tract sets its zoning, collects its sales tax, and decides whether the corner where the district's two arteries meet is built to Aledo's standards or Willow Park's. Fort Worth's stated interest, per its staff report, is the northern portion of the Bankhead right-of-way in its ETJ and, per its letter attached to the petition, the infrastructure Willow Park installed through that ETJ; Aledo's is the southern portion, inside its ETJ and city limits, and the tract's frontage on the road into town. What the plaintiffs asked for is a declaration that the annexations are void and a halt to infrastructure, not damages. What Willow Park has done meanwhile is plat the land and bid sewer work, and a reinvestment zone named Beall appears in tonight's budget with $0 in captured value.

What the record allows next, in no order the Ledger can rank. A mediated settlement: tonight's agenda lists one for attorney consultation, and any vote to approve one would have to come in open session, as the agenda's reconvene language says; Aledo's council has taken its votes in the case in open session after closed consultation, as it did June 4. A court ruling: a hearing on the injunction request was set, per The Real Deal in April; the Ledger has found no published ruling; and the underlying claim that the annexation ordinances are void is separate from the injunction request. Continued building: Willow Park's plat and sewer work proceed while the case is pending, which is what the cities' injunction request asks the court to stop. Aledo's council meets Sept. 17; its agenda had not been posted as of Sept. 6.

Read: Dean Ranch tracker · Every Dean Ranch mention in the record · The Ledger's August brief on the suit · June 4: Aledo adds Parker County as a defendant · Aug. 10: three hours in closed session · Jan. 12: the county's incentive item · Fort Worth Report, Jan. 28, 2026 · The Community News on the Feb. 11, 2025 annexation · The Community News on the March 24 plat · Weatherford Democrat on the filing (via Yahoo)

Where it stands: Aledo and Fort Worth's suit against Willow Park over the 320-acre Beall-Dean Ranch tract is pending in the 43rd District Court; no ruling on the injunction has been published.

Source: City of Willow Park: City Council Meeting September 8th, 2026 Agenda, items 18 to 21, and the Aug. 25 minutes in the Agenda Packet; The Community News, Feb. 12, 2025 and March 26, 2026; Fort Worth Report, Jan. 28, 2026; Weatherford Democrat, March 1 and March 26, 2026 (via Yahoo); The Real Deal, April 13, 2026 (search summary; the article could not be retrieved); Aledo council and Parker County minutes as written up in the Ledger's meeting reports; Local Government Code Sections 42.021, 42.022 and 42.105 (text as of May 2025); Agenda Packet Item 6, Property Tax Information page. The court's docket and filings were not reviewed; acreage in press accounts runs from 317 to 321.