Aledo, Willow Park, Fort Worth
Aledo's annexation fight with Willow Park over Dean Ranch is still pending, and Willow Park keeps building
The case over a $500 million development at I-20 and FM 1187 was on the council's executive-session list again Aug. 20. Willow Park approved the preliminary plat in March and is bidding sewer work.
Aledo and Fort Worth sued Willow Park in February in the 43rd District Court in Weatherford (Cause No. CV26-0175). The suit alleges that Willow Park's 2024 annexation of roughly 320 acres at the southwest corner of Interstate 20 and FM 1187, and its 2025 annexation of about 11 acres of Bankhead Highway right-of-way to reach it, violated Texas annexation law, because the land was not contiguous to Willow Park and the right-of-way sits inside Aledo's and Fort Worth's extraterritorial jurisdictions. The cities asked Judge Craig Towson for an injunction halting infrastructure in the disputed area, not for money.
The land is developer Robert Beall's Beall-Dean Ranch, a planned $500 million mixed-use project on part of the 2,000-acre Dean Ranch, with single-family and multifamily housing, commercial and light industrial uses. Beall used a 2023 state law to leave Fort Worth's ETJ and joined the suit on Willow Park's side. Willow Park's council approved a new boundary map the day after the suit was filed, approved the preliminary plat on March 24 along with a 61.4-acre annexation for about 450 homes and a Tractor Supply site, and has been bidding a second phase of sewer service. Mediation in March did not produce a settlement.
The Ledger has not found a published ruling on the injunction. The case appeared on the Aledo council's executive-session agenda on Aug. 20 under pending litigation, alongside separate items on Dean Ranch development, downtown development and Bailey Ranch development. Willow Park's council listed the same case in closed session in March.
Why it matters here: 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.
Sources: Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth joins the lawsuit; Weatherford Democrat: the suit; Star-Telegram via AOL: cities say Willow Park doubled down; The Real Deal: $500M project caught in annexation battle; Weatherford Democrat via Yahoo: Willow Park approves preliminary plat; City of Aledo: Aug. 20 agenda (CivicClerk)
How this was sourced: News reports: the Fort Worth Report, the Weatherford Democrat, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Real Deal, plus the Aledo and Willow Park council agendas that list the case in closed session. The Ledger has not reviewed the court filings; acreage figures in press accounts range from 317.7 to 321.