Specifications include, but are not limited to: 3.1 Fort Worth is the fastest growing, among the 20 largest US cities. The City has a vast reserve of land to drive growth, and residential uses dominate the tax base. Fort Worth has districts at different stages of evolvement, which can drive economic development. Recent and planned investments in the urban core (downtown & surrounding areas) have benefitted the entire City.; 3.1.1 Fort Worth has key occupational strengths in the following areas: • General: transportation, installation, production; • Specific: aerospace & geotechnical engineering; 3.2 In 2018, the City of Fort Worth published an economic development strategy. Even though this plan was published pre-Covid 19 Pandemic, improving digital infrastructure and broadband service were central themes of that plan.; 3.3 In the recommendations section of the Economic Development strategy, the following recommendations were made: 3.3.1 Make targeted broadband internet investments in under-served portions of the City.; 3.3.2 Create an Economic Development Bond Package that includes Investments in communications technology infrastructure, in partnership with private sector service providers, in locations where tech firms and entrepreneurs are most concentrated.; 3.3.2.1 This should include high-speed broadband internet (similar to Google Fiber and Chattanooga’s Gig fiber).; 3.3.2.2 This could also include investments in 5G mobile technology and other emerging technologies that will have profound impacts on business and personal communication.; 5.1 These temporary broadband access fixes are necessary stopgaps. However, the administrative leadership and City Council in Fort Worth desire more permanent solutions. In particular, the City of Fort Worth has a desire to employ a portion of its onetime American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to drive more permanent broadband solutions across the entire City.; 5.2 The long-term investments, if they include the use of the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) local government allotted funds, should include the acquisition/construction of digital infrastructure to serve the long term needs of City government and consider last mile broadband needs for commercial and residential users. Other funding sources, such as Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund from the US Treasury and the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) from the US Department of Commerce (National Telecommunications and Information Administration or NTIA) should also be considered. These are part of the White House’s Build Back Better Initiative.; 5.3 The City desires an investment strategy and plan that will result in a foundation of optical fiber based digital infrastructure that will serve long-term City government needs for scalable, secure and cost-effective broadband service.
