Local parents launched a campaign against plans to erect an extended-stay hotel near an elementary school, successfully halting construction — at least for now.
The construction of a four-story Studio 6 Extended Stay Hotel near I-35 and Basswood Boulevard, which was approved last October by the Fort Worth City Council, has been temporarily halted by the owner, Dev Surati, after a fiery town hall meeting on February 21.
Opposition to the development project stemmed from its proximity to Basswood Elementary School on Clay Mountain Trail, which is in Keller ISD. The campaign against the hotel has included both parents and school officials, collecting 821 signatures on an online petition titled “Keep Basswood Elementary Safe.”
“Our administrative team and I share many of the same concerns that you do, and we have been working with Keller ISD leadership to open up additional lines of communication with the City of Fort Worth,” Tony Johnson, the school principal, wrote in a social media post announcing Wednesday’s town hall meeting.
The turnout for the meeting was strong, and it had Charlie Lauersdorf, Fort Worth City Council member for District 4, in attendance.
Some of the concerns voiced during the meeting were also outlined in the petition, including the alleged prevalence of criminal activity and drug, alcohol, and cigarette use at such establishments.
“The closeness of potential criminals fills us parents with great unease, to the point of considering transferring our children to another school if this project goes ahead,” the petition reads.
The petition also calls for transparency and accountability from both the City of Fort Worth and Keller ISD officials, echoing sentiments expressed in Dallas, where residents have registered their disapproval with how transparent the City of Dallas and Dallas ISD have been, according to previous polling conducted by The Dallas Express.
“Why were we as Basswood parents not notified about this project, despite claims that nearby businesses and communities were informed?” the petition asks.
Lauersdorf shed some light on this during the meeting, explaining that the local housing association sent out a notification to residents when the Studio 6 motel got a zoning change for the site in September 2023, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. However, district parents were not informed, and the notifications were reportedly sent to the former Keller ISD superintendent, not the current one, Tracy Johnson.
“I can’t think of a more flimsy way to notify somebody of something than a postcard,” Johnson remarked. “So when I see this, it makes me think that there really was not a good effort put towards notifying anybody, but more to get something built that you wanted built.”
Although Lauersdorf promised to “100% do everything possible to stop [the hotel project],” it remains to be seen whether the emergency meeting now in the works between city leaders and Keller ISD board members will yield any results given that the hotel has already broken ground.
In the 2021-2022 school year, some 60% of Keller ISD students scored at grade level on their STAAR exams. For comparison, only 41% of Dallas ISD students scored at grade level on theirs, according to the Texas Education Agency.
