To further enhance its city center, Fort Worth has developed a comprehensive strategy to revitalize its central city—an area that accounts for 30 percent of Fort Worth’s land area and is home to over 54 percent of the population. The principal strategies for central city revitalization are:

• Developing compact, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use growth centers
• Revitalizing distressed commercial corridors by developing mixed-use urban villages along
   those corridors
• Developing a rail transit system that connects the growth centers and urban villages.

Mixed-use growth centers and urban villages are urban districts that have a concentration of jobs, housing, schools, parks, and public facilities. They also provide access to public transportation in a walkable, compact area with a unique sense of place. In March 2001, the city adopted a mixed-use zoning ordinance that encourages higher density, pedestrian-oriented development in mixed-use growth centers and designated urban villages.

The Fort Worth City Council is working with private developers, business groups, and neighborhood associations to transform many of the central city’s older commercial districts into vibrant urban villages to help promote the central city as an appealing alternative to the generic and often congested office parks and subdivisions of the suburbs. Urban villages serve as catalysts for public and private investment and support renewed economic activity in the central city, effectively building on the strengths of the area and connecting to adjacent neighborhoods. Sixteen urban villages have been designated as of November 2005.