Casino Beach Committee and Board Members Meeting at City Hall

 

Occurred

Wednesday 18, 2025

Parks & Recreation Division of Fort Worth City Hall

Attendees

Scott Penn, Fort Worth Park & Rec Senior Capital Project Officer

Joel McElhany,  Fort Worth Park & Rec Assistant Director Planning & Resource Management

Deanne Kearny, SSNA President 

Brian Keller, SSNA VP

Adrienne Taylor, SSNA Secretary

Debbie Ballard, SSNA Casino Beach Committee Member

Kaiden Lenners, SSNA Casino Beach Committee Member

Breanna Pasko, SSNA Casino Beach Committee Member

Points of Interest

• Scott Penn has recently been assigned as Project Manager for Casino Beach
• The city is open to any and all ideas and also concerns
• An SOI will be sent this fall to solicit developers interested in the project

Summary

We ran into Dave Lewis in the lobby, and he teased us with the news he had just left a meeting about Lake Worth and "its connections" which we'll find exciting, but he didn't have the time to share with us because it was just "too much".  So perhaps there will be exciting news of some type in the future.

The meeting was held in a conference room of the Park and Recreation Department of Fort Worth City Hall.  Scott Penn introduced himself as the project manger for Casino Beach, as of last month.  Joel McElhany, the Assistant Director of Planning & Resource Management also joined the meeting, his interest in this project is about how accessibility to Casino Beach will be tied into the master plan of Fort Worth's interconnectivity.  

We were shown beautiful concept sketches, drawn in 2022, which featured a stage for musical acts, pickleball courts, beautiful landscaping, a dedicated swimming area, and boat docks for water access. However, funding for this particular project fell through, so it's back to having no plan at all.

Deanne shared Tom's plan for fundraising.  He suggests the city sells the few remaining vacant lots on Surfside  for new homes to be built and that the funds from those land sales can help get the project going.  The families impacted by such a sale are on board with the idea.

Joel suggested looking into having a bike path installed across the old bridge (once the new bridge is in use) in order to connect Casino Beach to the bike path that is being built around the lake.

Kaiden expressed concern over how the decisions are made for when the city commits to a particular developer, he asked how possible would it be for an entity with a lot of money to come in and by the sway of their financial power be granted rights to develop the land however they wanted.  Scott explained their process for choosing the developers and made clear that the city itself has an interest in making sure development of Casino Beach is done according to their own vision, which is a family friendly recreational area that incorporates the lake.

Breanna distributed printed copies of her design proposal which included AI generated images of her concepts.  She has well thought out ideas for including the history of Casino Beach and also information about the nature center.  She also shared an idea for the inclusion of a biking "pump track" that would be roller coaster themed.