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Driving west on Interstate 20 from Fort Worth into Parker County, all the signs of a boom town appear: orange construction signs and a closed freeway lane, traffic and trucks, the vistas of open land and luxury housing developments in the distance. One more thing to add to the horizon: a UTA West campus opening its first building in 2028.“Parker County is growing up. I have kind of mixed emotions,” said Parker County Realtor Jamie Bodiford while driving around the streets of Aledo in her white Lexus. “We used to always get to (downtown) Fort Worth in 25 minutes. Now it takes an hour.”That doubling of commute time, Bodiford said, happened in the past year. Construction picked up around the area about which one construction worker said, “Every day is a traffic jam.” With the emergence of more housing developments like Walsh and Morningstar, Aledo and the rest of Parker County has been experiencing a boom in the last eight years, Bodiford said. And residents now await a factor that will drive further growth: The UTA West campus is to be built on 51 acres of land near where Fort Worth meets Aledo. University of Texas at Arlington announced plans for the new campus on the western edge of Fort Worth last August. At final buildout, the campus will have the capacity to serve 12,000 students — but that’s many years in the distance. The first building is expected to open in fall 2028, with 500 to 1,000 students, university officials said. This fall, the university launched a survey where more than 1,600 respondents shared their thoughts about the new campus, facilities and programs. This April, UTA will host an official groundbreaking of the UTA West campus. Bodiford, a Weatherford native, was at the Parker County Chamber of Commerce when they announced plans for the new campus.Jamie Bodiford, a Parker County Realtor, stands on the side of an access road, where construction is happening. In the distance is the Walsh development. (Billy Banks | Fort Worth Report)“Oh, I was so excited,” said Bodiford, who has been a real estate agent for 21 years. When she started, she said there were around 120 Realtors in Parker County. Now, there are 1,650. “What I see with colleges, it brings better companies to come here for jobs, for technology.”If Parker County had a poster child, Bodiford would be it. She grew up in Weatherford in the 1960s, when she said there were four big ranches in the county. Her father had a car dealership. Her mother worked for the late U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright. Bodiford’s a real estate agent, but in the past served on the Weatherford City Council, the Weatherford ISD board of trustees and the Parker County Hospital District — and she also has the heart of a Maverick. She attended UTA. For a short stint she was UTA’s student government president and graduated from the university in 1973 with a degree in political science. She’s talked with Aledo school officials on how luring more companies — something that a university could do — would diversify the tax base, which is mostly homeowners. Others have talked about bringing more restaurants and other amenities to the area. But with that growth comes more people and more construction.Adam Sanchez repairs the engine of a dump truck on land adjacent to the interstate access road. Sanchez thinks Aledo is growing too fast. (Billy Banks | Fort Worth Report)On the side of an access road on gravel ground, Adam Sanchez was repairing the engine of a yellow dump truck. For the mechanic, growth is good for business — but he’s not only looking at his pocketbook.“It’s blowing up too fast around here if you ask me,” said Sanchez, standing in front of the engine. That morning at the Bearcat Grill, a neighborhood joint inside of a gas station, he overheard people talking about UTA West.“They don’t want the place,” said Sanchez, who lives in Burleson. “They’re thinking, it’s just gonna be a big town feel (and) is gonna encroach on the small-town charm.”University collects 1,600-plus community survey responsesUTA leaders said they’ve spent time listening to chamber leaders, neighborhood associations, and economic development professionals since they announced the new campus last summer. They also sent out a postcard with a QR code for an online survey to residents, seeking thoughts about the campus, its programs and their concerns. There were more than 1,600 responses. The Report obtained a compilation of the responses through an open records request. In terms of subject areas that people would be interested in pursuing, business was in the lead, with 16% of respondents wanting those courses. Trailing in second was engineering with 14% of respondents. And 12% of respondents wanted courses in arts, languages, music, with the same percentage voting for health care and science.People chimed in with all kinds of ideas for the new campus, including remote working resources, performance spaces, summer camps for kids, continuing education programs for seniors. One resounding favorite ask was for a swimming pool — or many specified a natatorium — that nearby residents could have access to. And the survey winner for the name of the road that leads to the new campus: Maverick Way, voted by 35% of respondents.An aerial shot of the land for the UTA West campus, near where Interstates 20 and 30 merge within the Walsh development. (Courtesy photo | UTA)The vast majority of comments about the new campus were positive, but there were many that weren’t.One respondent didn’t hold back when asked what programs they’d like to see.“NONE! NONE! NONE!” they wrote in all caps. “NO UTA West campus!!!!!!”But others tempered their thoughts with questions on what will become of the landscape, and what sustainability efforts will look like on the campus.When asked about concerns regarding the new campus, the resounding refrain from residents was traffic, no matter how they approached it: the impact, the growth, the flow, the mitigation, the interstate traffic plans. An influx of vehicles was definitely on their minds — and it’s on the university’s too.“Our intent is to get the traffic off of the main thoroughfares and onto the campus quickly, and divert that traffic so it’s not all stacking up on Walsh Parkway or other thoroughfares in the area,” said John Hall, vice president for administration and economic development at UTA. Hall stressed that when the campus opens in 2028, around 500 to 1,000 students will attend that first year. Traffic on day one will be “minimal,” he said. The Texas Department of Transportation, he said, is working on expanding lanes east and westbound from West Loop 820, all the way to Aledo.An Aledo water tower stands near a railroad track. Cities in Parker County will be strained for water. The UTA West campus is located in Fort Worth and will be tapping its water from Fort Worth’s water utility. (Billy Banks | Fort Worth Report)Water, energy conservation plans for future campusAnother concern? Water. Cities in Parker County are strained for water. While UTA West campus is in Parker County, it is also in Fort Worth. For water, the college will work with the city of Fort Worth’s water utility to provide its campus with resources. The college has had several meetings with Oncor for electricity and natural gas. The university, when building this west Fort Worth campus, will build with an eye on sustainability — something that they prioritize at the Arlington campus too, Hall said. UTA was the first campus in the UT system to begin work on a climate action plan last year.“We very much incorporate a lot of the LEED U.S. Green Building Council initiatives in our buildings to include water conservation, at times, to include rainwater capture,” said Hall, who has worked at UTA since 1984. “Even with our landscaping, we look to plant native-type plants that don’t require a lot of water.”With power, too, officials are working to conserve electricity with energy management systems that control temperatures, shut off lights, use insulated roof materials that reflect light and reduce solar load. They’re also considering solar and wind power for the campus.“So it’s not just one thing, it’s multiple things that, when taken in an accumulative way, have a fairly big impact on power consumption,” Hall said.Infrastructure work, he said, would begin at the end of this year and should take 12 months. Hall is no stranger to growth. He graduated from Keller High School back when it was “quite a bit smaller than it is today.” And at Fort Worth-based hamburger chain spot Jakes, a few miles away from the future UTA West, one Aledo resident said he doesn’t want his town to become the next Keller.“In Keller you used to see cows and fields, and it is now like absolutely exploded. Traffic’s out of control,” said Peter Glaeser, who had a frosted goblet of beer on a Friday afternoon. His wife grew up in Keller. “I would say the residents of Keller would tell you that the quality of the area has decreased. I think that’s what people are worried about, specifically in Aledo.”Glaeser and his wife have toddlers. He plans to stay but moved to Aledo because of its small-town feel close to Fort Worth and the views of “vast fields and ranches.” He’s worried that the university will just be one of the starting points for “rapid expansion.” Traffic was much better two years ago when he moved to Aledo with his family, and in the past six months it’s gotten bad. His wife’s morning commute to downtown Fort Worth takes an hour — without traffic it takes 30 minutes. He knows there will also be good growth with the university, like more restaurants and more things for his kids to do.A rendering of the UTA West campus once fully complete. The university plans to open the first building in 2028. It will serve around 500 to 1,000 students, UTA officials said. (Courtesy image | UTA)Growing pains amid wait for ‘monumental’ campusFor Weatherford native and UTA alumna Bodiford, the new campus is “monumental.” Her husband, who graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, often teased her about going to “little” UT. But Bodiford says the growth of UTA over recent years — and now plans for the new campus — have made him change his tune. “My husband said the baby acorn is going to grow bigger than the big tree.” But there’s a different acorn that she’s concerned about. It’s her hometown Weatherford, the county seat and the biggest city in Parker. She recalled one day sitting with friends listening to famed country performer Red Steagall play. One audience member, a retired historian from Weatherford College, told the crowd that some day soon, Weatherford will no longer be the largest town in Parker County. Weatherford will be second to Fort Worth.“Everybody just went, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Bodiford said.With growth, there’s pain, she said. Her pain? Her hometown being eclipsed by Fort Worth. When will that day come? She doesn’t know. But she’s ready to welcome a new university in Parker County — one technically in Fort Worth city limits. Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Science Center.At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.