Town closed for business

Flower Mound is closed for business! At the Town Council meeting on Nov. 21st, two council members decided that their personal opinions, the opposite of experts from the town and outside, should stop the economic growth of a long time benefactor of town. Kroger’s request to add a fuel center to their Cross Timbers and Long Prairie location was denied as a super majority was required due to the Planning and Zoning Board’s denial. In both cases, the boards had members who were concerned about “traffic flow” although there was no indication or facts of any danger from the town engineers or outside experts. The only true expert was one P&Z member who had traffic engineering expertise. She was not opposed to the plan. Kroger had even moved the plan back 10 feet from the previous location when it was presented to the council.  Councilman Steve Lyda’s apparent expertise is he has had a few close calls at other Kroger locations and “talked” to few other people who had close calls elsewhere.  Mayor Pro Tem Al Filidoro was upset about it being a “retrofit” and “safety” but seemed to be more concerned that Kroger would not yield on closing the east Cross Timbers entrance as he wanted. Kroger felt it was necessary to keep open for ease of access and exit for the customers. Mr. Filidoro expressed dismay that Kroger would not compromise on such a “little issue”. Apparently an issue big enough that Mr. Filodoro thought Kroger should be the one to move and not the Town.  Now, the Town faces the prospect that Kroger will scrap the $14,000,000 investment in Flower Mound and may not get a chance again until 2014, if the store is able to be competitive until then.  Well voters, when your taxes start going up because the Council refuses to not micromanage every proposal coming before it, when personal opinions dismiss the advice of people trained in their field and ego’s get in the way of progress, you have nobody to blame but yourselves. When teams or “slates” are elected instead of qualified individuals, it becomes their way of the highway. Oh yeah, not a lot of people rolling into town on those highways with big projects…remember Silveron and Lakeside?

Nels Pearson
Flower Mound, TX