Friday, December 13, 2024

Northlake Notes — November 2024

It has been a very busy month in Northlake. I have been working with local and future leaders to secure relationships as we move into the next legislative session in Texas. From our State House Representatives, our State Senators and our future U.S. Congressman, to our local county leaders and our County Judge, it is important to cultivate these relationships so that we can accomplish our local and regional goals.

I recently attended a legislative planning session hosted by Judge Andy Eads. There were mayors from nearly every neighboring town along with our state representatives. This was a collaborative effort to help get resources to serve our area with a focus on roads and safety as well as legislative priorities. We discussed how the state legislature can create statewide legislation yet inadvertently negatively affect the smaller, fast growth towns. We helped them understand our unique needs so that we can get improved legislation from them in the future.

Under my initiatives to provide for safer environments and communities for our families and children, I am proud that council has helped me patch a few things in our ordinances regarding trucks and residential streets. We successfully collaborated to bring forth designated truck routes and order “NO TRUCKS” signs for our communities. These should arrive and be installed over the next few months. This should help reduce the number of trucks cutting through neighborhoods. Please be aware that trucks are still allowed to come in for local deliveries and work.

I have recently been made aware that several homes in Northlake that are zoned for Single Family Housing are renting out individual rooms to unrelated persons. This is not acceptable or allowed under Single Family-zoned properties. Many HOAs also disallow this use as well. I have instructed staff to start looking at our Town Charter and ways to reduce the occurrences of this happening in our communities. This is very upsetting to many of our residents that have invested in our communities and I would like to urge anyone doing this to cease these actions immediately.

I wrote last month about several future road projects. I, and the entire council, know that waiting for these projects while we continue to grow is frustrating. It is even more frustrating with the recent rash of accidents on our regional roadways. Please put down your phones and drive undistracted and safe. A large number of these accidents are due to distracted driving, and this is indeed preventable. If you are traveling for Thanksgiving, please drive safe, and enjoy the time with friends and family. We all have so much to be thankful for, so let us not focus on the small irritations of daily life and enjoy the blessings we have received. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

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