Spring is just around the corner and the Texas Legislature is in session. Soon a delegation from Denton County will be headed to Austin to meet with our representatives on important topics. This event is called Denton County Days.
One broad topic that has our neighboring towns and I concerned about is the legislature’s continued obsession with wiping out local government control and creating state law preemptions to actively favor developers over your elected officials. This has been a trend continuing since the last session, all in the interest of “property owner rights.”
Property owner rights are an especially important topic when advocated for properly and for their true meaning. When you moved to Northlake, you are most likely aware of the zoning type that was on your property. Be that “Rural Residential,” “Planned Development” or several other classifications of zoning, you do not expect your single-family home to allow for an apartment or commercial building to be near you that are also zoned “Single Family.” You do not expect your neighbor to rent out rooms to various unrelated people either. Most likely you also do not expect your neighbor’s home to become a virtual hotel via Airbnb.
While I strongly support property owner rights, as a buyer you likely know how your home was zoned before purchasing it. This is essentially the town’s contract with you along with our Comprehensive Plan showcasing how you might expect the town to develop.
Our Texas Legislature is leaning more towards allowing any property out of the town limits through de-annexation and even going as far as to not allow local governments to even allow for lot size limitations and zoning controls. This takes virtually all town planning ability away from our residents, via their elected officials, and allows developers to basically do whatever they want no matter what planning or zoning exists for an area of a town. In the end, if these desires and bills pass, we will be little more than a shell government beholden only to the state legislature as they remove all local control. There is even a bill being considered right now that would force the town to provide services (like water and sewer) to vacant lots or ranches that might not even want those services at our taxpayer’s expense. If we do not, they will be able to “leave the town” and become just some land in the county and develop whatever they wish with zero planning and minimal oversight. All under the misdirected guise of “property rights” permanently harming our town and the surrounding areas.
On a positive note, I recently met with Congressman Brandon Gill regarding several issues in our town. Something that has frustrated everyone at some point or another is our post offices and ZIP codes. We currently have four surrounding town zip codes that cover Northlake. We found a prior bill that requested unique ZIP codes for towns that are growing like we are. Some towns were even granted ZIP codes that were smaller than we currently are. I was told that this makes a lot of sense for us to be granted one and that he would make efforts to get this introduced into legislation. This could later lead to us getting a Northlake post office at some point in the future.
On Feb. 27 it was my honor to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Fire Station in Northlake. This will be known as Fire Station #512, located near the southeastern corner of Dale Earnhardt Way and I-35W. It is expected to open in July, reducing response times and increasing the capabilities of our Emergency Services District.
A quick update on roads. The FM 407 Breakout expansion project at I-35W is simply waiting on utility relocations and should be “ready to let” in August. We expect Cleveland-Gibbs Road to connect from FM 1171 all the way to Robson Ranch around April or May as all the primary concrete has been poured. Currently it stops near Jane Ruestmann Elementary School between Harvest and The Ridge. You have seen a lot of work along the edges of I-35W between Denton and Northlake. This is because full frontage roads are coming our way, and construction could be started as early as 2026. This project will fully rebuild the interchanges and bridges at Robson
Ranch Rd., 407 and Old Justin Rd. (there are no new highway exits planned here, just access to the service roads).
We also should see some more businesses opening soon. Branded Bagels is coming to Northlake Commons and VanEllie’s Bakeshop has rebranded to Gyro and Grill Mediterranean.
Thank you for taking the time to catch up with me, our council meetings are usually the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month, I hope that you will come by sometime and say hi!
