8 November 21-27, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents solidified the growth trend along the North Dallas Tollway that Brutschy had long had her eye on. Plano’s coolness has crawled up and east over to Allen, which has then crawled up to McKinney, like a pinpoint that grows radially outward. “These developers will go and they’ll buy land that is cheaper, but in order for that land to be desirable, it needs to be close to the last thing that was large,” Brutschy said. “You’re talking about a product that is much cheaper to purchase. If you’re looking for a first time home, you could still get them in Princeton in the [$200,000s] when this was originally being developed.” North Texas towns develop in two ways, she explained. The first is a tried and true method, but the second, trendier option has exploded in popularity in step with Collin County’s population. The first option: Build an impressive school district “and they will come.” This approach was perfected by Southlake, whose school system was a draw for high- dollar residents whose taxes helped fuel the district’s success. The second, trendier option: Develop walkable communities with a niche. Known as “master-planned communities,” where the sprawl of white picket fence neighborhoods is broken up by community gardens, trails, lazy rivers and dog parks. Harvest, a 1,200- acre community in Celina, boasts a live music pavilion and food trucks. Generally, Brutschy said, an elementary school is adjacent to or in the center of the new developments. But in Princeton, she didn’t see either of these methods happen. Instead, houses went up “quickly and cheaply,” and consid- erations like traffic studies or bringing in an- other grocery store were left in the dust. “I would assume that Princeton saw de- velopment money and said yes, instead of trying to figure out how to best make Prince- ton a livable, modern city that would attract people that absolutely adored living in Princeton,” she said. What Brings People to Princeton T J Glowicz was living in Arlington when he found out his employer was relocating to McKinney in 2022. The idea of a 50-mile commute was “abysmal,” so he started looking to Collin County to find a new home. Princeton stood out from the competition for one reason. “I moved there for housing prices,” Glo- wicz said. The price of housing is a huge draw for the town. Of Brutschy’s clients interested in leaving Dallas and heading north of Plano, 75% are hoping to find a home they can af- ford. It’s rare she hears interest in a “rural lifestyle” as a reason for looking in the area. The town is packed with developments with names that sound like candle scents: “Princeton Crossroads” and “Cypress Bend” and “Lake Meadow.” The homes are varying degrees of McMansion-y depending on the development. Plots of land sprout signs ad- vertising for developments still to come, but if the upturned dirt and wood house frames don’t denote the newness of the neighbor- hoods, the small trees planted in each front yard should. When Glowicz decided to purchase a home in a 2016 Princeton development, he was excited to hear that a new shopping center anchored by a Market Street grocery store was in the works. Two years later, he is still waiting for ground to be broken, and the demand for the grocery store is becoming more noticeable by the day. “There’s only that one Walmart that kind of serves all of Princeton, and that’s starting to get pretty crowded,” Glowicz said. “If you need light bulbs and you don’t want to go down to Ace and pay the extra three or four dollars, then you’re gonna end up sitting in like a 10-minute line trying to get to the self checkout.” Neighboring towns do have grocery op- tions — Allen has a Whole Foods and an HEB, Prosper has a Target, McKinney has a Kroger — but getting to each requires plan- ning. Glowicz says he “plans his week around the shopping” because the traffic in Princeton has gotten so congested in the last few years. Highway 380 backs up during rush hour, and the overflow traffic clogs up backroads, he says. It is clear to him that “they did not plan” for the number of cars trying to make their way through the town. Still, there are more things he likes about Princeton than he dislikes. Even with the town’s rapid growth there is a strong sense of community; the annual onion festival is a staple, and the 4th of July celebration offers an “impressive” fireworks display. It’s the kind of place where neighbors look out for each other, Glowicz said. And with the steady stream of young families moving in, there is an energy to Princeton’s gatherings. Only 6% of residents are over the age of 65, census data shows, and more than 38% are under 18. In a “State of the District” luncheon last spring, Prince- ton Independent School District Superin- tendent Donald McIntyre warned that commercial growth in the town will be piv- otal to the district’s success, “so we get more tax dollars without [more] students.” At the Sept. 23 Princeton City Council meeting where the moratorium was ap- proved, Dorinda Powell, a longtime resident who has witnessed developers “devour” the land in Princeton, applauded the pause as a “smart move.” “I feel I speak for Princeton ISD as well, being a retired teacher myself,” Powell told the council. “This gives the school district a chance to try to catch up.” Introducing the Moratorium I n implementing a temporary morato- rium on residential building, Princeton is hoping to catch its breath. In a Sep- tember council meeting, Chacón said the first time a moratorium was suggested to her was in 2021. “I have been wanting to do this for a long time,” she said. Princeton is not alone. In the Carolinas, where a sizable population surge is under- way, once-small towns have implemented similar halts on building. Like Princeton, they cite traffic congestion and utility avail- ability as concerns. “Our rush hours are generally between 3 to 7 p.m., and anywhere in that time, it will take you 30 to 45 minutes to get to a place where it would generally only take you seven minutes to go,” Terrance Johnson told the Observer. Johnson was voted onto the Princ- eton City Council in the November election. “So the residents are feeling it,” he added. Before running for council Johnson sat on the city’s economic development corporation board, and although he doesn’t know what “could have [been] done to completely anni- hilate” Princeton’s traffic, he does believe that the council needs to prioritize commer- cial development to keep the town’s ameni- ties in line with the population demand. Johnson is critical of the work done by Princeton’s previous city councils. As the town’s population exploded in the last four years, he believes a lack of planning has put an unnecessary strain on city resources. While he “wasn’t privy” to the executive sessions that led the council to believe the moratorium was the right way to proceed with Princeton’s development, Johnson is concerned that the ordinance “sends the wrong message” to commercial developers who could see the pause as a sign the town’s leaders do not want to continue growing. He’s an economic development guy at heart; a new grocery store and a movie theater are at the top of his list for businesses he’d like to see move to town. “Does [the moratorium] say that we’re not prepared or we don’t welcome [develop- ment]? That the type of work that they’ll need to make their industry successful, are we putting a stop on that?” Johnson said. “I was worried about the messaging more than putting a pause on the housing.” The timeout on building does not affect developments that are already in the works, or any projects that have already been ap- proved. Until the moratorium is over, devel- opers are able to apply for a waiver to build which would be voted on by the council. A grocery store, a movie theater, new res- taurants and new schools need water to build and operate, and supply of water is a concern that officials are hoping the mora- torium will help address. In September, Mapp told the council that the pause will allow a planned extension to the town’s pump station time to get ahead of Princeton’s growth curve. Several elevated water storage tanks are also in the works to be built in the next few years. “There is a cost to build the infrastruc- ture to support outward growth,” Garcia said. “It’s not cheap to build all these new roads and run sewer and utility lines out to these far-flung places.” The Observer asked how much the bol- stering of Princeton’s water supply will cost the town, but did not get a response. Whether the residents like it or not, Princeton has become much more than an onion town. One-hundred-twenty days will not be nearly enough time to fix all of Princeton’s issues, Chacón told the council as the mora- torium was approved. But it could be a start on figuring out what has gone wrong up to this point, and what the way out will be. “I do think that things have changed for forever,” Chacón said. “We’ll never be that little small town again. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do something better moving forward.” ▼ CITY HALL DON’T PANIC. YET. DID YOU RECEIVE THE CITY’S LETTER ABOUT LEAD PIPES IN THE MAIL? BY EMMA RUBY I f you received a vague, slightly scary letter about lead pipes from Dallas Water Utili- ties in the last few weeks, you aren’t alone. A spokesperson for the city told the Ob- server that, since Oct. 29, nearly 235,000 cus- tomers across Dallas have been notified that their water service line is made of an un- known material that may or may not be lead. The letter then goes on to list the detrimental health effects of lead exposure, including heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney or nervous system problems in adults and learn- ing and developmental issues in children. These letters have understandably caused quite a stir across Reddit and neighborhood apps like Nextdoor, but the panic may be un- warranted. According to Daniel Johnson, manager of Dial One Johnson Dallas Plumb- ing, lead pipes are increasingly rare, and the letters may be symptomatic of a trend in health testing more than a real problem. Unfair Park from p6 Mike Brooks Employers have moved farther out and employees follow for easier commutes. >> p10
