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Mayor’s message, June
By Mayor Tom Hayden, guest columnist
Our first town council meeting since the new members were sworn in was held May 22 as the members brought forward ideas about the future of our town.
One of the overriding themes of the council is to see Flower Mound progress. Although progress can mean many different things to different people, what we envision is giving our residents more to do. Our focus is what we can do to further Lakeside, the River Walk, Canyon Falls, the area along FM 2499, as well as revitalize Parker Square. More to do also means town-wide festivals and events, fields for kids to play, and trails and bike lanes for all of us.
Many of the things that attracted us to Flower Mound, such as the lake and the lack of an interstate highway, are also a hindrance in encouraging commerce to come to our Town. The lack of access means it is easier for our residents to go to other communities, and take our resources with them, than for businesses to come to Flower Mound and rely solely on our community. To overcome this, we will have to be creative in luring opportunities to our Town, and to make our community a destination.
This doesn’t begin with our staff, but with our council, and the rules that the town establishes. We ask our staff to enforce the town’s ordinances; perhaps we should review our ordinances to ensure they are still applicable to the desires of the community.
Many developers have told me that Flower Mound has the most prohibitive ordinances in North Texas, ordinances that keep businesses out of Flower Mound. For some activities, that is what the residents of Flower Mound want and what I want; but for other things, such as being able to enjoy a meal as we watch the sunset over Grapevine Lake, it reduces our ability to fully enjoy our town.
Our council is going to begin the process of examining what we can do to encourage businesses, jobs and other retail services to embrace Flower Mound and not to discourage it. While detractors will say this is an attempt to lower quality, that is not accurate. This is about maintaining standards while epitomizing Bob Rheudasil’s now famous quote, “I’ll welcome you as long as you welcome the next person to come along.”
The council also discussed at this planning meeting ways we could work better with the Lewisville ISD, developing a longer-term transportation plan, partnering with the Chamber of Commerce, fulfilling the Parks Master Plan as well as smaller items such as reflective paint on medians and how to make construction signs less obtrusive.
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