Tag Archives: Farmersville TX

local news

Let’s quell this misinformation

Small-town politics can be as divisive and nasty as anywhere on Earth and it is with that caveat I offer a brief comment on an argument that is stewing in a city near my North Texas home.

Farmersville is going to have an election May 6 that seeks to establish a Municipal Development District. In order to move forward with the MDD, the city needs an endorsement by voters to allow the MDD to continue operating within an expanded “extraterritorial jurisdiction,” which comprises land outside the city limits.

A recent home-rule charter election Farmersville allowed the city expand its ETJ from half-mile to a mile outside its city limits.

Therein lies the rub, in the eyes of many residents living in the ETJ. They believe the city wants to annex their property. They also are expressing the view that the city will just reach out and grab their land.

Whoa! No can do!

The 2017 Texas Legislature enacted a law that disallows cities from annexing property at will. Cities need to acquire permission from the property owners to annex their land. That’s per state law. Period. It is beyond dispute.

The Farmersville discussion seems to be veering out of control, because of what I believe are fears from residents who are accusing the city of wanting to do something that it cannot legally do.

I do not believe Farmersville officials want to intentionally break state law. Those who ascribe such motives to their elected officials, though, are taking cynicism to a new level.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Hoping to see this project done

My next-door neighbor and I were chatting just a little while ago and he reminded me of something I already knew, which is that the traffic on U.S. 380 just north of where we live is horrendous in the extreme.

We laughed about the impossibility of traveling east on 380 from Princeton to Farmersville at 5 p.m. I drive it a few times each month to cover events in Farmersville for the Farmersville Times and I have to build in extra drive time because of the traffic jam along U.S. 380.

Then the subject turned to what the Texas Department of Transportation has planned to help alleviate that traffic. TxDOT is going to build a series of bypass routes around communities between Denton and Greenville.

It’s a long-term project … to say the bare minimum.

Indeed, I told my neighbor — a much younger man than I am — that I probably won’t live long enough to see it completed.

However, I am going to offer some hope that I can see it occur.

The idea is to build freeway bypasses around communities such as Princeton. Those who want to keep on truckin’ can just stay on the freeway; those who have business to do in Princeton or in any community along the U.S. 380 corridor will be able to exit.

TxDOT has done a good job so far of keeping the communities along the way informed of its plans. It has held town hall meetings, opened itself up to plenty of questions from affected residents and sought to explain its long-term strategy in building the bypasses — which TxDOT doesn’t like to call what it intends for the 60-mile-long corridor.

The traffic only is going to worsen along U.S. 380. Collin County is in major growth mode, as are the communities stretched along the highway corridor.

I suppose I am left, therefore, to use this post to implore TxDOT to get busy building the highway. I want to live long enough to see it finished.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com