Tag Archives: US 380

business news, local news

Princeton takes big step toward ‘adulthood’

Well now … it appears that Princeton, Texas, the city I’ve called home for the past seven years, is taking its next big step toward municipal adulthood.

I am a happy taxpaying resident of this growing community.

They’ve broken ground on the Princeton Town Center development, meaning that construction is going to start soon on a major grocery outlet that will serve as an anchor store for the massive complex on the corner of US 380 and Beauchamp Boulevard. They say the Kroger store will be open for business in July 2027, with much more to come.

I have waiting seemingly forever for this news to break. It did so this week with a story on the Princeton Herald. Joining Kroger in the anchor category will be Home Depot and Hobby Lobby. All the anchor stores will be completed around the same time, says the developer. Dozens of other outlets also are planned for the Town Center.

This is precisely the kind of development that Princeton has needed since it began its growth explosion about the time my wife and I moved here in February 2019. We have welcomed lots of new neighbors, but damn few new businesses to spend our money. The Princeton Town Center, comprising 63 acres, is going to give this city a bit of a municipal identity I have thought has been missing.

If you mention Princeton to someone from a neighboring community, the response usually entails some mention of the hideous traffic that moves ever-so-slowly through the community of about 45,000 residents. The Texas Department of Transportation is working to alleviate that matter, too. It is expanding US 380 and  eventually plans to build freeway loops through cities along the east-west right-of-way.

But I am delighted with news that Princeton Town Center will begin to take root on property that’s been awaiting this kind of activity. Princeton has been underserved for too long as it continues to add new residents. May the construction about to begin conclude at a reasonable time … in the near future!

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Waiting for my ‘home town’ to mature

You know already that I love living in North Texas, particularly this city that is under construction.

I refer, of course, to Princeton. The construction to which I refer is the highway work along the length of the city’s main drag … U.S. Highway 380. My family is nearby. I enjoy living so close to them that I don’t have to make a day out of traveling to visit.

When my wife and I moved into our home, we had no real idea that we would be on the front end of a building boom that continues to this day. Therein lies the crux of this blog.

Princeton’s population has exploded since we closed on our home. It stands at 40,000-plus. I don’t have an exact figure because I don’t think anyone really knows how many folks live here from week to week. The number keeps growing. As a result, the number of residences in Princeton have turned this into a classic “bedroom community.” Lots of new residents have a place to call “home,” where they sleep at night and from which they go to work.

However, the city’s path to full maturity has yet to be traveled. I refer to development of commercial businesses that serve this growing city’s needs. We lack any sort of fine-dining establishments. Virtually nowhere to purchase major appliances. Almost all the home-repair outfits in this area operate out of neighboring communities.

I keep hearing about plans to build something called the Princeton Town Center. I see signs identifying where they want to turn the dirt over. The Town Center will solve a lot of the issues that face residents daily. It will contain a plethora of commercial developments and give the 40,000-plus residents plenty of places to shop locally.

When will this occur? Beats the bejabbers out of me, man. Texas transportation crews have to finish their highway and street work. They haven’t broken ground on the Princeton Town Center. Yes, some small businesses are cropping up along U.S. 380.

I am a patient man. I am waiting for my new home town to grow into the city I know it can become.

local news

Get busy, Princeton

Princeton, Texas, is hurtling head first into municipal adulthood … but it appears to have little vision of what it wants to become or how it intends to get there.

The city manager and his top assistant quit in December. The manager was on the job for less than two years. Now he’s gone on to pursue “other interests,” which is one way of saying he left without a clear idea of where he will end up.

A long-awaited and much-hyped commercial project on the corner of Beauchamp Boulevard and US Highway 380 has yet to show any signs of life. The city appears to be up to its armpits in litigation over the construction of apartment complexes and a new residential development along Longneck Road.

Ask anyone who lives near Princeton about my city and you get a curious look of befuddlement, amusement and even a bit of sorrow over what residents here are having to endure. City Hall is not a well-oiled, fully functional, machine that runs with all cylinders firing the way they’re supposed to.

My wife and I moved here in February 2019 hoping to be on the cutting edge of a population explosion that is destined to lead the city to greatness. Well, greatness remains a distant dream.

Eugene Escobar defeated Brianna Chacon for the mayor’s seat pledging a more “transparent” government. I think he’s trying. Chacon didn’t deliver much transparency when she engineered the hiring of the city manager who lasted a month short of two years on the job.

I am ready for the city to start showing signs of actual maturity. I am ready for City Hall to act as if the folks who run our local government can extinguish the last flames of confusion and get down to the task of providing services efficently for a city of 40,000 residents (give or take).

A new year has dawned. I welcome 2026. I am going to remain optimistic, but with an abundance of caution.

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City needs careful search for new manager

My head is still spinning over the news that former Princeton City Manager Mike Mashburn quit after less than two years on the job in the fastest-growing city in the United States of America.

I am trying to process the enormous task that awaits the City Council as it ponders who to hire to manage that explosive growth. Frankly, this is where the council is going to earn its keep … which doesn’t involve money because the council basically serves for zero pay.

Mashburn seemed to be in way over his head as Princeton’s chief municipal officer. The city is growing at a 30% annual clip, totaling today more than 45,000 residents — give or take. It falls on the city manager to ensure the city can provide services to those new residents who are flocking here because of the relatively inexpensive cost of housing.

Princeton by definition has become a classic bedroom community, with the vast majority of its growth coming with new homes being built. The city has added little commercial development compared to what has occurred with its residential explosion.

What kind of individual should the council hire? Here’s an idea. The city needs to find someone with proven skill at managing a city on the go, such as Princeton. There might be a newly retired city manager out there looking for a challenge. My goodness, Princeton’s enormous growth rate should present anyone with a significant task of managing its constant change.

Or … there might be a younger person lurking who has a bold vision for what he or she wants in this city. He or she might have a doable plan that guides Princeton from a city known primarily for its hideous traffic along its main drag to a place full of entertainment opportunities. I have lost count of the times people have asked me, “How do you cope with that traffic?” I answer: It’s simple; I just stay home during rush hour. But if I have to plunge into the belly of that traffic beast, I always budget longer travel time knowing I will suffer through plenty of “stop time” on U.S. 380 or on any of the many side roads that thousands of others take to “avoid the traffic.”

I am left to wish the council good luck as it seeks to make this next key hiring decision. Oh, and one request must come with it: Conduct this search openly, telling us where you stand, where you are looking and what precisely you need in the next person who will manage the city I call home.

economic news, local news

Signs portend driving misery

Driving south along Beauchamp Boulevard in Princeton, Texas, a day or so ago, a couple of orange signs jumped out at me as I entered the intersection with US Highway 380.

One sign had an arrow pointing west along 380 that said, “Road Work 2 miles.” The other sign had an arrow pointed east on 380 that said, “Road Work 6 miles.”

That’s when it hit me. The fun I have known would come to those of us who live in the nation’s fastest-growing city is about to commence. Actually, it won’t be fun. It’s going to be a headache, more than likely.

The Texas Department of Transportation is going to widen 380 from four lanes to six lanes. However, to do that I was told by a former Princeton city manager that TxDOT had to narrow the right-of-way from four lanes to two lanes … one lane in each direction. Thus, the “fun” begins for anyone needing to get anywhere along 380.

All of this appears to be the prelim to work on a freeway bypass around Princeton that TxDOT has been pondering since before my bride and I moved here six years ago.

This is the price of progress. I am able to pay it. Not with any great enthusiasm. But I’ll get through it. The alternative? There isn’t any!

To which I only could mutter: Aaaack!

This is one of the costs I am paying by living in a community that is undergoing a growth explosion. It’s no “spurt.” Or any other term that suggests a smallish growth pattern.

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What gives on US 380?

My 75-year-old trick knee is throbbing for the first time in a good while and it’s telling me there might something amiss with that big apartment construction job that has been underway on U.S. 380 here in Princeton, Texas.

The site has gone dark … again! No sign of any work being done there for about the past three weeks.

You’ll recall that the general contractor walked off the job about three years ago when he/she got into a snit with the developer. I thought they would just knock the buildings down and start over with something different. I didn’t know what I was thinking.

The Princeton City Council agreed to let the developer proceed with a new contractor. It set a timetable for completion of the 300-unit complex billed originally as a “luxury apartment” site.

I don’t know what’s going on. I merely am using this blog to vent my continuing frustration with the on-off-again project that doesn’t seem to be gaining any traction.

Just think, soon the Texas highway department is going to tear the crap out of the roadway that runs through my city … making any commuting through Princeton a nightmare.

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City to assume unwelcome label

Quite soon, Princeton, Texas — the city I have called home for the past six years — is going to assume a title I don’t think anyone ever wants for their community.

Princeton will become known as the City to Avoid at Rush Hour. 

How do I know that? Because the Texas Department of Transportatio is going to lay waste to the major east-west thoroughfare that runs straight through the middle of Princeton.

U.S. Highway 380 is going under the bulldozer’s front as TxDOT starts to expand the highway from four lanes to six. Here, though, is the kicker: To expand the highway, TxDOT is going to narrow it, turning it from a four-lane right-of-way to a two-lane.

None of this, I hasten to add, will have much to do with the construction of the freeway bypass TxDOT is planning along the 380 route from Denton to Greenville.

One can argue that Princeton already has the Rush Hour ban label already. Traffic slows to a near stop west bound in the morning and east bound in the aftenoon along U.S. 380. I try to wrap my noodle around what will happen when TxDOT decides to narrow the highway from four lanes to two. It boggles my noggin.

To be candid, at my relatively advanced age I don’t expect to live long enough to see the completion of the bypass route around Princeton. Or around any of the other cities along the 380 route for that matter.

The state is facing some serious property condemnation issues as it seeks to purchase the land on which to carve the new highway. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution does require government to give “just compensation” for property it takes as its own. It’s going to be mighty expensive to build it … you know?

I long have favored development. I want my community to grow and to prosper. I believe Princeton will prosper once the highway gets improved and once the state finishes its bypass project.

But damn! The nightmarish inconvenience of it will make it mighty difficult to anticipate good things when the end of the work arrives.

I believe Princeton needs an identity to give the city a personality. This isn’t quite the ID I anticipated for the city where I choose to live.

economic news, local news

Come back during rush hour!

A friend who lives in Austin ventured through Princeton recently partly to check out some of the issues I have raised on this blog … at least that’s what he said.

He was traveling from Paris through Princeton and wanted to know about the hubbub over this city’s enormous growth.

He got a small taste of what I have been saying about this Collin County community that is undergoing a fairly fundamental identity crisis. My friend said somethinga about the city-imposed moratorium on residential construction. The council imposed the ban and then recently extended it another six months. My hunch is that it will do so again and again … and may even again.

City Manager Mike Mashburn estimates that Princeton is home to more than 40,000 residents. I believe him! Builders are planting “New Homes Coming” signs still on undeveloped residential plots as they commence contruction to fulfill building permits that already were approved prior to the council’s decision to suspend residential construction.

The city has overbuilt beyond its ability to service the people who already are here. It is trying to halt the construction long enough to enable it to provide the infrastructure it needs to provide the service.

My friend said he cannot imagine how tough it is during morning and evening rush hours along U.S. 380, the major east-west thoroughfare that cuts through Princeton. What’s more, it’s going to get worse. Texas transportation gurus want to widen 380 from four lanes to six, but to do that the’ll have to shut down two of the lanes to make the highway a two-lane track while they build the extra lanes.

I appreciate my friend’s outsider perspective. He can’t “imagine” how bad it can get here. I got news for him. Neither can I.

local news

Highway work: a Texas thing

DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — Forget high school football, or fried beer that they peddle at the state fair in Dallas, or the 12th Man that fills the stadium in College Station.

The newest “Texas thing” has to be the highway construction projects that disrupt traffic flow in virtually every corner of this vast state.

I returned to Dripping Springs in the Hill County to introduce Sabol, my new puppy, to members of our family.

The road work here does not end. I doubt it ever will. If and when it does, I’ll likely be underground for eternity.

US Highway 290 is getting a second deck above the existing thoroughfare. I understand the state wants to build a no-exit thoroughfare through what they call “The Y” along 290. The existing highway will remain and local motorists can exit whenever they want.

I have done my share of griping about the work occurring in North Texas along US 380. We are not alone! Yes, other parts of the state are going through much of what we’re enduring in the Metroplex.

I now will vow to avoid griping too loudly about future highway projects at home. It’s a Texas thing … you know?

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Get ready for traffic collapse?

This information comes from a North Texas public school administration, a fellow I trust to be truthful and one who isn’t prone to spreading vicious rumors.

It goes like this: He has heard from a leading Princeton public official that U.S. Highway 380 is going to narrow to one lane of traffic each way (east and west) while the state widens the highway from four lanes to six.

I am not going to name any names here, because I cannot confirm it. I already knew about the Texas Department of Transportation plans to widen 380. It’s been in all the papers. What I didn’t know was that to widen the highway from four lanes to six it has to narrow the traffic lanes from four to two.

The traffic along 380 is becoming the stuff of legends in this part of Texas. Damn near everyone I know who lives near me — neighbors, assorted friends and acquaintances, my mail carrier — all complain about the traffic.

This new development, though, is going to require me to find alternate routes heading east and west out of Princeton. The westbound alternative might be easier to identify.

Absent that alternative, I fear the Mother of All Traffic Nightmares is going to visit us in Collin County … and she won’t go away quietly.