Eyeing upcoming projects As Highland Village grows, bond funds will be used for updates to Highland Shores Boulevard and Highland Village Road this year. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is set to re-enter into a lease agreement with the city to keep Pilot Knoll Park and Copperas Branch Park open to the public.
Growing collections
As more businesses have come to the city, sales tax collections have risen or stayed the same since 2019. While the majority of those go to the general fund, a portion go to the 4B Fund for projects that promote new or expand- ed business development. Key: 4B Fund General Fund
Lease agreement for Pilot Knoll Park Size: 85 acres
Total: $4M Total: $4M
2019
$1.3M
$2.7M
Lease agreement for Copperas Branch Park Size: 75 acres
2020
$1.3M
$2.7M
LEWISVILLE LAKE
Total: $4.5M
2021
$1.5M
$3M
Reconstruction of Highland Shores Boulevard Cost: $500,000
Reconstruction of Highland Village Road Cost: $250,000
Total: $5.1M
2022
$1.7M
$3.4M
35E
$1M $2M $3M
$4M $5M 6M
0
HIGHLAND VILLAGE RD.
Sales Tax
SOURCE: CITY OF HIGHLAND VILLAGE/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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HIGHLAND VILLAGE
which would be good for businesses, Stevens said. “FM 407 is a little bit difficult [to assess],” he said. “It’s an extremely busy road. The difficulty in the future, if TxDOT is to expand that, is the abil- ity to get some more right of way, to squeeze it in. A lot of that property between parking lots and FM 407 would have to be lanes.” Jaworski said generating more reve- nue from traffic on FM 407 has been a longtime goal for the city. “There are a lot of old properties that are due for an update, so how do we partner with those property owners to have more attractive properties to attract better business?” he said. Jaworski likes where the city stands now, and said he thinks not every par- cel of land has to be developed. “But at the same time, our prop- erty tax opportunities are dwindling rapidly, so we’ve got to find creative ways to generate revenue to keep up with rising costs of fixing things and
infrastructure,” he said. Stevens said FM 407 is fully expanded to the existing right of way, and to add lanes, additional right of way would have to be acquired. TxDOT officials, though, would have to deter- mine whether there is available space that could be acquired to add addi- tional lanes. Highland Village is in “constant maintenance mode” now with its streets, Stevens said, but some of the subdivisions’ streets are getting to the point that repairs are needed. “We’ve got a great bond program, which the city has done for years, and we have an annual budget for maintenance of our streets, so we’re trying to keep up with [our budget],” Stevens said. The city has two projects stem- ming from the November 2022 Den- ton County bond package: Highland Shores Boulevard and Highland Village Road, with the latter being from Brazos Boulevard to the railroad tracks. The
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407
LONG PRAIRIE RD.
SOURCE: CITY OF HIGHLAND VILLAGE/COMMUNITY IMPACT
original plan carried the city through some of its biggest growth periods, par- ticularly with retail. Concerning the thoroughfare plan, not a lot has changed, Stevens said. “Of course, with FM 407 and [FM] 2499, we’re somewhat dependent on [the Texas Department of Transporta- tion],” Stevens said. Though FM 2499 has the capacity for two extra lanes—and traffic levels in Highland Village proper continue to increase—construction is not yet needed, Stevens said. Rather, if FM 2499 is expanded in the future for the two additional lanes, the rights of way would be in the median area and the expanded roadway would improve traffic flow—bringing more traffic,
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with these two [roads],” Kriston said. “Being an urbanized suburb, mobility is very important, and trying to get Denton County, Tarrant County and Dallas County all connected together through the road system to the trail system, through the public transpor- tation system, it’s a difficult [discus- sion]. There’s a lot of different entities involved.” Prepping available land, roads The city has to carefully manage available land, Stevens said. With the last amendment conducted on the comprehensive plan occurring more than 25 years ago, Stevens said the
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