Smart Growth & Development

We have a chance in Collin County to hand the next generation one of the most robust, resilient, thriving places in the country. We are already the sixth-largest county in Texas, and last year we added nearly 43,000 people — second in the entire nation for sheer numbers. That’s a city the size of Wylie appearing every twelve months. Texas Instruments’ multi-billion-dollar fab investment in Sherman will accelerate growth along the whole corridor between Dallas and Sherman, putting Collin County squarely in the middle of it.

Growth like this can be done the right way or the wrong way, and the difference is permanent. Once something is built, it’s built. There is no undo button. A poorly placed development, an under-built road, a subdivision approved without the water and drainage to support it — those decisions outlive the officials who make them by fifty years.

The strain is already visible. Celina, Anna, Fairview, and the extraterritorial jurisdictions around them are trying to lay infrastructure and stand up services at a pace almost no local government in America has had to sustain. Roads, water, wastewater, fire coverage, and drainage all have to arrive before the rooftops do, not after.

I’ve lived this. On Plano City Council I dealt with rapid growth firsthand — the zoning fights, the infrastructure sequencing, the pressure to say yes to something today that the community regrets in a decade. That experience is why I’ll approach the county’s infrastructure, growth, and development decisions with an eye toward preserving both economic vitality and quality of life, rather than trading one away for the other.

Our communities need an appropriate blend of housing and commercial development, and enough diversity of housing types that families can move through life stages without leaving the county. We need a considered mix of businesses so the local economy holds up through downturns instead of riding a single sector. And above all we need to be looking years ahead, building a county equipped to redevelop and revitalize continuously — so that the Collin County of 2060 is something our grandchildren love the way we love it now.

As Commissioner I’ll have a vote on county matters, but the larger share of this work is done through relationships. I know the Mayors and Council Members across this county, and I’ll use those relationships to advise on consequential decisions before they’re made rather than critique them after. I’ll continue working with state agencies and legislators, as I have for years, on the policy, infrastructure, and coordination this growth demands — and with our federal delegation where the decisions run through Washington.