NOTE: Chamber of Commerce President Fickling remained opposed to the DeLuca Administration managed growth policies, and Ms. Mizeur eventually was as well.
Dallas Business Journal / March 21, 1999 / Kerry Curry
Lori DeLuca: Flower Mound mayor faces adversity amid growth
FLOWER MOUND -- As a political newcomer, Mayor Lori DeLuca works a room like a seasoned politician: shaking hands, intently listening to questions and promising answers.
Less than a year into the job, the questions are coming fast and furious. Most surround her town's passage of a nine-month residential moratorium.
The moratorium boosted DeLuca's demand as a speaker at area civic clubs and trade associations and heightened attention on her leadership.
Developers and builders began wondering what the future would hold in this town of 46,000, still less than 50% developed and growing rapidly -- an average of 11% per year since 1994.
DeLuca's given 20-some talks -- some before tough crowds -- on SMARTGrowth, the town's recently adopted plan to manage its residential growth.
At a Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas luncheon, an anonymous flier circulated through the room before DeLuca and Town Manager Van James took center stage.
"The mayor is a convincing, conniving and dangerous politician," it said. "It will not be easy to overcome her deceptive propaganda (much of which will be financed with town dollars). We must support conservative candidates with our time, passion and money before this plague takes hold and destroys our town."
Like the consummate politician, DeLuca approached the mike and made a joke.
"I'm the convincing, conniving and dangerous politician," she said. "They said it like it was a bad thing."
The crowd laughed. Later, while recounting the experience, DeLuca doesn't laugh. "Incredibly rude," she said. "We were invited guests."
Still, she manages a smile when recalling the experience. "You could feel the love in the room," she said.
Then, quickly switching into a serious tone, DeLuca launches into her efforts to educate the public about SMART (Strategically Managed And Responsible Town) Growth.
"All we can do is get out the correct information," she said. "Even amongst them, there was misinformation. If you actually sit down and look at the SMARTGrowth presentation and get the facts, it is not nearly as horrific as some of the builders think it is."
SMARTGrowth is designed to manage the rate and character of residential growth in Flower Mound. It's needed, DeLuca said, because of rapidly increasing water consumption, rising wastewater flows and a taxed road system.
The program's components include the nine-month moratorium on residential amendments to the masterplan, residential zoning amendments and residential development plans. It also includes plans to update the masterplan and an amendment to the building code in which building permits are valid for 45 days instead of 180. In addition, it may eventually include limitations on the number of residential permits issued per month.
The Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas is withholding judgment on the plan while it analyzes documents recently obtained from the city.
Still, association Executive Vice President Bob Morris has an opinion on DeLuca's leadership.
"I think it is special interest," he said. "There is an agenda. The agenda is to slow the residential development down significantly, even though there is nothing to substantiate it."
When the town passed the initiative, it said its average daily wastewater flow in 1998 was 4.8 million gallons a day, nearing its 5 mgd capacity, Morris said. Now, it's backed off that figure and says the flow is about 3.9 million gallons per day, he said.
DeLuca said Morris' contention is a red herring.
The town's consultant recommended that the town change the method of calculating flow to correspond with the way statistics are maintained by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, DeLuca said.
"No matter whether you figure average daily flow or maximum monthly flow, the projections still are that we will exceed the flow rate at the wastewater treatment plant in 1999," she said. "It doesn't change the fact that we are nearing capacity of the wastewater plant," she said.
Morris, meanwhile, contends that Flower Mound's water and wastewater situation was presented as being more dire than it truly is.
But even the anonymous flier rubbed Morris, who said he didn't know who penned its sharp words.
"I would like to know who did that to us," he said. "If we are going to be critical, we will not hide behind an anonymous flier."
Paul Cauduro, director of government relations for the homebuilders group, recently appeared with DeLuca on the KERA-TV (Channel 13) program "On the Record."
He calls himself a fan.
"She's obviously a sharp woman," he said. "She recognizes her role as a public servant. She hasn't backed down from anyone. She hasn't refused to answer questions."
That, however, doesn't mean the homebuilder's group isn't asking a lot of them.
"We are just trying to find the reasons behind it and what we can do to find a resolution," he said.
A closer look
DeLuca's quick ascent in local politics occurred when she began asking some of her own questions about a proposed residential development near her home.
Nearly three years ago, Flower Mound developer Cole McDowell sought a change to the masterplan to build more houses on land near F.M. 1171 and High Road where the masterplan called for homes on 2-acre lots, DeLuca said.
DeLuca blanketed her neighborhood with fliers questioning his plan.
"As I got more involved with my neighbors, I realized everyone was opposed, so I started organizing people," she said. "We had meetings at my kitchen table, and they got bigger and bigger. It was a very long process. We did prevail in the end."
The soft-spoken McDowell said he and DeLuca simply saw the situation differently.
"She and I just had different visions," he said. "She had the community's best interest at heart and so did I."
The two recently spoke at a luncheon on economic issues at the town hall where McDowell gave an update on Parker Square, a mixed-use project along F.M. 1171 and a project DeLuca strongly supports.
"I honestly believe she wants to bring commercial development to Flower Mound," McDowell said after the meeting, where officials proudly announced a 155-acre business park to be built in the city's southern commercial corridor.
"I live in this town, and the last thing I want is for this to become another Plano," he said. "I believe she is trying to protect that. There are other people in town who don't agree."
Office call
After prevailing in the fight against McDowell's residential development, DeLuca, a mother of three, said she thought she'd settle into family life.
But the phone started ringing.
Patsy Mizeur, a resident in the Rippy Road area, was calling.
Mizeur said she'd heard of DeLuca's fight and thought DeLuca could help her fight a similar plan by a developer seeking higher density housing near her Rippy Road home.
Then a third call came from another neighborhood.
"With that, we formed the group, Voters United to Preserve Flower Mound," DeLuca said.
The town had adopted a masterplan in 1994, yet citizens were having to fight to ensure elected officials maintained the plan's integrity, she said.
"I didn't feel that our elected officials at the time were guiding future development of Flower Mound according to the wishes of the citizens," she said.
In 1997, Voters United supported a slate of three challengers to the council. All three won. In retrospect, DeLuca said the candidates weren't what the group had hoped for. One left the council with legal problems, another moved away and the third, Ted Reeves, remains but broke ranks to approve a project that called for increased density.
The next year, the group put forth three more candidates. All three won.
And in March 1998, during a Voters United convention, it solicited names for a mayoral candidate after then-mayor Larry Lipscomb announced he wouldn't run again.
Voters United placed a box at the convention seeking possible candidates. At the end of the day, 50 slips had been submitted. The name on every one, DeLuca said, was her own.
DeLuca said that is when she first started contemplating a run.
She never planned on entering politics while growing up.
She was born in Hays, Kan., and reared in Colorado, where she graduated from high school and attended a community college with a pre-law and business administration major. But law school wasn't in the cards.
After a divorce and with a young son to raise, DeLuca entered the work force. She spent a total of seven years with Manheim Auctions, working in its Denver, Riverside, Calif., and Dallas offices.
DeLuca and her second husband, Robert, an American Airlines pilot, moved from Denver to Flower Mound in 1988.
Having risen to the level of business manager at Manheim, DeLuca eventually left the company to stay home and raise the couple's two children, something she said she was unable to do with her first son.
Then came the opportunity to run for mayor.
"I had a lot of ideas," she said, looking back. "I felt like the town needed to be more successful in its economic development efforts. Our tax base, which is 90% residential and 10% commercial, was unhealthy. We really needed to expand our tax base. I really felt like we needed to improve our roads. I didn't feel like I was a one-issue candidate. I felt like I could bring a lot to the table."
She ran. In May 1998, she won.
Since then, her reception has been mixed.
Best friend and neighbor Vicki Fulfer, president of Voters United, calls her "an incredible mayor" and a visionary.
"She is tough," Fulfer said. "I think she knew what she was getting into when she introduced SMARTGrowth and was ready, which is what we need -- someone who will not buckle under criticism, who won't be swayed by negative comments. She shows true leadership."
Denton County Judge Jeff Moseley called DeLuca a strong grassroots leader.
"It always takes a little more time to bring more people along with you, but there is strength in that," he said. "She has a strong grassroots team in place to help guide her through issues facing Flower Mound."
Lori Fickling, president of the Flower Mound Chamber of Commerce, is more tempered.
Since DeLuca took office, relations between the chamber and the city have been strained.
The city cut the chamber's economic development funding, stating it wanted to do more economic development work internally, and a once-tight relationship with town hall seemed to dissipate into no relationship, Fickling said.
Now, the two organizations are in a rebuilding mode, she said.
"I think that people can disagree, and that is OK," Fickling said.
"We don't have to be in agreement on everything."
Still, Fickling said she believes a good working relationship between the city and chamber is vital to business growth.
"I think that a community that presents anything but a unified force between the city and chamber is harming itself with the business community," Fickling said.
The mayor and chamber recently agreed to begin meeting monthly to talk about common issues.
DeLuca, meanwhile, said the town council -- despite its anti-growth moniker -- has accomplished a number of pro-business initiatives, including adoption of an economic development plan, a marketing plan and Freeport exemption.
Still, people continue to view her as anti-growth, a label that she calls a misconception.
"I'm very much in favor of quality, commercial development," she said, adding that she supports residential growth that preserves the town's "unique country atmosphere."
The mayor said she's not ready to say she'll seek another term when her maiden term expires in May 2000.
But for now, she wants no other job and hopes to guide Flower Mound into the future.
"I absolutely love it," she said. "I plan on living here the rest of my life, and I know our town is going to grow and mature, and it should. We are not trying to stop development. But it doesn't have to turn into something we don't want."