See Sub pages for historical articles in Flower Mound

          This section is included because of the Town's controversial attempt in 2015 at taking a local private resident's property without due process and because it favored commercial development.  Texas law prohibits the taking of personal property for private business.

          BACKGROUND:  During the mid 1990's a town official, right before a council vote added a spine road for the SPA (a Specific Plan Amendment sets the critera for a commercial area), thereby overriding the efforts of a citizen focus group that did not support such a spine road.  Individual commercial plans submitted and reviewed for each development therafter failed to take into account the whole synergy of the SPA, so with each approval for these submissions, councils and commissions added to a bigger problem to address later.  

          In 2014 the Town made an offer to buy a part of the homeowner's property but she did not want to sell; there were no further communications with her.

          In 2015, rather than reach out to the homeowner, the Town surprised the homeowner by scheduling an eminent domain vote without any communication with the homeowner, and without a public hearing.  Thanks to another attentive resident who was reading a list of items for the Town Council meeting under "Consent Agenda", the homeowner was notified, but not with much time remaining before the vote.  

          The community quickly rallied to support the homeowner against undue process which forced the Town to negotiate with her.  Unfortunately, the homeowner was forced to hire an attorney to represent her interests and protect her property.  Also unfortunate was rather than admit mistake, Town officials responded by criticizing the homeowner and inaccurately reported that the original citizen focus group approved the spine road.  Additional, no current town officials were involved in the original effort that included the focus group.