Cross Roads Podcast
Cross Roads Podcast
Balancing Progress and Pain: The Reality of Rapid Development in North Texas
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When houses pop up "like popcorn" and traffic backs up for miles, you know you're living through North Texas's unprecedented growth spurt. This candid conversation with Abigail, editor-in-chief of the Post Signal, explores the dramatic transformation reshaping communities like Pilot Point, Aubrey, Providence Village, and Crossroads.
Fire stations and emergency services facilities are springing up across the region, struggling to keep pace with residential development. The new Pilot Point station near Moberly Farms will feature both fire and police services to serve thousands of new homes. Meanwhile, Aubrey is opening multiple stations in the Silverado and Wind Ridge developments. These first responder hubs represent the constant race to provide essential services in rapidly expanding communities.
Traffic congestion emerges as perhaps the most immediate challenge for residents. The Liberty Road and Highway 377 intersection has become a notorious bottleneck, with wait times sometimes reaching 30 minutes. Fish Trap Road and Oak Grove Lane present similar challenges, forcing residents to "strategically plan trips around traffic." The $650 million Trip 22 bond promises relief through road widening and infrastructure improvements, but completion timelines stretch years into the future.
Beyond the immediate growing pains, Abigail offers fascinating insights into how recent state legislation has fundamentally changed how cities manage growth. From annexation restrictions to building material regulations, Austin's decisions are reshaping local development patterns in ways that will impact communities for generations.
For listeners wanting to connect with their rapidly changing community, Abigail highlights upcoming events like the Fruit Jar Junction Farmer's Market in Aubrey, the Pilot Point Farmer's Market, and the Aubrey Education Foundation Gala. She also shares how the Post Signal is evolving with a new website and multimedia expansion plans to better serve this dynamic region.
Join us for this revealing look at how explosive growth is transforming North Texas, creating both challenges and opportunities for residents navigating this remarkable period of change.
Good morning Cross Roads. On the show today I have a very special guest. You all know her as the editor-in-chief of the Post Signal up in Pilot Point. We're going to call Abigail right now and welcome her to Cross Roads Podcast.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Hey Stephen.
Steven Killfoil:Hey Abigail, Welcome to Cross Roads Podcast.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Thank you. I'm excited to be here, appreciate you oh you bet this is great.
Steven Killfoil:I, I, I love messing around with new technology and, uh, I'm picking you up beautifully, so perfect, this is awesome thank you.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Thank you for accommodating me on this. I appreciate it oh, heck fire.
Steven Killfoil:No problem for you, I'd been the world okay, well yeah, you bet. So I went over and, uh, I took out the things that we agreed upon and added a few that we can definitely discuss on the show today. So what one of those things uh is? I believe I think it's the pilot point fire department. They have a station groundbreaking that's scheduled for july this year.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Yeah, could you tell us a little bit about that sure that'll be for the new station that is being constructed right next to Moberly Farms and the Creekview Meadows estate area. That development corridor is going to have thousands of homes right there and so having that new station in that eastern portion of Pilot Point is going to reduce response times for the department and help make it so that that portion of the city of Pilot Point is able to have the services it needs readily available. So that was funded, I believe, through a joint partnership between the city and the county and then also the developers out there. Um, so there was a ters agreement that was in place, um, which is a tax increment reinvestment zone, and um that money from both the city and county and that development are uh getting go through and fund the construction of that project, um, if I remember correctly, oh, that's great.
Steven Killfoil:Yeah, I love the men and women that get into firefighting and paramedic. It's just. It's really a lot of people don't understand what all goes into their jobs.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:It's pretty amazing, absolutely and then that that that station too is going to also be a bit more like the dps model, where there will also be the ability for some of the police department staff members to have offices over there, um, so they can also be able to respond quickly and have a kind of a place where they can come back after their shifts to to fill out information, that sort of thing as well. So it'll help on that um side of the first responders, uh, who are serving that area as well that's really good for pilot point.
Steven Killfoil:I mean it's nice having those uh stations strategically located. We have one up here in our neck of the woods just down the road. Um, from Cross Roads off of 720 that's going up, the Little Elm Fire Department's putting in one and it's just like that. It's going to be a joint station with both police and firefighters.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Yeah, aubrey has a couple in the works right now as well. It has one that's over in the Silverado development, just off of FM 2931. And I think it's frontier as the cross street at 2931 there, and then that one will be opening pretty soon. Actually I think it's last I heard it was set for april, um, but I'd have to double check that, um. But. And then there's an additional one that's being constructed in the wind ridge development, which is also part of the city of aubrey. Um, then that's, they're in the process of constructing that one as well, but I don't think that that one will be open until later this year. I think if I remember correctly on that one, it was around August that they were estimating. But with any construction project it also depends on the weather cooperating if there end up being supply chain issues that can delay their openings as well. So that's just one of those fun things to get to keep tracking on all these construction projects, whether it's municipal or residential or commercial, in the area oh, I know, it's like.
Steven Killfoil:These houses just keep popping up like popcorn. It's amazing. I just uh, we, we just had a deal where we had to run down to Little Elm City Hall. There was a developer. He wanted to squeeze 50 more houses in between an existing HOA that I live in, Hillstone Point, and these little townhouses that they built Oak Grove Lane, and a whole bunch of us residents. We went up there and said no way, this is crazy. The traffic already is heavy on Oak Grove Lane and you slap another 50 houses in there. You're going to bring in at least 110 plus cars and we already have enough as it is, because yeah, it's definitely yeah a challenge.
Steven Killfoil:Yeah, do you have challenges getting in and out of Providence Village yourself?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:I do. Hopefully one of those will be, uh, rectified pretty soon. Uh, liberty road and 377 is always a fun intersection. Um, if anyone out there is listening and they tend to take a left out of Liberty before that light goes in place there please consider turning right, going north on 377 and taking Stewart Road to do a little bit of a U-turn. That would be great. A U-turn, that would be great. But yes, that one can always add a little bit of fun into my commute between Providence Village and any of the communities that are north of me, because you never know if it's going to be five seconds or 30 minutes to sit there and wait. So it's definitely interesting.
Steven Killfoil:Yeah, it's real fun navigating that, especially in certain times of the day, even at night. Gosh, I've come back from the coffee house on a Tuesday and when I'm coming down I see that road at Liberty and there's just lights all the way back as far as you can see of people trying to get onto 377 from there. So, yeah, putting a traffic light up there on Liberty is definitely a must. I don't know how that's going to work when they expand 377 to the six lanes that they're talking about.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Yeah, it will be interesting and there's some.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:There have been some debates about whether people should, whether texas should, wait to put in lights until the expansion projects happen, but I think that our infrastructure issues, with being able to get from place to place, kind of outweigh that.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:And also making sure that those intersections are as safe as possible. Just because you put in a light doesn't mean there will never be accidents, clearly, but um it, you know, should help rectify that situation as much as possible. I mean, when they put in the light at a fish trap in 424, that was a great um improvement in our area to help make sure that people could move through that intersection more safely. So I feel like the light at Liberty would help do that as well. Just give some of those people who do need to head south from Liberty Road on 377 that protection they need to do so safely and to be able to navigate that quickly. And the same type of thing happened too when they opened the lights at uh sherman road and um or sherman drive, I think technically and uh 377 yeah, when did they put that in?
Steven Killfoil:because I I was going down one day, it there wasn't one there, and then a few weeks later, oh, there's a light here. Wow, wow, where'd that come from? Yeah?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:I believe it was in January. I could look back. It may have been earlier than that, but it's been relatively recently. Actually, I think it was earlier than that I have to look back at when I put that in the paper.
Steven Killfoil:Yeah, I mean I hadn't seen one there and then all of a sudden poof, it was there. I was like wow, they're popping up lights, just like houses.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:I will say as an Aubrey ISD parent I definitely appreciated TechStop putting that light in. I appreciated the city of Aubrey working with them to get that light in place. When I go through and drop my daughter off at the middle school and then head to 377 to head north to pilot point for work, it's it's definitely appreciated to have that be a protected turn as opposed to trying to play frogger essentially with the traffic yeah, and fish trap.
Steven Killfoil:Oh my goodness. They I don't know why people think that they can I don't know out-navigate the highway if they cut through fish trap to Main Street and then get back on 380. They'd be better off just to stay on the highway and go because they're creating such a really bad backup. I've I've had traffic backed up from Oak Grove lane all the way up to the park and you're just crawling into. I can't even get into my neighborhood or out of my neighborhood at times during the day I have to strategically plan my trips around the traffic strategically plan my trips around the traffic.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Yeah, I understand I same thing. When I'm coming back from you know, from crossroads whether I went to the store in crossroads or um, I'm coming back from you know, say, denton I, there are certain times a day that I just will not touch a shop for that reason the big part of the problem is that obviously these expansion projects have been happening, these development projects have been happening. And one of the problem is that obviously these expansion projects have been happening, these development projects have been happening and one of the biggest infrastructure deficits in our area is that we don't have a lot of east-west corridors.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Staff, whether it's county or city level, are looking at and trying to work through on how to be able to have more options for east-west traffic.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:But when you just have so many people who are largely just trying to get home in that time frame in that window, there's only so much capacity on any of our roads for us to be able to get where we need to be, and so I think that that's really going to be crucial, as they keep making improvements um to these roadways, for us to be able to be able to go safely, but from place to place. But it's definitely a lot of uh, growing pains in the meantime, um, when you have to navigate the, when you have to navigate the traffic, you have to navigate the construction, and it's a challenge that I wish that we could have gone in a time machine back and before all of the developments were approved, be able to say, okay, this infrastructure is needed because you know exactly what's coming.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:But the challenge is that there's no accurate crystal ball on exactly when growth will happen, and so it always ends up being a trying to catch up game, and it's really hard to catch up when you have exponential growth.
Steven Killfoil:Oh, I know, I know really hard to catch up when you have exponential growth. Oh, I know, I know. When I had Commissioner Williams on the podcast, he was telling me that there is a plan with the Denton County on widening Fish Trap Road, but he didn't know exactly when that date will put the hammer down on it because there were so many other projects involved in the area that have to be completed first. But at some point in time, from 380 where it starts, they're going to widen it to four lanes all the way to main street.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:So that'll be nice when that, whenever that happens yeah, that was one of the projects that they funded with the Trip 22 bond that the voters passed in November of 2022. It was a $650 million bond and it does definitely have a lot of different projects. Some of those are county only, some of them are the county having the funding to be able to work on expansion projects around tech projects, and then some of it is so that the county can partner with cities and towns in our area and beyond throughout Denton County to be able to have those infrastructure improvements happen.
Steven Killfoil:Yeah, I know it'll be interesting once they've completed that up and over at 380 and 720, I think. Uh, because they're going to have to straighten out um oak grove lane and widen it obviously or it'll be all messed up. But once that is done I think a lot of our heavy traffic problems coming in from Providence Village going towards 380 down Oak Grove Lane and folks shooting in over from down from Aubrey and even from Denton going down Fishtrap, I think that artery will be more smoothly ran once they get it all fixed and put into place. In fact they may not even need to worry about it too much because once that up and over is running, traffic will be back to normal, hopefully.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Well, I don't know, with the amount of growth, I think we're still going to have traffic issues, but I think it will be heavily relieved at that point. Yeah, so you kind of like when the expansion project happened on 720, that made it so that those lanes are, you know, there are just more. There are more options for people to be able to get through and to be able to move from place to place. I think that's definitely going to improve it.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:But you still have a lot of more residential projects that are on the way, so it's going to be interesting to see how well the improvements can improve it.
Steven Killfoil:You know, it just really blows my mind. I see on the news, you know, you see all these ISDs going, oh, we're going to have to close this school down. I'm going good Lord, you guys are closing schools down, ours are busting out at the seams and we're having to build them. Finally they started working on our Crossroads High School. So because I think Braswell is just about ready to explode, it's just well, way overpopulated, just yeah, well, way over over, uh, populated. So you know, by the time they get this one built, chances are it's going to already be up to its maximum capacity, almost immediate.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:So yeah, yeah, school construction is definitely a challenge because, like you said, once it's built it's necessary and fills up very quickly. It happened too with, like, fuller Elementary filled up very quickly when Aubrey ISD built that and then they now have West Elementary they've also opened. But it's kind of that balancing game as well. Is in a fast growth area. You are going to end up having the tax revenue that comes in to be able to build the schools and fill them. A lot of the school districts where they have kind of static growth or they've built out and they don't really have a lot more children who are coming to the districts to grow the population. That's where you end up running into issues. Where you might have to close school district or close school campuses is because if you don't have more enrollment numbers driving up the funding that you've received, then things stay very static and it's harder to keep campuses open in that situation.
Steven Killfoil:Right, I know up in Pilot Point you guys have a lot of development going on, that's for sure. Are you aware of any projects that are going to be started or maybe even completed this year?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:I'd have to check in on what might be completed this year. I know that one of the ones that is kicking off right now is the Bryson Ranch development in the works going on off of FM 1385. So that's in that kind of same area as Mulberry Farms and Creekview Meadows.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:So that's that's Definitely going to add a lot more congestion in that area as well which FM 1385 is another one of those ones that is also going to be expanded Right Hopefully near future that they're working on that one. I want to lift it up there. They're let date, so when they would try to even get firm numbers on how much it's going to cost and get someone on board to commit to that project, will be July 2026.
Steven Killfoil:Mm hmm so. Well yeah, hey. In your opinion, how have some of the legislation from Austin affected how our little towns around here in this area operate in regards to all these houses just suddenly sprouting up everywhere?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:it's been interesting to watch over the last few years. Uh, when I came on to the post signal staff in 2017, the first meeting I covered was when the town of providence village had uh development agreements and annexation agreements in place, or they were putting them in place. To respond to the Senate Bill 6 that came out that year that said that cities and larger counties had to have voter approval for annexations, and so that limited or got rid of forced annexation in Texas and that made it so that cities, if they didn't already have an agreement in place, would not necessarily be able to annex in properties, which I'm not going to get into whether that is or isn't the right approach, but it did make it so that cities have less options on what they can do if there's a piece of property that has been in their extraterritorial jurisdiction for a while. It kind of now is dependent more on voluntary annexations that are coming in.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Yeah, and then, 2019, there was a House bill in 2439 that made it so that cities are not allowed to put stricter standards in place for building materials than the national codes. So that's what makes it so that you can put up an aluminum siding building in an area that is close to residential that you would have previously wanted to require masonry on that sort of a thing, and so that's what kind of has prompted a lot of movement from cities over to using planned developments, because they have a few more tools that allow them to have some more restrictive requirements in place for the look of the buildings that are going in. But that was definitely interesting to see the challenge. I think there was something in 2021 that also affected it, but I couldn't remember what that one was. In 2023, though, there was Senate Bill 2038 that made it so it's easier for property owners to dis-index from the city's ETJ, which is that extra territorial jurisdiction, which just means that something that, for years, the city has been kind of looking at planning for its expansion and growth, at planning for its expansion and growth.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Now that map can change, and if that map changes, that means that cities don't get to have a say in what the subdivision looks like if it's developed out there.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:If they just annex from the ETJ, they might still be responsible for first responders coming out to that area.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:But it's kind of an interesting agreement at that point because they're not in the ETJ but they're still in the service area. What does that agreement look like for payment for those things? And it also can make it so that if a municipality has a municipal development district that allows them to get sales tax dollars from the ETJ area, if someone disannexes and then say, a commercial development goes in there, you wouldn't get any sales tax revenue from that development into the city anymore. So it's just one of those things that kind of affects the way that I mean back years ago of the things that kind of affects the way that I mean back years ago there were a lot of kind of just disagreements between the cities in this area between Pilot Point, salina and Aubrey about who could plan to claim certain areas as their ETJ and it actually went into the court system for a decision. So all of that money that was spent back then to determine what territory they should be looking at and planning to grow into potentially means that that was wasted.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:If now those areas can say you know what, never mind, we don't want to be even in your ETJ, not even in the city. So it can be an interesting challenge for the cities that way too. Yeah, there's also some things that seem to be on the horizon that may pass this legislative session, that could increase housing density, and so that's something that I'll be watching for as we go into this legislative session watching for as we go into this legislative session.
Steven Killfoil:Well, Abigail, I'll tell you what we love the Post Signal newspaper. And what plans do you have for the Post Signal?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:So we have been working. We've recently upgraded our website to make it a lot more user-friendly. So that's at postsignal. com, and it's a little something more that people are used to. One of the next things that we want to do is to find new and innovative ways to connect with our new residents, who want to know what's going on in their communities, want to be able to be tied in, to know what the decisions are being made to affect them.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Um, so that's one of the things on their horizon. Um is trying to find those ways to connect with those new readers and then, um, we're we're hoping to try to influence more multimedia uh aspects to our storytelling as well in the future with the new website. So that could look like eventually having a podcast ourselves. That could look like including more video work. So those are all things that we are considering and looking at trying to expand how we reach the audience that needs to know what's happening here and stay informed about what decisions and events are affecting their lives.
Steven Killfoil:Yep, that is great. I mean I think your newspaper it covers very well our whole entire corridor and I always look forward to getting each edition, seeing how the kiddos are doing in high school and the athletics and the sports. I can't wait till Crossroads High School gets into that. I love high school sports and I was in athletics when I was in high school, so you guys cover it really well. I'm very pleased. I mean it's amazing, but hey, the theater's putting on that dr seuss play going on. Did your two little angels get a chance to be in the cast on this one?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:unfortunately they're not in the cast on this one. They have a lot of friends who are for this one but, um, they're pretty involved with some school sports and and school activities and uh aaysa soccer at the moment, so that's keeping them from uh being in this one, but hopefully we'll get to go to watch it.
Steven Killfoil:So yeah, I've seen some of the clips. It looks pretty good. I think I might get up there for that one.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Definitely the Garage Door Theater does an incredible job and it's such a great resource to have that civic theater here in Pilot Point and um it, it draws in people from all over. I mean I know you've gotten to be in plays together and I live in Providence Village. You live in Crossroads Um, so it's not just for Pilot Point, but it definitely is a great draw that Pilot Point has there.
Steven Killfoil:Absolutely, absolutely. Well, hey, you're part of the Rotary Club right up in Pilot Point, yeah, so how would somebody get involved with the club?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Sure, if you want to be involved with the Lake Ray Roberts Rotary Club, the best way to start is to come attend our meetings. We meet at the Point Bank Community Center at noon every Tuesday, so it's open for visitors to come in and see what we're about and get to hear from our speakers or participate in service projects, if that's what we're working on that time. So, yeah, we would love to have anyone who's interested in helping promote and support and serve the community to come out and be a part of this.
Steven Killfoil:That sounds neat. So anybody out there that you want to get involved in the Rotary Club show up at that. Now the bank is it the one in Aubrey?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:The branch in Aubrey, no, it's in Pilot, point Okay, the branch in Pilot.
Steven Killfoil:Point. Yeah, make sure you drive up to Pilot Point and go to the Point Bank there to get into that meeting. Yeah, absolutely.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Yeah, it's the community center. That's just between the bank building itself and Liberty Street, up here in off of 377.
Steven Killfoil:Awesome. Well, are there any other events in our area coming around the corner in April that you know of?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Uh, April is going to be pretty busy. We're going to have I have the first um fruit, I think it's fruit jar junction uh, farmer's market and uh, that's going to be let me double check on timing on that one that first one will be April 5th. So that's going to be a let me double check on timing on that one that first one will be April 5th. So that's going to be a farmer's market in downtown Aubrey. I mean, it's going to be farmer's market kind of kicked off for a lot of the area here.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Toward the end of the month and into next month, there'll be Easter events happening in all of our communities. Yeah, there's a lot that's going on. Speaking of events, right now my main sports reporter is covering the Bassmaster Classic, if you're in Pilot Point, so that's been a lot of fun for him to get to interact with those anglers and get to see what's going on on our lake right now.
Steven Killfoil:Oh yeah, definitely. So what time is that farmer's market?
Abigail Thatcher Allen:The farmer's market for Georgia Junction says it will be from 8 am to noon.
Steven Killfoil:Okay, I'll have to get up there and check that out.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:And the Pilot Point will have its farmers market kicking off at the end of the month in April.
Steven Killfoil:Okay, at the end of the last Saturday.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:Yes, yeah, it's definitely everything. All the events, keep us hopping, that's for sure.
Steven Killfoil:Oh yeah. Well, it'd be boring if we didn't.
Abigail Thatcher Allen:That's true, and let me I need to put in a plug for a second too, about the Aubrey Education Foundation. They have their upcoming gala happening on April 5th, so as far as I know, there's still tickets available Last I checked. So that would be a great opportunity. If people want to have a fun evening, that would be a great opportunity. If people want to have a fun evening, then that's a chance to get to support the school district and get to have some fun. It's going to be hosted at the Lone Star Lodge and Marina up in Pilot Point, which is also definitely worth checking out, especially at sunset. If you haven't been there for sunset, you definitely should.
Steven Killfoil:All right, all right, pretty gorgeous, well, hey, thanks for coming on the show today, Abigail. I appreciate it, and it's been fun doing it over the phone, I appreciate you too. Thanks for asking me you bet well, you have a lovely day and I'll see you around. Thanks, you bet. Bye, bye. Well, for more fun, guests that are coming to the show next week. Stay tuned in each and every Monday for new episodes on Cross Roads Podcast. Until next week, I'll see you at the top.
