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Ryan says economic development key, wants separate school district
By Chris Roark, croark@starlocalnews.com
Tami Ryan said she is a big proponent of economic development, and she wants to help Flower Mound go forward with it.
What she’s not in favor of is Lewisville ISD’s proposal to rezone some of the schools in the Flower Mound High School feeder pattern.
Together, those issues prompted her to file to run in Place 5 on the Flower Mound Town Council on Friday, the last day residents could submit an application for the May 11 election.
Ryan, a former business owner and a volunteer, said she grew concerned when the town council amended the “schools” component of its SMARTGrowth program, which is a set of guidelines to ensure proper infrastructure is in place to handle future growth.
In December, the council passed an amendment to require formal communication with LISD when future developments are coming. But the section no longer required a residential project to be denied because the impacted school is at capacity.
Ryan said the SMARTGrowth amendment prompted the rezoning.
“Adjustments made to the SMARTGrowth plan created a domino effect that have already begun to have an impact on the lifestyle of many residents,” Ryan said.
Town and LISD officials deny that the SMARTGrowth amendment impacted the rezoning decision.
When asked why she ran for council instead of LISD Board of Trustees, Ryan said she wants to put Flower Mound in a position to where it doesn’t need to rely on LISD.
“LISD will do what it wants to do,” Ryan said. “We’re only one part of LISD. Our tax base goes into LISD, but then their funds are used for other cities and not us. I’m not against supporting other cities, but when it comes at my expense, I have a problem with that.”
Ryan’s solution?
“I want Flower Mound to have a viable tax structure so we can break away from LISD,” Ryan said. “If we have the right economic development, we can break away. We need to make our own decisions, and we can’t do that as part of LISD.”
Ryan said the town needs to balance residential growth with commercial growth, which she said is lacking now.
“People want small-town growth,” Ryan said. “But we can do both. I’ve lived in cities that have done both. Too often, commercial forces our hand to construct residential developments. At what point do we have enough rooftops?”
Ryan points to the Lakeside DFW mixed-use project, saying it is focusing too much on residential components.
Lakeside DFW’s plan, however, calls for retail and single-family components to be among the first built at the project’s entrance.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
Flower Mound 21 wrote on Mar 7, 2013 11:35 AM:
" Exactly where is this "viable tax structure" going to evolve from...The homeowners???? Flower Mound is absolutely financially unprepared to develop and support an independent school district. The entire fiscal support would fall upon the homeowners tax base. "
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