Don’t Let the Park Cities Become Frisco

Our award-winning editorial board just this week received a response to a recent editorial. Unfortunately, because the writer did not provide a name, it can’t be printed in our newspaper. So I provide it here:

Thank you for your May 23rd article on “Tearing Down Our History.”

We all know change is inevitable and that some is beneficial and some is detrimental. It would seem that it would behoover us to carefully examine change initiatives and if we determine that we are note resisting change because we are just reactionary, we should try to deter detrimental change.

Our community does have something unique. People across the state and nation realize this. We know it is not just because of money. Our community has much of a small-town atmosphere despite being in the middle of one of the larger urban areas. People know one another. People are centered on family and schools. The list goes on and on.

The new “big box,” “nuevo rich” mentality that is sweeping the nation is and will have an impact on our community. We look more and more like Plano or Frisco every day — not that there is anything wrong with these cities but it is not the same “personality” as the Park Cities.

The people who are coming to the community to build these new structures seem to want to take advantage of what we and those who came before us have established but do not seem to recognize that they are changing what makes the community unique.

There are numerous issues. One that does not seem to have been mentioned is the alley entrances utilized by many of the new structures. Our alley is a single lane but many people are now using it as a street. Do our alleys have to be made one way? Will the alleys have to be resurfaced more frequently because of the traffic? Because most of the new construction does not want to waste any land on a driveway and the alley entrances are inconvenient for quick in and outs, people often park in the street as do their visitors. Many of our streets are down to a single lane because there are cars parked on each side of the street. Virtually every block seems to have construction going on and that adds even more vehicles. The safety issue of children crossing the street to play with other neighborhood children is also of concern.

The rear entrances and the high fences are similar to the bedroom communitites where people are said not to have met their neighbors.

Most of the new construction is “over building” the lots. The lack of lawn area should concern us. The privacy issues you mentioned should concern us. The drainage issues should concern us. Many of these houses should be built on acreage and not in a residential setting.

Your analogy to the recent rash of problems at NorthPark should give us pause. Bigger is not necessarily better. Zoning ordinances meant to protect the community should be completely revisited. Please continue to bring this to the attention of the community.