City on verge of big change
My wife and I knew when we bought our home in Princeton, Texas, that we had latched onto a high-growth community.
The just-completed municipal election has produced a path for the city to follow to the next phase of its development.
Voters have approved a resolution allowing the city to proceed with developing a home-rule charter. It is a two-step process: Voters had to say “yes” to the creation of a citizens home-rule committee; we’re going to vote again in May 2022 on the charter that the committee produces.
Home rule enables cities to retain stronger local control of affairs affecting them; Princeton currently is a general law city, as it is governed by rules established by Texas statute. Princeton has been on a rapid growth trajectory for the past decade. Its population virtually tripled between 2010 and 2020, from 6,807 to more than 17,000 residents (and counting).
So the city will get a chance now to vote on a charter. It’ll be the fifth such election. The first four ended in failure. The opposition was driven by residents living in what is called the “extraterritorial jurisdiction,” and charter foes were driven by a fear of unwanted annexation into the city. The 2017 Legislature took care of that issue, declaring that cities cannot annex property without the property owners’ permission.
So … the home-rule charter’s leading argument against it has been tossed into the crapper.
Another development is about to occur that signals a new era for Princeton. Sometime in January, the city is going to move its government offices from a cramped rented building on U.S. 380 just west of Second Avenue to a shiny new municipal complex about a mile east on 380, near Princeton High School.
Newly re-elected Mayor Brianna Chacon tells me the city will move in sometime in January. The building complex will be done. The landscaping is likely to need work as city employees settle into their new digs.
I regret saying this about the city we now call home, but Princeton has lacked a civic identity. The current City Hall is a non-descript structure. Princeton has a downtown district in name only. There is virtually nothing happening there. The new municipal complex is a good distance from the center of the city, but officials tell me that the growth is occurring eastward along U.S. 380, so the new complex will be positioned to become a focal point around which Princeton can develop for the future.
It is going to take me some time to understand how the city’s growth will manifest itself in this fashion. I do have high hopes that the new municipal complex, alongside some wetland the city is preserving, will attract new business, will become a place for families to enjoy and will become an attractive physical presence for the city to tout.
I also have zero doubt that Princeton’s growth will continue at its current rapid pace for well beyond the immediate future. I am delighted to be able to witness it.