My final post: The biggest story of my time in Flower Mound
Let's see, so much has happened in the 11 years since I moved here. We've had two major political shifts in town. We've grown about 10,000 people and added dozens of new neighborhoods. Retail is finally taking off along FM407. FM2499 has been in the news most of the time, for one reason or another (and it's still not finished south of FM3040!). SMARTGrowth. Hail storms. A tornado. Urban forests - who knew? New restaurants everywhere, even some who came and went in too short a time.
But the biggest news story? It's easy.
The Rise and Fall of Voters United
Eleven years ago when I moved to town, Larry Lipscomb was mayor, and things seemed relatively peaceful at Town Hall. (I've heard wild stories about mayors and councils prior to the mid-1990s.) Flower Mound was growing, and even though traffic on our old farm roads was choking us, people were moving here in droves.
But not everyone was happy with the situation. Lori DeLuca was a westside neighbor who, in a few short months, became the voice for slowing down (stopping?) growth in Flower Mound. She spoke her mind at council meetings and helped to form Voters United to Preserve Flower Mound. In 1997, she and her new group backed a slate of council candidates running against incumbents, and the challengers won big.
In 1998, Lipscomb stepped down, and Lori became a candidate for mayor, running against veteran councilmember Pat Moore. It was a heated race, but Lori emerged the winner.
From 1997 to 2003, Voters United won big victories in every council election, and DeLuca won easy re-elections in 2000 and 2002. In those years, the Town Council passed our current SMARTGrowth plan, as well as a new master plan, all designed to put stronger checks on residential growth. More often than not, the council voted unanimously on the key measures - an inpenetrable bloc of 5+1 (council and mayor).
By 2004, Lori had lost her voice - quite literally - and could be heard only at a whisper. When it was time for her to file for re-election, she opted instead to cede her mayor's seat to her long-time right-hand Stephani Spruill, who herself had won three elections to council. DeLuca ran for another council seat. The additional attention given to the mayor's race brought some unfortunate publicity toward Spruill, and in particular, an event long ago in her past. The two chinks (Spruill's past and DeLuca's voice), combined with a growing resentment among disaffected voters, resulted in a tidal wave in 2004, with Spruill losing big to Jody Smith on Election Day and DeLuca losing to Laurie Long in a runoff a few weeks later.
The spring of 2004 changed the landscape of Flower Mound politics once again. DeLuca and Spruill have returned to private life. Voters United still maintains its website and its standing as a political action committee, but it's influence in this Town is virtually nil. Remember those one-sided Voters Guides that VU used to mail out to every Town resident before each election? Remember how the VU seal-of-approval in those guides seemingly assured victory for VU's favorite sons and daughters? No more.
Still, despite VU's rapid rise and the ultimate flameout, there's no denying the supreme influence this group has had on our Town, and arguably still continues to have. SMART Growth is still around, with a supermajority vote now required to alter it. The current council appears (2004-current) appears to have a more moderate voice, somewhere in between the pro-growth leadership of the early-mid 1990's and the strict-controlled-growth of the VU era, and people in the Town seem to be satisfied, more or less, with what their Town looks like. One wonders, however, if VU is really gone for good as far as a political force, or if it lies low waiting for the next generation of growth battles to come along.
PS: I wrote this post fairly quickly, while I packed for my journey. If I got any facts wrong, post a comment and I'll fix the error.
posted by Chip Mahaney @ 8:39 AM
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